Job summary
- Main area
- Psychology
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 6
- Contract
- Fixed term: 6 months (N/A)
- Hours
- Full time
- Job share
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 395-PP072-25
- Employer
- NELFT NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Petersfield Centre
- Town
- Romford
- Salary
- £38,682 - £46,580 per annum (Plus HCAS)
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 01/08/2025 17:00
- Interview date
- 04/08/2025
Employer heading
Clinical Associate In Psychology (CAP)
NHS AfC: Band 6
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
We are seeking to recruit a compassionate and motivated qualified Clinical Associate in Psychology (CAP) clinician to join our specialist team supporting Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Havering. This is a unique and rewarding opportunity to work in a Trauma-Informed team, guided by principles of Community Psychology.
The position is full time and open to individuals who have completed the MSc Clinical Associate in Psychology course.
You will be employed full time as a CAP, working within our specialist psychology service, which is integrated with the Havering Mental Health and Wellness Teams.
Successful applicants will undertake assessment, formulation and evidence based psychological interventions with adult Asylum Seekers and Refugees experiencing complex mental health and social issues, as well as developing meaningful links between our service users and community-based resources which support social inclusion. You will also have a key role in supporting the development and delivery of community-based interventions with service users, with various community groups.
You will work under the supervision of an experienced Clinical or Counselling Psychologist, and be a part of our supportive and skilled Community of Psychological Professions.
Applicants must have completed and passed the MSc CAP training and show a commitment to working within the NHS as a CAP to support improvement in access to psychological therapies, particularly for minoritised groups.
Main duties of the job
• Provide psychological assessment, formulation and evidence-based individual and group interventions to Refugees and Asylum Seekers living with complex mental health issues, under the supervision of a qualified Practitioner Psychologist (clinical or counselling psychologist).
• To communicate constructively with a range of professionals in a variety of services including in healthcare (including colleagues as part of integrated working with the multidisciplinary Mental Health and Wellness Team), other statutory and non-statutory organisations (such as the refugee Crisis and Response Team and social workers).
• Build relationships with key stakeholders, which include Service Users, people who care for and about service users, Lived Experience Representatives, Psychological Therapies Lead/supervisor, Qualified, trainee and assistant psychologist & psychological therapists, multidisciplinary healthcare colleagues, Local Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Organisations and other community assets, Key stakeholders in the wider health and social care system.
• Work as part of a new and dynamic psychology team and liaise with relevant external agencies to facilitate and enable psychological interventions.
• Communicate to others the core concepts of psychological theory, research and practice in order to enhance their delivery of psychological interventions.
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 of 15% of the basic salary (with a minimum of £4,551 to a maximum of £5,735 p.a. pro rata for part time).
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.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Clinical
• All clinical duties will be carried out under the supervision and direction of a qualified Practitioner Psychologist. The post-holder has a responsibility to perform all tasks within the spirit and the policies of the North East London NHS Foundation Trust.
• Use a range of psychological assessment methods within applied clinical practice to underpin formulation, including (but not limited to) clinical interviews, developmental history, semi-structured interview and psychometric measures.
• Carry out risk assessments in relation to psychological distress and to ensure that risk formulations are integrated with interventions understanding contingency management and the use of risk indicators in mitigating against crises.
• Critically appraise and integrate a range of psychological theories to produce a coherent formulation which informs an evidence based psychological treatment plan.
· Agree upon evidence based psychological interventions based on a clear psychological formulation of presenting issues in collaboration with service users and those supporting them.
· Communicate effectively the rationale behind the treatment plan to clients, those in their support networks and other professionals to support engagement.
• Provision of formulation-driven psychological interventions, under supervision of a Practitioner Psychologist, with individuals and groups with complex mental health issues within a variety of settings including clinics, community team bases and local community based facilities.
• Collaborative goal-setting and ongoing measurement of progress against these agreed goals.
• Act as a psychological resource providing support and guidance using psychological models to the wider health or social care teams, and social systems and networks.
