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Job summary

Main area
Practitioner Psychologist, Neuropsychologist
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 7
Contract
12 months (Fixed term maternity cover)
Hours
Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref
334-CLI-7197407
Employer
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Lishman unit, Denis Hill Unit
Town
Beckenham
Salary
£51,883 - £58,544 Per annum inclusive of HCAS
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
10/07/2025 23:59

Employer heading

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust logo

Practitioner Psychologist, Neuropsychologist

NHS AfC: Band 7

 

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.

We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’.

We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives  in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology  to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone’s potential as change makers.

The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust. 

Our Values

We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I’m going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you’ll be part of something special.

As a Trust we are happy to talk flexible working.

Job overview

This is a fantastic opportunity for an enthusiastic and dynamic Clinical Psychologist to help lead our acquired brain injury and functional neurological disorder pathways. 

You will provide specialist assessment and rehabilitation to adults who have experienced an acquired brain injury and those experiencing functional neurological disorder. The Lishman Unit provides in-depth, multidisciplinary assessments and rehabilitation interventions using a team goal-setting approach.

You will work with an already established multidisciplinary team who are highly specialised and dedicated to the service users they work with. There will be opportunities for you to collaborate with the team and the wider Neuropsychiatry pathway and will be a perfect platform to demonstrate leadership qualities. The role involves regular contact with the Ward Manager and Consultant Psychiatrist to help ensure you feel confident and supported in your role, in addition to a Trust-wide Staff Support Service and networks to help you connect with others within SLaM.

 Career Progression pathways and development opportunities:

We have career pathways available, where you will be able to develop your skills and build on your experience to progress into other roles across different specialties. For this role, we offer career pathways to senior practitioner psychologist roles across Specialist Services and in our services for adults with complex emotional needs.

Main duties of the job

  •        To provide a specialist psychology service to the brain injury and functional neurological disorder MDTs within the Lishman Unit including specialist assessment, neurorehabilitation, therapy, planning, implementation and monitoring of outcomes.

    ·       To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.

    ·       To provide clinical supervision and consultation as appropriate.

    ·       To undertake service evaluation, audit and research.

    ·       To work as an autonomous professional within BPS and HCPC guidelines and codes of conduct, and guided by the policies and procedures of the service, taking responsibility for own work including treatment and discharge decisions with support of clinical supervisor

Working for our organisation

The Lishman unit is a 15-bedded, national specialist unit located at Bethlem Royal Hospital, offering assessment, formulation and treatment for adults with complex needs relating to brain injury or functional neurological disorder.

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About our location: 

Bethlem Royal Hospital

Bethlem Royal Hospital is based in a beautiful setting in over 200 acres of green space in the London Borough of Bromley, South East London. The hospital has easy access to nearby main roads and have offers free parking. The site is within walking distance from of Eden Park and West Wickham overland stations. 

SLaM employ around 5000 staff and serve a local population of 1.1 million people. We have more than 230 services including inpatient wards, outpatient and community services. Currently, provide inpatient care for approximately 5,300 people each year and treat more than 45,000 patients in the community in Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark; as well as substance misuse services for residents of Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

KR 1 Clinical and Client Care

·       · To provide neuropsychological assessments, formulations and interventions for clients in the brain injury and functional neurological disorder (FND) MDTs within the Lishman Unit.

·       · To provide psychological rehabilitation using a multidisciplinary goal-setting approach, with close support from the senior psychologist.

·       · To provide evidence-based psychological therapy appropriate for clients with brain injury and FND.

·       · To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.

·       · To participate in neuropsychologically-informed assessments with the MDT (such as outreach assessments), with supervision from the senior psychologist.

·       · To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.

·       · To act as keyworker for specific service users, taking responsibility for updating the ward round, co-ordination of family meetings, providing point of contact for service users’ family members and contributing to discharge planning.

 

KR 2      Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

·       To contribute to the effective working of the brain injury and functional neurological disorder MDTs within the Lishman Unit and to a psychologically informed framework for the service.

·       To contribute to the team or service’s delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.

·       To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.

·       To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.

 

KR 3      Policy and service development

·       To implement policies and procedures in own area of work, and to propose improvements or beneficial changes.

