Practitioner Psychologist (clinical or counselling)
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
We are looking for energetic and enthusiastic Practitioner Psychologists (band 7/8a or 8a) to complete our team of psychologists working in adult Community Mental Health Teams. Working in CMHTs offers a rich diversity of experiences and opportunities: you will provide a range of psychological services to persons with a wide range of complex or enduring psychological distress (therapy; assessment, including cognitive and other specialist assessments; care planning etc). You will also work with your CMHT colleagues to offer psychological advice, formulation, consultation, supervision and training.
We have 1.7wte posts available in total. The substantive post (full time preferred) would be based in the South Locality with a primary responsibility for the Links CMHT alongside the locality 8b psychologist, with a chance to work alongside band 7 and 8a colleagues at the neighbouring Hamadryad CMHT. There is some flexibility with the other (0.7wte) post depending on skill mix and experience: but it is likely that this post-holder would be joining one of our colleagues in a North CMHT. We are developing our provision of therapy groups so we are especially interested to hear from applicants with experience of or interest in developing and running groups.
Main duties of the job
We can offer 7/8a developmental posts, or 8a posts. The 8a is an excellent opportunity for those looking to progress their career, and we can support you with making the move from band 7. It is also a great opportunity for established 8as who want to be part of our developing service, offering a chance to pursue special interests and actively contribute to service development. We are also keen to hear from applicants who are completing training this year: we have a well-established pathway for our 7/8a developmental posts. We offer a professional development programme giving you the opportunity to consolidate your training, and to further develop skills and competencies to transition to 8a through successful completion of the programme. Working in CMHTs offers a rich diversity of experiences and opportunities. You will provide a range of psychological services to persons with a wide range of complex or enduring psychological distress (individual and group therapy; assessment, including cognitive and other specialist assessments; care planning etc). You will also work with your CMHT colleagues to offer psychological advice, formulation, consultation, supervision and training.
About us
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is one of the largest Integrated Health Boards in the UK, employing over 17,000 staff, providing over 100 specialist services. Working across 6 hospital sites, we have a diverse range of career opportunities to offer. Serving over 500,000 people living in Cardiff and the Vale, we are focused on the health and care needs of our local population whilst working with our partners to develop regional services. Together we are committed to improving health outcomes for everyone, delivering excellent care and support.
Our mission is "Living Well, Caring Well, Working Together", and our vision is that every person's chance of leading a healthy life should be equal. Our 10-year transformation and improvement strategy, Shaping Our Future Wellbeing, is our chance to work collaboratively with the public and our workforce to make our health board more sustainable for the future.
Job responsibilities
The roles are well supported - we have three locality leads (8b) working with the psychologists in each locality cluster of CMHTs, as well as an 8c service lead. These posts are managed by the service lead for CMHT Psychology, and report to a Locality Lead Psychologist. We have a well-established framework for reflective, caseload and peer supervision, as well as access to model-specific supervision for people using EMDR, IPT or facilitating our DBT groups. We have accredited BABCP practitioners who can supervise and support people who are themselves looking for full CBT accreditation. There are good in-house opportunities for CPD, including substantive training in Interpersonal Therapy and Open Dialogue Approach. C&V UHB is fortunate to have a number of services focused on specific issues (for example, Eating Disorders service) and, for people in full-time posts, there may be opportunities to pursue CPD time in these services. We also have excellent links with our local doctoral training courses (clinical & counselling). It is an exciting time to be part of psychology provision in the Community Mental Health Teams for Cardiff & Vale UHB.
Please contact Dr Tansy Mayfield, Lead Consultant - tansy.mayfield@wales.nhs.uk to arrange a time for an informal discussion.
The ability to speak Welsh is desirable for this post; Welsh and/or English speakers are equally welcome to apply.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* Good Honours degree in Psychology with eligibility for Graduate Basis for Chartership (GBC) with the BPS.
* Post-graduate Doctorate in Clinical/Counselling Psychology accredited by the HCPC (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996 as accredited by the BPS) OR (for trainees) doctorate to be completed by end of 2024.
* HCPC registration as a practitioner psychologist OR (for trainees) eligible by October 2024.
* 8a Practitioner Psychologist: Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialist areas of psychological practice.
Experience
* Experience in applying clinical/counselling psychology in the NHS, including cognitive and structured assessment, formulation, intervention, research and service development.
* Experience of effective multi-disciplinary team working in NHS or equivalent.
* For band 8a: Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan.
* Experience of working with people with mental health/psychological problems in a medical setting; problems presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings including outpatient, community, primary care, in-patient and residential care settings and maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems.
* Experience of teaching/training and/or professional and clinical supervision.
* For band 7: Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan.
Skills
* Ability to make clinical and service-related judgments involving complex facts requiring analysis, interpretation and comparison of several options.
* Ability to contribute to the development of, and to implement, agreed policies and strategic long-term service developments.
* Ability to use the highest level of interpersonal and communication skills to convey and receive highly complex/sensitive information effectively, requiring empathy and reassurance, in a highly emotive atmosphere and the ability to overcome psychological resistance to potentially threatening information, whilst maintaining a high degree of professionalism at all times.
* Experience of the development and implementation of policies and strategic long-term service developments.
Special knowledge
* Practitioner Psychologist: Doctoral level knowledge of clinical/counselling psychology theory and practice, assessment, psychological therapies and their application.
* Practitioner Psychologist: Participation with CPD as recommended by the BPS.
* 8a Practitioner Psychologist: Post-doctoral training in relevant specialist areas of psychological practice (e.g. assessment of autism; working with psychosis; specific psychosocial approaches).
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
Address
Community Mental Health Teams
Cardiff Royal Infirmary (administrative base)
Consultant Psychologist, Lead for CMHT Psychology
Cardiff Royal Infirmary (administrative base)
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