• To hold in mind the impact of racism, social exclusion and stigma, arising from the experience of being a refugee or asylum seeker, having complex mental health issues, on engagement with services and effective psychological interventions, and to be able to creatively consider approaches to empower service users in their journey.
• Implement appropriate crisis interventions that are safe, effective and compassionate and follow a rights-based approach consistent with service standards.
• Apply psychological theory and research to address emotive and challenging situations, taking account of conflicting and contradictory information from carers and other professionals.
• To spend sustained amounts of time with service users whose behaviour may appear aggressive and hostile, who may have poor verbal communication skills and self-care and special physical and/or mental needs.
• To understand of the needs and assets of refugee and asylum seeking individuals and families from a wide range of racial, cultural, sexual, religious and social backgrounds. To join with service users and colleagues, co-produce innovative ways of communicating and working across language and cultural differences, including the use of professional interpreters in clinical work.
• To maintain clear and appropriate clinical records in a timely manner, including managing the use of electronic patient records, and clinical reports, letters and emails as required.
Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for some job roles, and this will be identified through filtering questions at the start of any job application on the Trac recruitment system.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Undergraduate degree in psychology (with graduate basis for registration with BPS)
- MCAP qualification from an accredited CAP training provider
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of work in the NHS with adults with complex mental health needs.
- Delivering evidence based psychological interventions with individuals and groups presenting with severe and/or complex mental health problems
- Working in MDTs
- Audit, evaluation or research.
- Work in multi-cultural settings
- Work with community, voluntary & social enterprise organisations.
- Conducting service-related research
Desirable criteria
- Work with behaviours that challenge services
- Lived experience of mental health issues or psychological problems as a service user or carer
- Work with community, voluntary & social enterprise organisations
- Shown a commitment to working with and supporting minoritised groups, such as refugees or those seeking asylum
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- An awareness of NHS priorities
- Sound knowledge of theoretical underpinnings of at least one evidence based psychological therapy, and ability to apply this in practice
- Sound understanding of health care systems and structures: staffing, roles and responsibilities, the role of hospitals, primary care and community care
- Master’s level knowledge of research design and methodology
- Up to date knowledge of psychological research and national guidance relevant to the client group.
- Awareness of the potential impact of discrimination & disadvantage on mental health
- Ability to draw upon a specific theoretical knowledge base in the analysis of facts or situations to arrive at appropriate formulations, under clinical supervision
- Coherent understanding of how adverse experiences and environment impact on mental health and well-being
- An awareness of key issues affecting asylum seekers and refugees
Desirable criteria
- An awareness of NHS Plan, NSF and clinical governance priorities
- Understanding of ‘Population Health’ strategy
Skills
Essential criteria
- Strong ability to engage with a variety of services and community partners and stakeholders, and to expand existing networks
- To nurture and maintain strong working relationships with stakeholders
- Demonstrate excellent interpersonal, communication and active listening skills with service users, carers, staff and community partners
- Work with people from a wide range of backgrounds
- Contain and work with organisational stress and able to hold the stress of others
- Manage effectively exposure to distressing/highly emotional circumstances.
- Manage effectively verbal aggression from service users, families, etc. and the risk of physical aggression
- Respectful and collaborative approach to service users, families, carers, colleagues and other professionals
- Able to negotiate and ability to handle confrontation effectively and professionally.
- Ability to use supervision appropriately and effectively.
- Provide & receive sensitive information in a highly emotive and sometimes hostile atmosphere, in a defined setting.
- Be flexible and adapt approach according to need
- Concentrate intensely for a substantial proportion of working time, during client contact, teaching/supervision sessions, team meetings, preparing written work etc.
- Use IT packages – word processing, e-mail and internet, SPSS, Excel and Access.
- Ability to use or learn NHS clinical systems such as RIO.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
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.
Application numbers
If you require any additional support during the application process please contact [email protected]. We are happy to make reasonable adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment journey.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Dr Kaanan Butor-Bhavsar (she/her)
- Job title
- Principal Clinical Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 0300 300 1615
- Additional information
Dr Taiwo Afuape (she/her)
Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Family Systemic Psychotherapist, Trauma Informed Care and Community Psychology Lead for Havering
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