Job summary
- Main area
- Psychology
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8c
- Contract
- Fixed term: 12 months (n/a)
- Hours
- Part time - 18.75 hours per week
- Job ref
- 333-C-HQ-0908
- Employer
- Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- The Gordon Hospital
- Town
- London
- Salary
- £82,462 - £93,773 pro rata inc HCAS
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 12/06/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Consultant Clin'/Coun' Psychologist - Trauma Informed Approaches Lead
NHS AfC: Band 8c
Job overview
Are you an experienced psychological therapist looking for a new challenge and the opportunity to join our service at a time of exciting change?
We have an exciting opportunity for an innovative clinical/counselling psychologist with expertise and experience in trauma-informed approaches to take a leading role in developing and consolidating trauma-informed approaches in the Trust. The successful candidate will act as a Trust wide subject matter expert and will work with the Trust Chief Psychologist, Director of Therapies, senior Psychologists and leaders across the Trust to support the development, implementation, training, and delivery of trauma-informed approaches, initially across Inpatient mental health settings.
We are looking for applications from motivated and enthusiastic clinicians who are able to lead, plan, deliver and evaluate a Trust wide strategy for Trauma Informed Approaches to deliver improved safety, experience and outcomes for service users and staff.
CNWL has a strong community of passionate about Trauma Informed Approaches and a clear commitment to TIA which will provide a strong foundation on which to build capacity. The post will offer excellent opportunities to further develop strategic leadership skills.
Main duties of the job
- To lead, plan, deliver and evaluate a Trust wide strategy for Trauma Informed Approaches to deliver improved safety, experience and outcomes for service users and staff. With an initial focus on inpatient mental health services.
- To work with staff who practice TIA to ensure a level of consistency across CNWL, embedding an evidence-based framework and ensuring fidelity of staff using the model.
- To clinically lead elements of the “Culture of care” inpatient quality programme by championing trauma-informed care.
- To ensure consistent adherence to the trauma-informed model of Team Formulation, supporting inpatient staff to formulate the mental health difficulties service users on the ward present with from a trauma informed approach as well as develop trauma-informed plans for intervention.
- To regularly evaluate and report on progress and any risks to implementation plans to the Trust Chief Psychologist and relevant stakeholders including formal meetings such as programme boards and divisional and Trust Executive Boards.
- To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment
- To maintain a strong focus on collaboration and coproduction of the workstream;
- To liaise with some of the most senior staff, from psychology and other disciplines across the organization to develop the work and with community partners.
Working for our organisation
What we can offer you:
A Trust committed to staff personal development, with a trust wide culture change and leadership programme that has staff wellbeing as its core.
As a Trust are committed to investing in our staff through a range of initiatives, both profession-specific and organisation wide. Psychological professions staff are able to access a range of trust-wide CPD initiatives. CNWL also has seven established staff networks supporting a range of individual needs.
Working Environment:
We are looking for well-rounded and experienced practitioners. Our staff work pro-actively, with confidence and motivation, showing initiative which has contributed to the development of numerous award-winning services. We find that they are often flexible, robust and resourceful and able to manage the challenges of working in an environment which can be demanding.
We prioritise collaboration within our team and with our community partnerships, so we are hoping to find candidates who have the required communication and interpersonal skills that will allow them to thrive when working within their own team and with external partner organisations, in order to provide a meaningful service to the diverse populations we serve.
We encourage our staff to develop a specialist interest. This can be in any of the approaches practiced in the department, or an approach we don’t currently have available.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Job Purpose:
• To lead, plan, deliver and evaluate a Trust wide strategy for Trauma Informed Approaches within Inpatient mental health services to deliver improved safety, experience and outcomes for service users and staff.
• To act as a Trust wide subject matter expert in psychologically based trauma informed approaches in inpatient mental health settings
• Focusing on specific CNWL mental health inpatient settings in turn over time to deliver the following:
• To fully and meaningfully integrate and embed knowledge about trauma into Inpatient settings including into policies, procedures, language, culture and practices.
• To work with Trauma informed champions to ensure a level of consistency across CNWL, embedding an evidence-based framework and ensuring fidelity of staff using the model.
