Principal Practitioner Psychologist (BC) London
Job description
We are looking for an enthusiastic, creative and flexible Principal Practitioner Psychologist to become part of and lead a new psychology team within the Major Trauma Centre (MTC) at King’s College Hospital (KCH). This unique opportunity has come about as a result of an innovative and exciting programme of work within London’s 4 MTCs that has been supported by funding from the NHS London Violence Reduction Programme in collaboration with Specialised Commissioning.
The initial stage of the 2 year programme is to pilot the model of integrated psychological care to provide proof of concept and evidence of its value; with additional funding having been allocated to support routine data collection in order to evaluate the success and impact of the pilot. The overall objective is to develop and provide a comprehensive integrated model of care for major trauma patients that ensures equity of high quality physical and psychological trauma care in London’s MTCs which can be stepped up when a major incident (MI) occurs.
The successful post holder will support the operationalisation and delivery of an integrated model of psychological care for survivors of major trauma at KCH. The post holder will also work with counterparts in other MTCs to ensure that there is an equitable system across London, including during and post MI. Established support structures for the post are in place within KCH with additional support coming from the regional psychology clinical lead for major trauma.
To provide overall clinical, operational and professional leadership for the MTC psychology team, functioning as a lead specialist in relation to psychological aspects of patient care.
To take a lead role in the development, co-ordination and systematic provision of proactive comprehensive and specialist psychological care for patients, family members and carers and to personally provide highly specialist clinical input.
To build connections and work with other MTC Psychology Leads and senior colleagues within the regional network and contribute to strategic decisions when MTCs need to respond and step-up clinical services as a result of a Major Incident.
To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.
To provide clinical supervision, consultation and leadership as appropriate, functioning as a lead specialist in the psychological aspects of the care and treatment of MTC patients and in clinical health psychology.
To ensure that systems are in place and working effectively for the clinical and professional supervision and support of the MTC psychology team and other members of the adult clinical health psychology workforce.
To lead on service evaluation and improvement, audit, research, policy development and business case sustainability plans to ensure a psychologically informed framework of care for all patients under the care of the MTC.
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s largest and busiest teaching Trusts with a turnover of c£1 billion, 1.5 million patient contacts a year and around 14,000 staff based across 5 main sites in South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local hospital services across its different sites, and specialist services from King’s College Hospital (KCH) sites at Denmark Hill in Camberwell and at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) site in Bromley.
King’s is committed to delivering Sustainable Healthcare for All via our Green Plan. In line with national Greener NHS ambitions, we have set net zero carbon targets of 2040 for our NHS Carbon Footprint and 2045 for our NHS Carbon Footprint Plus. Everyone’s contribution is required in order to meet the goals set out in our Green Plan and we encourage all staff to work responsibly, minimising their contributions to the Trust’s carbon emissions, waste and pollution wherever possible.
The trust-wide strategy Strong Roots, Global Reach is our Vision to be BOLD, Brilliant people, Outstanding care, Leaders in Research, Innovation and Education, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at the heart of everything we do. By being person-centred, digitally-enabled, and focused on sustainability, we can take Team King’s to another level.
Key Responsibilities:
KR 1 Clinical and Client Care
- To lead, develop, co-ordinate and ensure the systematic provision of proactive, comprehensive and specialist psychological care for patients, family members and carers within the MTC and to personally provide highly specialist clinical input.
- To provide highly specialist psychological assessments, clinical formulations and interventions to MTC patients with psychological needs at levels expected of a psychologist who has achieved the equivalent of a PG Diploma-worth of post-qualification specialist development.
- To take a lead in the proactive development and strengthening of post-discharge care pathways; including those within statutory and third sector partner organisations.
- To build connections and work with other MTC Psychology Leads and senior colleagues within the regional network and contribute to strategic decisions when MTCs need to respond and step-up clinical services as a result of a Major Incident.
- To work flexibly, including providing psychological input to the major trauma MDT, provision of outpatient clinics and reviews, where appropriate.
- To provide psychological support to clients who are emotionally distressed, due to the serious consequences of their medical condition, and/or to other traumatic events in their lives.
- To communicate skilfully and sensitively, highly complex and sensitive information with patients, carers, colleagues in the multi-disciplinary team and other health professionals, taking account of sensory and cultural barriers to communication.
- To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families of referred patients when required.
- To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
- To co-ordinate (and chair) multi-disciplinary meetings to ensure effective functioning and review of complex aspects of patient care and service delivery, when appropriate.
- To contribute to the effective working of the MTC psychology service and to take a lead in ensuring a psychologically informed framework for the wider service.
- To take a lead in developing the MTC psychology team’s delivery of accessible, acceptable and high-quality services for patients who have complex needs.
- To take an active lead in the development of staff wellbeing initiatives and to work collaboratively with staff wellbeing colleagues to promote their services.
- To take a lead in ensuring the team’s ability to deliver accessible and acceptable services in diverse communities served by the MTC and to be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.
- To participate in clinical governance initiatives as agreed by the local clinical governance committee and to act as clinical governance link worker, if appropriate.
- To advise other members of the MTC on specialist psychological care of clients.
- To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.
- To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
- To implement policies and procedures in own area of work.
- To identify any aspects of the service which could be improved and propose changes to practices or procedures that affect the MTC psychology team and, where appropriate, to disseminate such changes and improvements to the wider clinical health psychology workforce to inspire and support improvement in other clinical services.
- To initiate and implement service development projects, as agreed with clinical/professional lead.
- To participate in the ongoing implementation of new initiatives (e.g. national guidelines) across the MTC psychology team and the adult and paediatric clinical health psychology speciality.
- To lead the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of the organisation and the wider community.
- To take care of, and use carefully, the Trust’s equipment and physical resources.
- To ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.
- To provide clinical leadership and line management to more junior psychologists and other professionals, as appropriate.
- To be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of more junior psychologists.
- To deputise when appropriate for the Head of Adult Clinical Health Psychology at KCH
- To supervise trainee applied psychologists within own area of specialism.
- To contribute to the appraisal of more junior psychologists, as appropriate.
- To contribute to the recruitment of more junior psychologists, as appropriate.
- To attend regular meetings with the regional psychology clinical lead for major trauma lead and with the psychology leads from the other MTCs.
- To help to develop appropriate strategies to ensure the sustainability and consistency of the workforce delivering specialist major trauma mental health and psychological care interventions and support
- To provide highly specialist psychological consultation and professional and clinical supervision to colleagues and others.
- To plan projects and work schedules for groups of psychologists.
- To undertake occasional teaching and training of pre and post- qualification psychologists and specialised training in psychological approaches to care to other professions as appropriate.
- To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base of the major trauma psychology team and wider trust by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychology and major trauma and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.
- To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.
