Reports to: Consultant Clinical Psychologist / Managing Director of Meadows Psychology Services
Terms of Employment: Permanent
Base: Home Based (with travel throughout the Maidstone area)
Hours/week: Minimum three days per week
*Must hold experience working in children's residential settings/working with complex young people in complex settings*
About Meadows Psychology Service
Meadows Psychology Service (MPS) are a specialist clinical psychology led service and leaders in the field in delivering bespoke packages of support to organisations who work with children and young people who have experienced developmental trauma. As an organisation we specialise in working to support complex systems to develop trauma informed practice. We work into residential homes, education settings, supported accommodation providers and directly with children, young people and families. We also deliver emotional health and wellbeing services and training packages to local authorities.
This is an exciting time for MPS as we are establishing ourselves as a national centre of excellence. If you are looking for a role with lots of service development and leadership opportunities, alongside working with a large, experienced MDT, this is for you.
We have an established psychology group within the organisation and lots of opportunities for supervision and support for aspiring psychologists.
We are a creative and innovative organisation which places the utmost importance on its employees. You will be joining an experienced senior team who are motivated and enthusiastic in developing the highest quality, innovative, therapeutic service.
We place a high value on CPD and supporting the growth of our employees. We hold three development days per year for therapy services and we offer multiple opportunities for peer support and reflection.
We provide lots of support for people to develop their areas of interest in MPS.
JOB PURPOSE
We are looking for a psychologist with excellent clinical skills, a committed team focus, with ideally some experience of strategic change and service development. We are a fast paced, evolving organisation so the successful applicant will be able to adapt to change, innovate and be creative in offering solutions and services to support children and young people.
As part of the leadership team of MPS, the post holder will support the development, delivery and evaluation of psychological interventions as well as provide consultation, supervision, formulation and training to the multi-disciplinary clinical team, as appropriate. The post holder will provide a high-quality expert psychology service as a member of MPS.
You will also support the clinicians and psychologists within the service and contribute to the expansion of our psychology offer, including clinical psychologists, trainee clinical psychologists, forensic psychologists, clinical associate psychologists and assistant psychologists.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Senior role supporting the expansion of psychology services across the country
- Delivery of a highly specialist clinical psychology service to the systems that support children and young people who have experienced developmental and relational trauma
- Providing highly specialist psychological assessments based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with CYP, carers and others involved in the care of CYP
- To oversee and support robust outcomes monitoring and service evaluation
- To be responsible for implementing a range of highly specialist psychological interventions for children, young people and systems that support them
- To make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group
- To offer complex case consultation to other cliicians
- To offer oversight and senior leadership support to our commissioner services embedding trauma informed models of care
- To work with our commissioners to ensure excellence in delivery
- To identify opportunities for MPS delivery
- To ensure the smooth running of MPS work as appropriate including attending contract reviews and developing relationships with commissioners of our service
- To attend professionals’ meetings/proceedings as required
- To provide regular reports to the senior leadership team
- To provide professional opinion, consultation and develop therapy proposals for potential commissioners
- To travel within a reasonable distance to complete specific pieces of work or assessment
- To provide relevant training to staff, as required, both to the service as a whole and to specific staff teams.
- To be involved in recruitment and induction of new staff, as appropriate.
- To undertake any Continued Professional Development activities as are required to maintain and enhance clinical skills necessary for the delivery of high-quality psychological care.
- To receive Clinical Supervision from an appropriate professional in accordance with the HCPC requirements (or equivalent).
- To provide Clinical Supervision to MPS therapists where appropriate
- To work autonomously in Meadows Psychology Service, managing your time and workload
- To provide specialist psychological assessments
- To provide expertise and specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to the analysis of clients’ problems to ensure accurate formulations, reflecting an in-depth causal understanding, diagnosis and intervention plan
- To ensure that all members of the wider clinical team have access to a psychologically based framework for the understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of psychological knowledge, research and theory.
- To undertake risk assessment and risk management for relevant individual clients and to provide both general and specialist consultation and advice for other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management
- To ensure appropriate systems for the clinical and professional supervision of qualified and unqualified psychologists, and other therapeutic clinicians across the designated service area
- To provide clinical and professional supervision to qualified and assistant psychologists working in the service.
- To co-ordinate and provide specialist clinical placements for trainee clinical psychologists, ensuring that they acquire the necessary clinical and research skills to doctoral level
- To provide specialist advice, consultation, training and clinical supervision/assessment to other members of the team for their provision of psychologically based interventions to help improve clients’ functioning.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Essential Criteria
1. Live registration (or eligible for immediate registration) with the appropriate professional governing body (e.g. HCPC).
2. Appropriate and accredited training as appropriate for the profession.
3. Experience of working with systems who support children and young people with complex presentations
4. Training or experience in therapeutic models or approaches relevant for children and young people
5. Experience of service development is desirable
6. Experience of working within independent sector is desirable
7. Supervisor training for doctoral programme clinical psychology trainees
8. Experience of developing relationships with multiple partners across different sectors including social care, education, private and third sector
9. Ability to apply knowledge of psychological theories to health and social care.
10. Advanced oral and written communication skills including the ability to communicate complex concepts, formulations and sensitive information
11. Ability to disseminate assessment findings to a range of audiences
12. Excellent organisational and time management skills and ability to work autonomously to manage the competing demands of the role.
13. Ability to work flexibly and responsively to new situations and be able to shift and manage competing priorities
14. Ability to contribute to professional meetings
15. Skills in reflecting upon and evaluating their own practice and measuring outcomes
16. Candidate must have a valid driving licence and have access to a vehicle for transport.
17. Post doctoral training in one or more specialist areas of practice is desirable
18. Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multimedia materials for presentations within public, professional and academic settings
19. Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and challenging behaviours
This is not an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities, and the post holder may be required to undertake other duties following discussion with the appropriate manager or Directors. This job description may be reviewed and revised in line with the needs and development of therapy services.
Please contact Jessica Pyke, People and Partnerships Manager on [email protected] for more information
Pay: £55,000.00-£75,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company pension
- Free or subsidised travel
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Maidstone