• To clinically lead elements of the “Culture of care” inpatient quality programme by championing trauma-informed care. This will focus on implementing a system-wide approach to trauma-specific interventions and to preventing re-traumatisation in inpatient settings and also workstreams focusing on staff support, promoting therapeutic relationships and ensuring services are needs-led.
• To ensure consistent adherence to the trauma-informed model of Team Formulation, supporting inpatient staff to formulate the mental health difficulties service users on the ward present with from a trauma informed approach as well as develop trauma-informed plans for intervention.
• To ensure consistent adherence to evidence-based psychological stabilisation interventions, supporting service users to develop skills to manage distress more easily and instil a greater sense of psychological safety.
• To contribute to the leadership of developing new ways of trauma-informed working within inpatient services in order to transform services with particular emphasis on areas which are further behind on this journey.
• To regularly report on the progress and any risks of these plans to the Trust Chief Psychologist and relevant stakeholders including formal meetings such as programme boards and divisional and Trust Executive Boards.
• To use appropriate data and feedback to evaluate the programme
• To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment
• To maintain a strong focus on collaboration and coproduction of the workstream; ensuring all projects understand community, Service User and staff needs and views
• To ensure the conduct of research, service evaluation and audits relevant to the projects undertaken in this role.
• To take a lead on supporting the development, implementation and evaluation of plans across the Trust, by inpatient staff.
• To receive and provide training, clinical supervision and consultation as appropriate
• To liaise with some of the most senior staff, from psychology and other disciplines across the organization to develop the work and with community partners.
• Regular communication with Trust Chief Psychologist, and others on the development of this programme.
• Communication as required with staff within the organization and with external partners
• To work as an autonomous professional within BPS and HCPC guidelines and codes of conduct, and guided by principles and policies or procedures, and interpret these and be responsible for their implementation within the service area of responsibility.
Key Responsibilities:
KR 1 Clinical and Client Care
This role is not based within one specific service. The post holder will undertake direct & in-direct clinical work as part of pilot projects, training and demonstration in identified services as agreed with their line manager.
• To plan, organise and ensure the delivery of Trauma Informed Approaches in inpatient mental health settings.
• To plan and organise the integrated delivery of services with other agencies and service providers and ensure co-ordination of psychology services with other services.
• To provide highly specialist psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for clients.
• To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families of clients when required.
• To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans
• To ensure that all services provided are acceptable and accessible to the diverse communities which make up the communities our services serve.
KR 2 Responsibilities for team or service clinical functioning
• To work with the leads/managers of other CNWL services and of other agencies’ services to plan and deliver joint services that are integrated around the needs of service users
• To co-ordinate (and chair) team and service meetings to ensure effective functioning and review when appropriate.
• To ensure the effective working of the team or service and a psychologically informed framework for the service.
• To take a lead in ensuring the team or service’s ability to deliver accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
• To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.
• To advise other members of the service on specialist psychological care of clients.
• To liaise with community partners, referrers and other professionals as required
• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
KR 3 Policy and service development
• To interpret policies and guidance for application and be responsible for policy development and implementation
• To initiate, implement and ensure appropriate service developments to improve the quality and delivery of services.
• To ensure the consultation and engagement of communities and service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.
• To participate in, or lead when appropriate, Trust and Divisional strategic development and implementation of new initiatives (e.g. national guidelines), through membership of committees and/or working parties.
• To be responsible for applying clinical governance standards and ensure that these are maintained and improved.
• To take a lead role in ensuring that services to clients are of a high quality and are managed efficiently, according to the overall requirements of the Trust, NHS and government guidance and standards.
• Ensure working within the Trust’s ‘Lone Working Policy’ (or similar) and others responsible for are also doing so. Agreeing a system for working safely in the community with line manager
KR 4 Care or management of resources
• To be responsible for the management of psychology resources
• To ensure that the service has sufficient materials and equipment
KR 5 Management and supervision
• To deputise for colleagues when appropriate.
