Joining #TeamNELFT means you’ll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We’re CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for three consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video

Job overview

An opportunity has arisen for suitably qualified psychological practitioner to join our dynamic Waltham Forest Psychological Services. This is a permanent, part-time post involving working across both the Community Care and the Mental Health and Wellness Team (MHWT).

You would be a core member of a MHWT multi-disciplinary team.Working in this Team will involve embracing community psychology principles,– understanding the needs of local populations, and working in partnership with service users, carers, peer support workers, voluntary sector and Local Authority colleagues to develop creative and innovative projects that address the psychosocial needs of our clients, particularly those who are less well-served by existing ways of working.

You would join a growing group of psychologists within and across boroughs that collaborate and meet regularly for peer support and to share ideas and experiences about using community psychology principles within the transformation process and to champion psychologically minded and trauma informed care within the MHWT. 

The post holder would also join a well-established team of psychologists. We are a friendly, collaborative and supportive team who deliver time-limited and structured individual and group psychological interventions to adults with complex mental health difficulties. The team includes psychologists, with skills in Compassion Focussed Therapy, CAT, Schema Focussed Therapy, Mindfulness and EMDR – as well as specialist CBT.

Main duties of the job

1. Have a doctoral level training in clinical/counselling psychology and registration with the Health and Care Professions Council

2. Be able to provide a highly skilled psychological services to clients with secondary care mental health difficulties. Duties include: psychological assessment, and therapeutic interventions (individual and group) to adults with complex mental health difficulties. This role will include the provision of enhanced specialist psychological clinical assessment, evidence-based therapeutic interventions, and psycho-education, working within the policies, procedures and protocols applicable to the service.

3. Have highly developed skills in the assessment and management of clinical risk and mental health conditions, and to undertake risk assessments and risk management for patients with complex mental health conditions providing expert advice to colleagues on the psychological aspects of risk assessment and its management and effectively documented in a timely manner when needed.

4. Deliver a culturally and ethically sensitive, equitable psychological therapy service to all minority groups regardless of race and ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, culture, religion, and disability; to include service users in the design and delivery of the service.

Working for our organisation

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period. Internal applicants are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or currently a bank member of staff).

Starting with NELFT

NELFT place a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers and attend a number of drop in sessions focussing in engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

High Cost Area Supplement - Outer London

This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement 15% of basic salary, with a minimum of £4,551 and maximum of £5,735, pro rata for part time staff.

Certificates of Sponsorship

 Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points based system

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

This post involves carrying out psychological assessments and interventions, offering consultation and supervision to assistant, trainee and Clinical Associate Psychologists (CAPs) and members of the multi-disciplinary teams. You will also have the opportunity to join with us in on-going service development and improvement initiatives.

Experience of psychological assessment and treatment of clients with secondary care mental health problems within the NHS is essential. A keen interest in working with this client group is essential as well as the ability to apply evidence-based psychological therapy approaches and work with autonomy and flexibility. Additional specialist training in advanced therapy skills, such as CBT, as well as experience in teaching and delivering training, would be desirable. Experience and/or interest in setting up, running and/or co-facilitating groups would be desirable.

 Use of AI

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Doctoral level training in Clinical/Counselling Psycholgy HCPC registration or eligibility

Desirable criteria

Post-doctoral training in one or more evidence-based psychological interventions

Experience

Essential criteria

Experience of working in secondary care level adult mental health NHS settings and within MDTs Experience of assessing, formulating and intervening in secondary care settings using evidence based psychological interventions Experience working in a flexible and innovative way, in line with community psychology principle Experience of working with service users, their networks, peer support workers and community organisations to develop initiatives that are in line with local need and practice-based evidence Evidence of training, supervision or consultation to multi-disciplinary teams, in order to support psychologically minded practice across the service

Desirable criteria

Experience of setting up, running and evaluating groups Experience of conducting research in secondary care adult mental health settings

Skills

Essential criteria

Skills in assessing, formulating and intervening with adult mental health clients in secondary are NHW settings Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups. Skills in working alongside people with lived experience of mental health.

Desirable criteria

Skills in applying research methodologies in secondary care adult mental health NHS settings

Benefits

We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:

A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff. A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our effortsto support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a ‘Top 10 Family Friendly Employer’ from the Working Families Charity. Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors. Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.