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Job description

As part of a recent expansion of the Paediatric Diabetes Team, we are recruiting a part-time Assistant Psychologist (Band 4) to join our rapidly developing Children's Diabetes Team and Young Person's Diabetes Service.

The Children's Diabetes Team, based at Dorset County Hospital, cares for approximately 100 children and young people aged 0-18 years within the locality. The post holder will work alongside a qualified clinical psychologist to support the delivery of the psychology service to children and young people with diabetes, their families/carers and members of the multi-disciplinary team. The role will include a combination of supervised direct clinical work, as well as supporting the delivery of groups, working with other professionals in the service, and supporting with audit and clinical databases.

This role is a part time, permanent position, with flexible working options.

We are seeking a highly-motivated, compassionate and organised individual:

• To contribute to psychological screening, assessment, formulation and therapy for children and young people within the diabetes service at the direction of the clinical psychologist.
• To work as part of the multi-disciplinary diabetes team on quality improvement initiatives including relevant audits, collecting, analysing, and reporting on a range of statistics.
• To support the teaching and training of the multi-disciplinary diabetes team

The role requires applicants to have completed a BPS accredited degree in Psychology conferring graduate basis for registration. We are seeking individuals who have a passion for working with children, young people and families in a physical health setting. Experience working as an assistant psychologist, or other relevant experience, is required.

The Children's Diabetes Team is a multi-disciplinary team consisting of diabetes nurses, diabetes dietitians, consultant paediatricians, a clinical psychologist and administrators. The team work in collaboration to help children, young people and parents/carers achieve the best Diabetes management they can in order to lead a happy and full life. The team work in a cohesive way to ensure families get the right support with diabetes management, from ensuring access to appropriate technology, to supporting mental health and linking families in with local services to meet their needs.

Responsibility for Patients

• To undertake psychological screening and assessment of children and young people with diabetes under the supervision of a clinical psychologist. This may include undertaking questionnaires, conducting neuropsychological assessments, making observations and semi-structured interviews.
• To analyse and interpret assessment findings with the support and direction of the clinical psychologist.
• To provide evidence-based psychotherapeutic interventions to children and young people with diabetes under the supervision of a clinical psychologist
• To plan, organise and teach psychosocial interventions in group or individual formats when required.
• To contribute to wider interventions provided by the MDT within the diabetes service.
• To liaise with clients, carers, and professionals regarding non-complex sensitive clinical information.

Responsibility for wider clinical network/service

• To work as part of a team with the clinical psychologist including planning and organisation of own workload or delegated tasks.
• To support the provision of highly specialist psychological advice and consultation to community and ward staff involved in the care of children and young people. This may involve exposure to highly distressing circumstances.
• To maintain a database of psychology referrals.
• To feedback findings from psychological assessments to the wider MDT, and to be able to communicate this information effectively to young people, and their families or carers where appropriate.
• To work with frequent intense concentration during clinical sessions in which assessment and intervention are undertaken.
• Regular supervision should be accessed on a minimum of a fortnightly basis in accordance with good practice guidelines.
• To plan and prioritise own clinical workload and attend referral meetings, planning meetings, ward rounds and case conferences as appropriate.
• To participate in the development and preparation of clinical materials such as brochures, handouts, relaxation tapes, scripts, etc for use in the clinical services.
• To write letters and clinical reports as required.
• To note-take as needed at clinical psychology meetings such as case formulations, psycho-social meetings, high HbA1c meetings and disseminate to the wider MDT as required.
• To support the clinical psychologist to enhance the basic psychological skills of the diabetes MDT through training and support.

Responsibility for Policy and Service Development

• To support the clinical psychologist to design and implement a psychological strategy for the service
• To work with colleagues to maintain and improve the quality of the diabetes service for children and young people.
• To work positively with colleagues to maintain effective relationships.
• To attend relevant team and inter-agency meetings and to disseminate and cascade information from these meetings effectively to relevant staff.
• To attend and contribute to High HbA1c/complex case meetings, enhancing the provision of basic psychological tools by the wider MDT.
• To have a personal duty of care for NHS equipment and facilities and to advise on the ordering and maintenance of psychological tests and other equipment as required.
• To maintain appropriate client records and make regular statistical returns as required.
• To provide up-to-date reports on the progress of patients as required
• To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the Health and Care Professions Council and Trust policies and procedures.