Job summary
- Main area
- LD -MH & Complex Behaviour
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 7
- Contract
- 12 months (Fixed term: 12 months)
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 294-MHCA-7260503-JB
- Employer
- South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Balham Health Centre
- Town
- Balham
- Salary
- £54,320 - £60,981 per annum inclusive of inner London HCAS
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 19/06/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Behaviour Specialist
NHS AfC: Band 7
South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We provide a full range of local mental health services to the Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and Wandsworth London boroughs, as well as specialist forensic mental health services, including specialised services such as national deaf adults and CAMHS inpatients and OCD.
We are committed to providing high quality integrated health and social care for local people with mental health problems in South West London and more specialist mental health services for people throughout the UK. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’ however we aim to be ‘outstanding’.
Our Values
We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values; being consistent, compassionate, collaborative, respectful and open is at the heart of everything we do. Our mission is "making life better together".
When you join us, you’ll be part of something special – an innovative and rapidly growing organisation that is helping to redefine the Mental Health, education and social care landscape in the UK.
As a Trust, we are happy to talk flexible working.
Job overview
We are seeking a highly motivated, organised and creative practitioner from a professional background with a recognised specialist qualification in behavioural management (e.g. MSc in Positive Behaviour support or Applied Behaviour Analysis).
This role will involve working with adults with a learning disability who present with behaviours that challenge which place themselves or others at risk of serious harm; or for whom the nature or degree of risk might otherwise lead to placement breakdown. You will be required to work in a variety of community settings, with individuals, groups, families and staff teams, providing assessment, support and intervention and applying a range of therapeutic approaches. An important part of the role will be to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team and support the management and leadership of the challenging behaviour pathway to deliver of an integrated ‘whole systems’ approach for people with complex health needs.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will contribute to the provision of a specialist Challenging Behaviour Pathway for adults with learning disabilities within the multidisciplinary Wandsworth Learning Disability Healthcare Team.
The post holder will provide specialist behavioural assessments and interventions to clients. This will involve undertaking direct assessment and intervention with the client and indirect assessment, monitoring and intervention with staff and/or carers. Interventions will include working across a variety of settings, including residential and day services and will involve working with the multi-disciplinary team. The post holder will work autonomously alongside clients, families, support workers and professionals to enable others to better understand and respond to behaviours that are challenging in line with PBS principles, Positive & Proactive Care: reducing the need for restrictive interventions (2014) and NICE Guidance (including NG11 & NG93).
The post holder will work with wider stakeholders to deliver on the Transforming Care Agenda. They will provide strategic input to the team’s Challenging Behaviour Pathway and undertake an influential role in shaping the team’s approach to working with behaviours that challenge. The post holder will be required to supervise junior staff as requested to by the Lead Clinical Psychologist. They will use research skills to carry out audits, service evaluations and research activities relevant to the service.
Working for our organisation
We are Proud to Belong at South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust.
We have expert services, a rich history and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill-health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’ - we aspire to be ‘outstanding’.
This is a great time to join us. We are transforming the way we care for our communities to support our mission of Making Life Better Together. We have built two brand new mental health facilities at Springfield University Hospital, which are amongst the best in the world. More developments are planned across our sites and services.
We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. We are proud to co-produce and involve our local communities in all that we do.
We offer flexible working, career development and a variety of benefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Clinical:
- To take responsibility for planning and undertaking comprehensive specialist functional assessments and interventions in line with a positive behavioural support (PBS) approach. To undertake clinical interviews with clients and carers in order to gain a thorough and holistic understanding of client’s needs, quality of life, current and past experiences and their environment.
- To undertake complex analysis and interpretation of data collected from a wide variety of sources. To present these data in graphical format within a detailed functional assessment report, including an assessment of the contribution of physical, emotional/psychological, cognitive and environmental and social factors that may be contributing to the challenging behaviour.
- To develop and implement positive behaviour support plans based upon a thorough holistic assessment and across the full range of care settings, including consideration of evidence of efficacy, and to decide upon the most appropriate intervention in liaison with the client or staff or carer. Interventions to include proactive strategies (including positive programming/skills building, ecological manipulations and differential reinforcement),reactive strategies, using non-aversive and least restrictive and wider system approaches and using methods with the focus on improving a client’s (and carer’s) quality of life.
