Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist - Team Lead

To support and enhance the work of the multi-disciplinary team providing a highly specialist service to people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and persistent pain.

To take a lead role in the clinical delivery and strategic development of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) service

To support and enhance the professional psychological care of patients within the service by providing highly specialist psychological assessment, formulation and therapy as well as consultation, advice and supervision to other members of the team.

To provide highly specialist clinical psychology input to adults, their families and carers referred to the ACTIVATE Team with CFS.

To provide highly specialist psychological assessment, formulation and therapy for complex cases within the service. This will be based upon clinical psychology and clinical health psychology theory and practice.

To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the teams' policies and procedures.

To lead the development and delivery of highly specialist psychological assessments of patients with CFS referred to the service using interview, formal psychometric and other assessment methods as appropriate and in accordance with the profession. Produce reports conveying the results of these highly complex assessments and formulations and detailing recommendations about appropriate interventions for the patient.

To lead the development and delivery of treatment, advice and management of patients with CFS, using a range of appropriate psychological or biopsychosocial interventions according to their profession including 1:1 and group sessions.

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment and treatment of patients with persistent pain, in accordance with the policies of the service.

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual patients and provide advice and guidance on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management to colleagues within the service.

To provide specialist advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals, specifically GPs, MSK services and local pain services to assist the formulation, diagnosis and treatment of patients with persistent pain

To deliver professional communications in a skilled and sensitive manner concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of patients.

To be involved in the planning, co-ordination and delivery of psycho-educational group programmes primarily for patients with CFS or persistent pain.

To develop and maintain good working relationships with other staff in the ACTIVATE team with the purpose of facilitating patient care planning and dissemination of relevant information and to promote service delivery and planning with colleagues.

Through the provision of advice and consultation, contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of patients of the service across all settings and agencies serving the patient groups.

To liaise with relevant others including the GPwERs attached to the service, the wider MSK service and other CFS and persistent pain services.

HCT will prioritise recruitment of workers living in England under the new immigration rules for care workers effective from 9 April 2025. Employers must first prove that they have attempted to recruit a worker from within England who needs new sponsorship. This ensures that those who came to the UK to pursue a career in adult social care can do so.

The use of AI is monitored and if you have used it then you are required to declare this, as well as what type of AI tools you have used and for what purpose. We reserve the right to further test your individual knowledge and skills in relation to the requirements for the post through robust and thorough interview and assessment.

A big thank you for considering joining us at Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust You'll find it a great place to work with many benefits offered to you as a member of our staff We put our patients, their families and carers at the centre of our vision - Outstanding Services and Healthier Communities. Our staff are proud to be Caring, Pioneering and Inclusive in their work to help achieve the Trust vision

We welcome diversity in our workforce and are interested in applicants from all backgrounds and ages We don't want you to miss out so we'd like you to know that if we have a high level of interest in this role, the vacancy may close prior to the advertised closing date, so please make your application as soon as possible - Apply now You've made a great decision to apply to join to HCT - we're looking forward to taking the next steps of the journey with you.

You can apply to Access to Work to get money for communication support at a job interview - please use this link for more information: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-communication-support-at-a-job-interview-if-you-have-a-disability-or-health-condition-access-to-workYou need to apply before the interview takes place.

Qualifications

Experience

Communication