Clinical/ Forensic / Counselling Psychologist Birmingham, England
Job description
About us
Meadows Care is a medium business in HEALTH_CARE_MEDICAL in Birmingham. We are professional, inclusive, supportive, and our goal is to Meadows Care provide therapeutic care homes for young people with emotional and behavioural needs, with homes for up to 3 or 4 young people. We have been running since 2004 and have 21 homes across the North-West and the Midlands. We provide specialist residential therapeutic services to help young people learn, grow, develop and achieve. We aim to help young people to thrive and to reach their potential. We aim to achieve the best possible sustainable outcomes for our young people by providing the best possible care. Therapeutic care is integrated into our service model and throughout our services, with all staff trained and competent in our therapeutic model (M-ARC) which ensures we are a trauma led service focusing upon the therapeutic, attachment and psychological needs of our young people. Our passionate and nurturing staff are skilled, well trained and well supported by managers and clinicians. Our average length of placement is over 1.5 years—far above the average for our sector. All approaches used are evidence based, professionally and clinically led. Young people progress whilst with us with all outcome measures showing significant improvements on aspects such as self harm behaviour, PTSD, education attendance & self care. Building relationships and engaging young people is at the heart of what we all do—leading to safe, secure and stable placements.
Our work environment includes:
- Modern office setting
- Wellness programmes
Job Title: Practitioner Psychologist (Clinical / Forensic / Counselling) Grade: AFC Band 7-8a (Preceptorship Available)
Reports to: Head of Therapy Service / Consultant Clinical Psychologist Terms of Employment: Permanent Hours/week:
Full time or Part time
JOB PURPOSE
To provide psychological advice and consultation to other professionals working at Meadows Care, to enable them to better meet the psychological, emotional and relational needs of the young people within the service.
To facilitate bespoke training, consultation sessions and reflective practice sessions with staff teams, alongside ongoing advice and staff support to enable teams to develop a detailed formulation to better support the young people that they care for.
To provide direct psychological assessment, formulation and intervention to the young people at Meadows Care, or other organisations we work with, in a responsive and creative way.
To manage a caseload of young people, overseeing all therapeutic aspects of intervention to fully support the young person.
To take on a ‘Lead Therapist’ role, which involves coordinating the therapeutic care for all young people in an identified residential home. This requires developing close working relationships with home managers and the residential support teams, working systemically, alongside liaison with education services, social care and other professionals. Ultimately contributing to the delivery of a comprehensive fully integrated therapy service within Meadows Care.
To take on key areas of responsibility in line with the needs of the service, and to provide supervision to assistant psychologists / assistant therapists in the service as required.
To support service improvement and the continued development of the Therapy Service in accordance with the needs of Meadows Care – further developing our therapy and psychology services as Centre’s of Excellence in the field of developmental trauma and attachment.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
1. To provide complex psychological assessment, formulation and therapeutic interventions for young people in Meadows Care.
2. Where appropriate, to provide support to complex cognitive assessments (e.g. WISC-IV) being undertaken in the service
3. To work as Lead Therapist into one or more residential children’s homes, providing psychological support, reflective practice, training, formulation and guidance around the needs of all young people in the home, while overseeing and coordinating the therapeutic care of the young people.
4. To hold an appropriate caseload of young people, co-ordinating therapeutic care and supporting staff teams to meet identified needs for these young people.
5. To attend professionals’ meetings/proceedings as required (e.g. statutory reviews, educational reviews, network/strategy meetings etc.); to present assessments and provide a review of work completed to inform care.
6. To produce comprehensive psychological assessment reports with recommendations to inform therapeutic care plans and interventions going forwards for all young people. Providing further update reports and progress reports as required.
7. To regularly liaise with relevant Home Managers and staff teams regarding assessment, therapeutic interventions and care being provided to the young person, subject to professional boundaries of confidentiality.
8. To provide input into care planning, risk assessments and other routine documentation as required for each young person.
9. To liaise and consult with outside agencies as appropriate for the purposes of assessment and ongoing therapeutic care (e.g. social care, health and education services, families).
10. To work other members of the therapy team and senior managers to support the development of the service and improve therapeutic care, whilst also working to develop the wider therapy service that will appropriately meet the therapeutic and psychological needs of all the young people we support.
11. To provide professional opinion, consultation and develop therapy proposals for potential referrals to Meadows Care.
12. To provide relevant training to staff within Meadows Care or associated organisations, as required, both to the service as a whole and to specific staff teams.
13. To be involved in recruitment and induction of new staff, as appropriate.
14. To undertake any Continued Professional Development activities as are required to maintain and enhance clinical skills necessary for the delivery of high-quality psychological care.
15. To receive Clinical Supervision from an appropriate professional in accordance with the HCPC requirements (or equivalent).
16. To provide Clinical Supervision and line management to Assistant psychologists, Trainee psychologists and Psychological practitioners as appropriate.
17. To be knowledgeable of and to work within the parameters of the Meadows Care policies and procedures. To gain an understanding of Ofsted requirements, Quality Standards for Children’s Homes and other legislation relevant to the role.
18. To be aware of the nature of working within the independent sector, working for a non-statutory organisation and the different challenges and dilemmas that this can entail.
19. To develop key areas of responsibility in line with the needs of Looked After Children in the service
PERSON SPECIFICATION Essential Criteria
1. Live registration (or eligible for immediate registration) with the appropriate professional governing body (e.g. HCPC).
2. Appropriate and accredited training as appropriate for the profession.
3. Experience of working with young people with complex presentations who may be difficult to engage (e.g. CLA, CAMHS, YOT)
4. Training or experience in therapeutic models or approaches relevant for young people
5. Ability to support psychological consultation, reflective practice sessions and collaborative care planning, and facilitate formal and informal specialist training to staff teams and individuals.
6. Ability to apply knowledge of psychological theories to health and social care.
7. Advanced oral and written communication skills including the ability to communicate complex concepts, formulations and sensitive information to young people, carers/families and professionals; additionally, the ability to develop comprehensive and professional psychological assessment reports which outline recommendations for future work.
8. Ability to disseminate assessment findings and formulations to a range of audiences
9.Good organisational skills and ability to work autonomously to manage the competing demands of the role.
10. A commitment to integrate within care teams and work closely with support staff, managers and senior managers.
11. Ability to contribute to statutory reviews and a range of other professional meetings, including at times providing evidence that may be used within family law proceedings.
12. Skills in reflecting upon and evaluating their own practice and measuring outcomes
13. Candidate must have a valid driving licence and have access to a vehicle for transport.
In addition to the above, further experience demonstrating a range of skills in conducting specialist assessments to inform psychological formulation and therapeutic interventions would be desirable.
This is not an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities, and the post holder may be required to undertake other duties following discussion with the appropriate manager or Directors. This job description may be reviewed and revised in line with the needs and development of Meadows Care.
Job Types: Full-time, Permanent
Salary: £41,659.00-£48,526.00 per year
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Company events
- Employee discount
- Free parking
- On-site parking
- Private dental insurance
- Wellness programme
- Work from home
Schedule:
- Monday to Friday
Ability to commute/relocate:
- Birmingham: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)
Licence/Certification:
- 1. 1. Live registration with the appropriate governing body (required)
Work Location: One location
Reference ID: CPfeb23