- To use the written agreement between carers and challenging behaviour practitioners, detailing the action plan and responsibilities at the beginning of an assessment/intervention, and to review this with the client and carers as appropriate. To ensure that all interventions are reviewed and monitored and that the referrers and carers are aware of the progress of the client. To ensure that carers are informed of any changes to interventions/action plans, using the formal agreement with carers for this purpose.
- To recognise barriers to successful working relationships and to act on these as appropriate.
- To identify carers’ training needs and to provide advice on behavioural interventions and formal training to carers and other staff as appropriate, working towards optimizing well-being for clients and their families. To ensure that training addresses any ethical or moral implications of any interventions.
- To take autonomous responsibility for communicating with the referral agent and others involved with the care on a regular basis. Within learning disabilities this is likely to involve liaison with an extensive network of health professionals, social care professionals, voluntary agencies and families.
- To provide consultation and advice to professional colleagues on behavioural assessment and management of challenging behaviour in general and specifically around the care of specific clients.
- To undertake risk assessment and risk management for relevant individual clients and to provide advice on aspects of risk assessment and management.
- To work with other disciplines and agencies, to provide a coherent and effective service for people with learning disabilities.
- To communicate information concerning the assessment, formulation and intervention plans of clients in a skilled, professional and sensitive manner. To be sensitive to each client’s level of learning disability and to communicate in a manner that is accessible and understandable. This may involve producing an easy to understand version of reports or letters.
- To seek ethical advice on any aspects of their work which may have ethical or moral implications for the individual, carers or others
- To record and analyse ongoing data about the client’s quality of life and challenging behaviour as well as any other important aspects of the intervention.
- To carry out an effective hand-over to the client’s network or staff team once the work has been completed, so that staff are able to continue monitoring any challenging behaviour and are aware of when professional help needs to be sought. To ensure that a key person is identified who can take responsibility of ensuring that intervention plans are continued as appropriate.
- To provide comprehensive closure reports, using the standard template, written in a way that is accessible to the particular carer/staff teams. To ensure that all necessary information is accessible and available.
- To be able to take effective and immediate action at times of crisis for clients of the Challenging Behaviour Pathway. To be able to prioritise workload and to provide advice, support and debriefing to carers and other staff.
- To attend and represent the Challenging Behaviour Pathway at multidisciplinary team meetings and relevant stakeholder meetings including those related to delivered on the Transforming Care agenda.
- To respond immediately and appropriately to any suspicions or allegations of abuse, following Trust safeguarding procedures
- To contribute to effective incident management procedures and promoting an Just Culture
- To work as an independent, autonomous practitioner with full responsibility for highly complex clinical work
- To be accountable for all clinical decisions whilst following relevant professional guidelines, including the obligation for continued supervision.
Person specification
Experience
Essential criteria
- At least two years of qualified experience in working with individuals whose behaviour challenges services
- Experience of a range of specialist behavioural assessment and interventions with clients with learning disabilities whose behaviour challenges services, across the full range of care settings
- Experience of supporting families
- Experience of working with individuals with autistic spectrum disorders
- Experience of working with assistant psychologists within PBS framework
Desirable criteria
- Experience of teaching and/or supervision
- Previous experience of working in a Community team for people with learning disabilities
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Current registration with relevant professional body: • Nursing – NMC • Occupational Therapy – HCPC • Clinical Psychology – HCPC • Social Worker – Social Work England Or equivalent experience in this field
- Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) and Certification with Behaviour Analyst Certification Board (BACB) or willingness to work towards this or equivalent
- Postgraduate diploma, MSc, or MA in either Applied Behaviour Analysis, Autism or PBS
Desirable criteria
- Registration with UK-SBA
Knowledge & Skills
Essential criteria
- Skills in the use of complex methods of functional assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
- Skills in training individuals and groups of carers in behavioural assessments and management.
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups. maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
- Ability to cope emotionally with challenging behaviours displayed by individuals on a day to day basis, and to support carers in times of distress
- Ability to collect, analyse and present qualitative and qualitative data and to present this to others, taking into account the needs of the audience
- Good organisational skills and the ability to prioritise own workload, respond to changes and conflicting demands on time
- To be able to use a range of computer packages (Microsoft word, power point) to collect and present data.
Desirable criteria
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Dora Afrane
- Job title
- Team Leader
- Email address
- [email protected]
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