• To provide leadership to psychological professionals and other professionals, particularly in relation to the development and practice of community psychology
• To ensure and advise on appropriate systems for the clinical and professional supervision of psychologists
• To lead recruitment of psychology staff
• To lead appraisals of, and personal development plans for psychologists
• To be responsible for the management of psychology staff in the service
• To provide professional, clinical and management supervision to less senior psychologists, assistant psychologists and trainee psychologists, and the psychological work of other professions as appropriate. This may include staff in community organisations as agreed with the line manager
KR 6 Teaching and Training
• To organise access to, and provide specialist clinical placements for trainee applied psychologists and psychotherapists in the service
• To be responsible for planning, organising, and the delivery of teaching and training of pre and post- qualification psychologists and specialist training to other professions in the service and more widely in the Trust and staff in partner organisations
• To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the service by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychology and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.
• Advise Trust Chief Psychologist on relevant research, practice and policy developments
• 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 ensure the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry, in those parts of the service for which the post-holder has management or leadership responsibility.
KR 8 Research and development
• To ensure the planning, initiation and completion of research, service evaluation and audits relevant to the service and the Trust/specialty research agenda.
• To provide expertise in a specialist research area
• To initiate and implement the development of outcome measurement and assessment and assist other staff in the implementation of same.
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.
- Additional training beyond entry-level qualification in a specialised area of psychological practice (such as organizational/leadership/business applications) through formal post-qualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent), OR a combination of specialist short courses and/or an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice– based learning in a specialist area of clinical practice, assessed by a BPS National Assessor and an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma or higher
- Completed training course in clinical supervision
- Registered with the HCPC as Practitioner Psychologist, and evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC.
- Training in psychologically based Trauma Informed Approaches
Desirable criteria
- Qualification in approaches to training staff
- Post core profession qualification(s)
Experience
Essential criteria
- Evidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision
- Experience of undertaking leadership roles
- Experience of supervising assistant and trainee psychologists having completed the relevant training.
- Experience of providing teaching and training to psychologists or other professional groups.
- Post-qualification experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities.
- Experience of proposing and implementing service development projects that impact beyond own service area. (
- Experience of leading workstreams to support teams to work using Trauma Informed Approaches
- Experience of participation in recruitment
- Experience of supervising assistant, trainee and qualified psychologists having completed the relevant training
- Extensive experience of developing and delivering psychologically based trauma informed approaches
Desirable criteria
- Record of publications in either peer reviewed, academic or professional journals/books
Skills
Essential criteria
- To lead, develop and manage programmes of work involving multiple stakeholders
- To deliver psychological therapy across cultural and other differences.
- To plan delivery of psychology and psychotherapy services to the client group and carers, involving partner agencies.
- Well-developed consultation skills to work with the multi-professional team or other professional groups.
- Well-developed IT skills including entry and analysis of research data and for teaching purposes
- Skills in providing teaching and training to other professional groups
- To select and administer specialist psychological assessments, interpreting and integrating complex data that require analysis, interpretation and comparison, drawn from several sources, on which expert opinion may differ.
- 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
- To be expert in the skilled administration of psychometric tests, including skilled manipulation of test materials; and to be able to supervise others in administration of psychometric tests.
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of management and leadership.
- Advanced knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies including trauma informed approaches
- Advanced theoretical knowledge of psychopathology and the evidence base for the relevant treatment (
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health issues, child and adult protection, and equalities.
- Doctoral level knowledge of psychological research methodology and complex statistical analysis.
- Knowledge of factors affecting acceptability and accessibility of mental health care.
- Knowledge and understanding of the operation of structural discrimination and its impact on health outcomes and psychological approaches that challenge this
Desirable criteria
- Specialist knowledge of the literature, evidence base and practice of psychologically based trauma informed approaches
Abilities
Essential criteria
- Ability to work effectively within a multidisciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles.
- Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate.
- Ability to develop and use complex multimedia materials for presentations in public, professional and academic meetings
- Ability to manage emotionally stressful situations such as working with victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self-harming or aggressive behaviour
- Ability to manage verbal aggression and hostility directed at self.
- Ability to develop implement and evaluate system wide plans for service development and changes to practice
Other
Essential criteria
- Values that align with NHS, Trust and Professional values
Desirable criteria
- Lived experience of mental health and or physical health problems / experience as a user of health services
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Christopher Whiteley
- Job title
- Chief Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Additional information
All prospective candidates are invited to contact Christopher Whiteley, Chief Psychologist for a discussion about the post
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