Job summary
- Main area
- Primary Care Mental Health - Talking Therapies
- Grade
- Band 8a
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 350-CC7262352
- Employer
- Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- 7 Newhall,
- Town
- Fazakerley, Liverpool,
- Salary
- £53,755 - £60,504 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 07/07/2025 23:59
- Interview date
- 16/07/2025
Employer heading
Talking Therapies Lead Clinician
Band 8a
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Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnically diverse, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.
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Job overview
This is an exciting opportunity for a full-time Band 8A Lead Clinician within the Talking Therapies Liverpool service.
Talking Therapies Liverpool is an NHS IAPT Talking Therapies service for those aged over 16yrs in Liverpool. The service is delivered by Merseycare NHS Foundation Trust, and offers a variety of support and psychological therapies to the community of Liverpool. Our interventions are diverse and evidence based, ranging from guided self-help and face-to-face or video therapy, telephone support to workshop courses.
We know that we can only achieve a high-quality clinical service by maximising the efforts of our team and by creating an environment where colleagues are valued and involved in developing the service. We believe in investing in people, keeping true to the values and behaviours of Merseycare NHS Trust and the NHS and looking after the wellbeing of all team members. We work closely with other services and service user groups to refine and improve the service that we offer.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will be an experienced clinical or counselling psychologist, or from a counselling, nursing, social work background with a nationally recognised qualification and experience to deliver psychological therapies who will be responsible for the systematic provision of primary care psychology services to adults with mental health problems in the Liverpool area, including GPs surgeries and other community venues. This is to incorporate complex assessments leading to psychological formulations of distress, interpretation, under professional supervision, of assessment instruments and forming judgements for treatment options.
Working for our organisation
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
1. To be part of an IAPT type primary care psychology service and deliver step 3 treatment
interventions as well as acting as an expert resource across the 3 steps covered by the service.
2. To provide primary care services within the field of adult mental health to adults covered by
the team. In doing so will be responsible for adhering to relevant Trust policies and
professional ethics and standards. Will be accountable for professional and clinical actions.
3. As a clinician with specialist post-qualification training, the post holder will participate in taking
responsibility for development of training, supervision and governance aspects of the specific
therapeutic model.
4. To ensure the systematic provision of a high-quality specialist therapeutic service, to clients of
the service team, across all aspects of care. To supervise and support the psychological
assessment and therapy provided by other members of the team who provide psychologically
based care and treatment. To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise
responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service/team.
5. To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research. To propose
and implement policy changes within the area served by the team/ service.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Honours degree or equivalent experience
- Post-graduate qualification in Clinical Psychology, Counselling or CBT
- Training in one or more NICE recommended treatment modalities for Anxiety or Depression in Talking Therapies
- Accreditation with appropriate regulatory body
Desirable criteria
- Other related academic qualifications to Masters or Doctorate level
- Training in Supervision
- Training in the delivery of other NICE recommended psychological interventions e.g. EMDR, Counselling for Depression, DIT, or IPT
- Leadership qualification – such as Thrive or equivalent
Knowledge/Experience
Essential criteria
- Solid grounding in assessment, diagnosis and formulation of adult mental health problems
- Experience/ knowledge of specialist area e.g., anxiety/depression
- Experience of delivering NICE recommended psychological interventions e.g., EMDR, Counselling for Depression, DIT, or IPT
- Knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group and mental health
- Evidence of continuing professional development
- Understanding of appraisal system and able to recognise/ identify personal development training needs
- Able to contribute to teaching of professional groups through planning, creating and delivering training and lectures
- Able to provide clinical supervision to various professional groups
- Experience of delivering Clinical Supervision
Desirable criteria
- Experience of delivering modality specific supervision within IAPT
- Trained in the administration, evaluation and reporting of psychological tests
- Working knowledge in the theory and application of leadership models
- IT skills required in accessing/ updating recording systems
- Experiencing of conducting teaching / training to both psychological colleagues as well as other multidisciplinary colleagues
- Experience of developing pathways of care through the system in partnership with other providers
Values
Essential criteria
- Continuous Improvement
- Accountability
- Respectfulness
- Enthusiasm
- Support
- High professional standards
- Responsive to service users
- Engaging leadership style
- Strong customer service belief
- Transparency and honesty
- Discreet
- Change oriented
Skills
Essential criteria
- High level of verbal communication skills in highly emotive situations, being able to overcome psychological resistances to threatening issues
- High level of analytical and judgemental skills in being able to assess, formulate and deliver psychological care, from referral through to discharge
- Specialist skills in CBT or other NICE recommended psychological interventions e.g., EMDR, Counselling for Depression, DIT, or IPT
- High level of literacy skills, being competent in report writing
- Able to work autonomously in planning and organising skills, being responsible for own work timetable - scheduling clients’ care, CPD, meetings, supervision, etc
- Shows capacity and flexibility for lone working
- Risk management skills to cope with hostile, aggressive or self-harm situations
- Capacity for reflection and learning from experience
- Demonstrates capacity to organise own work autonomously
- Able to tolerate highly emotive client issues, distressed clients, and able to access appropriate clinical supervision in handling client material safely
- Able to form therapeutic alliances with difficult to engage people
- Able to carry a caseload with clients at risk of self-harm, and to be able to cope with crises calmly without undue stress on self
- Able to maintain high levels of concentration for extended periods of time
- Able to build good relationships with other disciplines and to contribute to the team in a consultative role, on all psychological issues including those relating to patient care and the function of the team
- Demonstrates assertiveness and diplomacy
- Works to Professional Guidelines
- Must be aware of and adhere to all Trust policies and procedures
Desirable criteria
- Maintains a positive, energetic approach that provides a good model for others
- To be flexible in the face of change
- To be able to work well as a team, and hold multiple perspectives at once
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
- Christina Fitzgerald
- Job title
- Consultant Clinical Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Additional information
Natalie Mutton
Operational Manager Talking Therapies Liverpool
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