Principal Clinical/Counselling Psychologist Diabetes

• Take the lead in assessing the need for, and providing training and support in, psychological skills for the multidisciplinary teams delivering care
• Hold a small case load providing specialist individual and group psychological interventions
• Be accountable for their own professional practice in the delivery of a highly specialist clinical health psychology service
• Support and build competency in psychological practice and trauma informed care principals within the teams, by providing training, coaching, clinical supervision, consultation, mentorship and advice on matters related to psychological components of care
• Manage and clinically supervise the work of assistant and/or trainee psychologists/Clinical Associate Psychologists for whom the post-holder has professional responsibility within the services
• Supervise and support the psychological assessment and therapy provided by other relevant professional staff involved in the care of patients
• Work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise delegated responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the post-holders areas of responsibility.

• Work closely with the Clinical Health Psychology Services Head of Service for Luton and Bedfordshire to facilitate implementation of local diabetes strategy and adhere to national standards appropriate to the health and social care setting, contributing to strategic planning of the service.
• Utilise research skills for research, audit, and to contribute to quality improvement, policy and service development
• Advise on and contribute to policy changes within the post-holders areas of responsibility, in partnership with professional and service manager

Essential

• Doctorate in Clinical Psychology or equivalent training as an applied practitioner
• HCPC registration as a Practitioner Psychologist
• Training in clinical supervision for doctoral clinical psychology trainees.

Desirable

• Post-doctoral training in one or more relevant specialist areas of psychological practice, eg: EMDR.
• Leadership Training
• Quality Improvement Training
• BABCP registered

Essential

• Substantial experience of working as a qualified psychological practitioner with post qualification experience of working with people with Long Term Health Conditions and working as part of multidisciplinary team for people with complex physical health conditions often with mental health comorbidities.
• Well-developed experience of assessment, formulation and treatment with people (and families/carers) with complex & chronic long term conditions.
• Experience in working within at least two therapy modalities (CBT and one other).
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts, including working with interpreters.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups across the whole life course, presenting problems that include the full range of clinical severity, including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Research and audit experience.
• Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
• Experience of developing and delivering specialist training programmes.
• Experience of supervising professional and clinical practice of qualified and Unqualified staff.
• Experience of liaison and joint work with other statutory, and third sector agencies.
• Identification of need and development of services to meet need.
• Experience managing other staff
• Experience of liaison and joint work with other statutory agencies, including crisis management
• Identification of need and development of services to meet need.
• Ability to provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and challenging behaviours

Essential

• Demonstrates an understanding of the challenges of working with this client group
• Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies with adult clients with complex physical and mental health needs, which should include CBT and one other.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult-to-treat groups (e.g. complex needs, dual diagnosis, and persons with additional disabilities etc).
• Able to provide & receive highly complex, sensitive or contentious information in a 11 highly emotive and sometimes hostile atmosphere, in a range of relationships and settings. Able to use highly specialist skills of empathy to work with and overcome barriers to understanding and acceptance.
• Experience of working with complex systems of care.
• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of multi -media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Able to draw upon a broad theoretical knowledge base in the analysis of highly complex facts or situations to arrive at appropriate formulations. Able to compare and select from a range of treatment options, based on formulation.
• Ability to work creatively, co -operatively, reliably and consistently as an independent practitioner, as a mentor and supervisor, and in multi -disciplinary and team settings.
• Ability to hold service level needs and operations alongside a small complex case load.
• Competence in use of IT equipment and software packages for the purposes of clinical record keeping, electronic communication, creating organisational 12 documentation, data entry and analysis, research, and multimedia presenting and teaching
• Knowledge of legislation, NSF guidelines, NICE guidance and other national policies for the area of speciality and their implications for clinical practice
• Ability to provide a culturally -competent and non -stigmatising accessible service including an awareness of the potential impact of discrimination. Particular awareness and sensitivity to cultural and ethnicity differences .
• Able to be flexible and adapt approach according to need. Able to innovate on the basis of theoretical knowledge