Job summary
This highly influential role provides professional leadership to Psychological Therapies staff, as well as collaborating to set the approach for whole-team working across secondary acute and crisis Adult Mental Health services in Bromley, Bexley and Greenwich.
The role is for 2 days a week, for 6 months to cover a secondment.
The role would suit an experienced clinician who is able to innovate, inspire and lead the psychosocial and psychological therapy practices within ward and home treatment and crisis resolution teams. It is a particularly exciting time as there is significant scope and support for review and development of practice in the service. The role is well supported by both the operational director and other professional leads. We are particularly interested in trauma informed practices and creating continuity of experience for our service users from crisis services to other forms of support.
Main duties of the job
A key task is supporting a well-skilled, committed and varied workforce to deliver timely and effective psychological assessments, interventions and therapy to people experiencing serious mental health problems and/or dementia. This will include leading on workforce planning, managing recruitment so as to maximise staff and skill mix within budget and supporting existing staff to engage with appropriate learning and development. Alongside other leads and managers it will also include pathway review and development so that there is an effective and timely range of interventions available to all those within each service. To complement the professional leadership the postholder would have a small defined clinical role within one of the services within the directorate. In addition, this role contributes to the wider leadership of the directorate as part of the senior management team by for example, participating or leading on aspects of the quality agenda. Finally, the postholder would contribute to the wider professional leadership of the Trust as part of the 'Trust Leads' group of Heads of Psychological Therapies.
About us
Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children's centres, schools and people's have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.
Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:
1. We're Kind
2. We're Fair
3. We Listen
4. We Care
Job description
Job responsibilities
This role would work in partnership with the Directorate Management Team led by a supportive Service Director. Psychological Therapies is well respected within Oxleas and there is a collaborative and supportive professional network. Oxleas has a clear commitment to support and develop staff in their roles and so training and development is generally well supported. It is also committed to the provision of Psychological Therapies with the Director of Therapies, Neil Springham, being an Art Therapist and holding a Board level decision-making role so that psychological therapies remain central to the Trusts work. The Clinical Director, Peter De Backer is a Psychologist.
As this is just a taster of the role and organisational context for the role please contact Acute & Crisis Directorate, Service Director A or Clinical Director to discuss.
You might also want to check out to find out more about the Trust.
Person Specification
Education and Qualifications
Essential
5. Entry-level qualification in applied psychological therapy/mental health/social welfare profession or equivalent and demonstrable practice in this field (professional Doctorate, or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level/supervised practice/additional training) that has been accepted for the purposes of professional registration. (A/I)
6. Completed training course in clinical supervision and/or accredited to supervise qualified psychological practitioners in relevant discipline. (A/I/R)
Desirable
7. Post-graduate qualification in leadership/management
Experience
Essential
8. Experience of management of multi-psychological professions teams or services within the client group
9. Experience of managing a budget
10. Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and 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.
11. Experience of teaching, training, and clinical supervision, as well as providing professional leadership.
Desirable
12. Experience of the full range of professional leadership responsibilities, including defining appropriate establishments, grading and recruitment procedures, performance, and appraisal.
Skills and Abilities
Essential
13. A high level of ability to communicate effectively, at both a written and oral level complex, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and a wide range of lay and professional persons within and outside the NHS, maintaining empathy in the face of a variety of barriers to communication.
14. Ability to communicate service-related information to senior colleagues.
15. Ability to contribute to policy initiation, development and to the long term strategic development of the services within the speciality
Desirable
16. Knowledge of models and/or strategies of management and leadership.
Other/Effort
Essential
17. Enthusiasm for a broad range of psychological phenomena, an interest in models of service delivery, and an ability to articulate the value added by psychology and psychological therapy services within the context of multi-disciplinary mental health services.
18. Ability to pursue and implement a variety of service tasks simultaneously, withstanding frequent interruption so as to remain responsive to varying levels of service need and differing time frames.
19. Willingness to travel between Trust bases on a regular basis.
Desirable
20. A commitment to the evaluation of services, enthusiasm for both multi-professional and uni-professional audit and research.