Job summary
- Main area
- Applied Psychology
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 7
- Contract
- Fixed term: 3 years (Contract end 31st March 2027)
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 334-CLI-7485134
- Employer
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Psychology in Hostels
- Town
- London
- Salary
- £56,276 - £63,176 per annum inclusive of HCAs
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 04/11/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Practitioner Psychologist, Psychotherapist & Psychological Therapist
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
Psychology in Hostels are an innovative, multi award-winning specialist homeless psychology service. For 14 years, PIH has led in the development of ‘Psychologically Informed Environments’, delivering ‘Trauma Informed Approaches’ and developing best practice for working with excluded and multiply disadvantaged populations across Lambeth and Westminster in partnership with the third sector.
The client group experience multiple disadvantage and have high levels of complex trauma and interpersonal difficulties coupled with substance misuse issues and risk-taking behaviour. To support them we take a ‘PIE’ approach. A PIE takes into consideration how the psychological and emotional needs of the clients are affected by the environments they inhabit and how services support them. This includes the approaches adopted by hostel and outreach staff; the training and support offered; the psychology-specific interventions delivered and the integration of psychological & trauma informed approaches in the design of services.
We organize our service around the 6 principles of Trauma Informed Care, and draw upon a range of evidence-based treatments for working with complex needs populations (Incl. MBT, DBT, CBT, Narrative, Systemic). We aim to work with the whole system around people experiencing homelessness, and are keen to continue to develop our community psychology ways of working.
Main duties of the job
- Support the 3rd sector service, through teaching, training, bi-monthly reflective practice, and consultation
- Support reflection and formulation for HF Workers to provide flexible and psychologically and trauma-informed support to clients
- Offer individual therapeutic work, and facilitate community-based interventions for clients
- Support the assessment and onwards referral of clients into mainstream services.
- Work with your PiH colleagues to develop new ways of working within the team and across the wider system.
Working for our organisation
This post will be based within the Housing First team base on Cedar’s Road in Clapham, with travel to visit clients across Lambeth required. The PiH team admin base is at 308 Brixton Road.
Our Trust headquarters is located at Denmark Hill less than 5 minutes from the train station (zone 2). We also provide services and operate across other locations, such as London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark; and substance misuse services for residents of Bexley, Lambeth, Greenwich and Wandsworth.
Benefits:
We are committed to ensuring our staff get the most out of their benefits package, feel valued and understand the importance of a healthy work life balance.
Some of our benefits include:
- Generous pay, pensions and leave packages dependent on the role and length of service.
- Work life balance, flexible working and supporting a range of flexible options, such as: part-time working and job sharing.
- Career development with plenty CPD opportunities such as mentoring, coaching, collective leadership and other talent programmes.
- Accommodation, our staff benefit from keyworker housing at selected sites.
- NHS discounts via the Health Service Discounts website.
Other benefits include:
- Counselling services
- Wellbeing events
- Long service awards
- Cycle to work scheme
- Season ticket loan
- Childcare vouchers
- Staff restaurants
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To provide a specialist psychology service to support staff and adult clients being supported by HF team: including staff support, psychological therapy, trauma specific interventions and monitoring of outcomes. These roles are suitable for someone with interest in Psychology in Hostels trauma-informed and Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE) work.
Key Responsibilities:
Clinical
- To provide expertise in a specialist clinical area, both directly and indirectly, the psychological needs of those experiencing complex needs and multiple disadvantage (incl. homelessness).
- To provide specialist assessment and clinical formulation to clients with a wide range of mental health needs, including complex trauma, personality disorder, anxiety and depression, addictions, learning difficulties and psychosis.
- To select, administer and interpret psychometric and neuropsychological tests, involving skilled manipulation of test materials and high-level analysis of findings from the assessments.
- To select and deliver evidence-based specialist psychological treatments, monitoring outcome and modifying and adapting interventions, drawing on a range of theoretical options.
- To support other team members and partner services on specialist psychological care of clients.
Teaching, training, and supervision
- To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior psychologist or psychotherapist according to HCPC and Trust guidelines.
- To provide specialist training in psychological and trauma-informed approaches to care for other professionals as appropriate, particularly to third sector staff, peer support workers, project MDT within the Housing First project team.
- To provide clinical supervision for psychological work undertaken by assistant psychologists, placement students, trainee psychologists and the MDT team as appropriate.
Management, recruitment, policy and service development
- To identify any aspects of the service which could be improved and contribute to the service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.
- To manage own workload and the agreed workload of junior staff, as required, under supervision from a more senior psychologist.
- To participate in clinical governance initiatives as agreed by the Directorate clinical governance committee and team.
Research and service evaluation
- To lead, support and/or participate in service evaluation, including gathering and analysing output and outcome data, as required.
- To carry out appropriate research to improve the quality of care and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research within the service
General Responsibilities
-
- To ensure own Continuing Professional Development in line with HCPC, BPS and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements.
A full Job Description and Person Specification is attached to the advert.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Entry-level qualification in applied psychological therapy/mental health/social welfare profession and demonstrable practice in this field (professional Doctorate, or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level/ supervised practice/ additional training) that has been accepted for the purposes of professional registration.
- Registered with professional body as appropriate to discipline HCPC/APC/ BPC/UKCP/BACP/BABCP/ADMP-UK
Desirable criteria
- Additional training in relevant specialist psychological models (Psychodynamic, MBT, DBT, CAT, Systemic, Narrative).
- Additional training in neuropsychological assessment and treatment
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature in adult mental health (e.g. Addictions/ homelessness /complex trauma/ personality disorder/ mood disorder).
- Experience of engagement of hard-to-reach clients
- Experience of providing teaching and training to other professional groups
Desirable criteria
- Experience of working with homeless people
- Experience of specialist work with trauma and complex trauma.
- Experience of work with substance misuse.
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Awareness of racial diversity issues and factors affecting access to mental health care.
- Knowledge of psychological assessment and clinical psychometrics (incl. selecting, administering and interpreting neuropsychological tests).
Desirable criteria
- Specialist knowledge relevant to work in supported housing settings.
- Masters or Doctoral level knowledge of psychological research methodology and complex statistical analysis.
- Current knowledge of, expertise, or interest in and/or willingness to train further in neuropsychology, including in reaching excluded populations
Skills and Abilities
Essential criteria
- Ability to work flexibly and creatively to engage clients in hostel settings.
- Highly developed verbal and written communication skills (incl. delivering complex and sensitive information to clients, families and staff).
- Specialist practitioner skills at level 3 in at least one model of psychotherapy or psychological therapy (CBT, Psychodynamic, MBT, systemic, CAT).
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
- Dr James Peddie
- Job title
- Principal Clinical Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Additional information
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