·       To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.

·       To contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.

 

KR 4      Care or management of resources

·       To take care of, and use carefully, the Trust’s equipment and physical resources.

·       To ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.

 

KR 5      Management and supervision

·       To be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of an assistant psychologist if required, under supervision from a more senior psychologist.

·       To supervise trainee applied psychologists within own area of specialism after completion of the relevant Training Course’s Supervision Training.

 

KR 6      Teaching and Training

·       To provide occasional specialist training in psychological approaches to care to other professions as appropriate.

·       To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.

 

KR 7      Record-keeping and Information Governance

·       To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.

·       To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.

 

KR 8      Research and development

·       To undertake regular complex service evaluation, audits or research relevant to service needs.

 

KR 9      Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

·       To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior psychologist according to HCPC and Trust guidelines.

·       To ensure own Continuing Professional Development in line with BPS and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and the HCPC ‘Standards for Continuing Professional Development’.

·       To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.

·       To comply with the HCPC ‘Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics’ and ‘Standards of Proficiency’, and ensure professional development in line with these.

·       To adhere to the BPS’s Professional Practice Guidelines and Trust policies and procedures.

 

KR10     General

·       To travel to outreach assessments as appropriate and across the Trust when required.

·       To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group, and follow trust policies relating to its management.

·       To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations such as challenging behaviour emerging from brain injury or trauma, or team dynamics arising from prominent maladaptive interpersonal styles and to support others involved in such situations.

styles and to support others involved in such situations.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • Entry-level qualification in Applied Psychology (professional Doctorate, or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level additional training) that has been accepted by the HCPC for purposes of professional registration. (A/I)
  • Registered with the HCPC as Practitioner Psychologist. (A/I)
Desirable criteria
  • Interest in undertaking relevant additional training, such as post-doctoral training in clinical neuropsychology or in evidence-based therapeutic intervention for FND (A/I)

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Experience of receiving clinical supervision across a range of client needs. (A/I)
  • Experience of neuropsychological assessment and/or intervention with individuals with brain injury, or other similar population with cognitive and behavioural needs (A/I)
  • Experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities. This may have been gained through work, research, volunteering and / or lived experience. (A/I)
  • Experience of developing and carrying out research projects. (A/I) Knowledge
Desirable criteria
  • Interest in and experience of working with individuals with functional neurological disorder, with supervision. (A/I)

Knowledge

Essential criteria
  • Theoretical knowledge of psychopathology and the evidence base for the relevant treatment for brain injury and FND respectively (A/I/R)
  • Knowledge of psychological assessment and clinical psychometrics. (A/I/R)
  • Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health issues, child and adult protection, and equalities. (A/I/R)
  • Doctoral level knowledge of psychological research methodology and complex statistical analysis. (A/I/R)
  • Knowledge of factors affecting acceptability and accessibility of mental health care. (A/I/R)
  • To select and administer specialist psychological assessments, interpreting and integrating complex data that require analysis, interpretation and comparison, drawn from several sources. (A/I/R)

Skills

Essential criteria
  • To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues overcoming barriers to communication including sensory, and emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to or rejection of information. (A/I/R)
  • To plan and schedule assessment and interventions for individual clients and groups and carers, and for meetings such as goal setting and formulation meetings. (A/I/R)
  • To plan allocation of tasks to assistant psychologists. (A/I/R)
  • To be skilled in the administration of psychometric and neuropsychological tests, including those that require complex manipulation of test materials. (A/I/R)
  • Well-developed IT skills including entry and analysis of research data. (A/I/R)

Employer certification / accreditation badges

London Healthy workplaceCapital Nurse, LondonNo smoking policyLondon Living Wage is a voluntary commitment made by employers, who can become accredited with the Living Wage FoundationImproving working livesMindful employer.  Being positive about mental health.Stonewall Silver 2022Disability confident employerStonewall equality policy. Equality and justice for lesbians, gay men, bisexual and trans people.Armed Forces Covenant Bronze AwardHappy to Talk Flexible WorkingArmed Forces Covenant

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

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Dr Leigh Leppard
Job title
Principal Clinical Psychologist
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
020 3228 2022
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