Practitioner Psychologist

Senior Psychologist

Band 8a / Band 7 Development Post

Inpatient Services for people with Intellectual Disabilities, Brooklands Hospital, Marston Green, Birmingham

Part-time 0.7wte

Do you enjoy working creatively?

Are you passionate about making a difference to people’s lives?

Do you enjoy working as part of a supportive multi-disciplinary team?

We have an opportunity for a HCPC registered practitioner psychologist to join the team working within the inpatient learning disability services at Brooklands. The post is advertised at band 8a, but we are able to accept applications from newly qualifying / soon to qualify psychologists seeking a band 7-8a development post.

Psychologists in the services are fully integrated within collaborative multi-disciplinary teams, whilst also working closely with other psychologists on service development projects, to deliver training and develop groups and other interventions. The contribution of psychological services is highly valued within the teams and service management, and the team are often involved in developing innovative solutions to service needs.

Ideally applicants will have experience of working with people with Intellectual Disabilities in community or inpatient settings. However, we would welcome applications from individuals with experience in other settings who are interested in working in this area and can demonstrate commitment to this client group.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will use the whole range of their psychological skills and experience. This will include clinical input in the form of assessments, individual and group therapies, team formulation, reflective practice and supporting other staff to undertake psychological interventions. They will also be involved in providing training and supervision to others, and contributing to and leading on service development projects and undertaking audit and research.

Working for your organisation

The service is part of a wider Psychological Services team at Brooklands. The psychology department is a well-established and supportive service. Successful applicants will receive support to further develop their skills and knowledge, through good quality supervision and training opportunities.

Positive Behavioural Support is a major part of our treatment philosophy. The service ethos is to ensure that effective, evidence-based interventions are provided to people who present considerable risk to themselves or others, to ensure they can return to a less restrictive environment in the community as soon as possible.

The service has strong links with local clinical psychology training courses and regularly provides placements for trainee clinical psychologists, supervision for research, and teaching on the local courses. There are also strong links with Community Learning Disability and Intensive Support teams across Coventry, Warwickshire and Solihull.

At Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust (CWPT), we deliver a wide range of physical, mental health, learning disability and autism services, and are proud to serve communities across Coventry, Warwickshire and beyond.

We put ‘people at our heart’; this ethos is at the centre of everything we do and how we do it. We care for our staff and colleagues as much as they care for others and offer a wide range of benefits and development opportunities.

generous annual leave entitlement which increases during your time with us

excellent learning and development opportunities, including apprenticeship frameworks, distance learning, internal training, coaching and mentoring, and much more

salary sacrifice schemes for lease car/ vehicle, Cycle to Work, home and electronics, gym membership and more

discounts with a range of retailers, restaurants and entertainment venues through our Employee Assistance Programme and NHS discount schemes

wellbeing support, including an in-house counselling service, external helpline and more

staff networks and support group

We’re always on the lookout for people who share our passion for improving the lives and wellbeing of people in our community, as well as our values of compassion, collaboration, excellence, integrity and respect.

For full details of the role, please see the Job Descriptions and Person Specifications.

If you do not yet meet the criteria for the band 8a role, we will also support applications from candidates that meet the criteria for the band 7 role and job description (please see “additional documents” on NHS Jobs).

In these instances, the successful candidate would be appointed to a “Development Post” role at band 7 and provided opportunities and support to progress to the band 8a role upon successful completion of a preceptorship programme. It is expected that this process will be achievable within a period of up to two years, although timescales may vary between different staff members in Development Posts. In the event that elements of the expected competencies to progress to 8a are not fully met, the role will remain as a band 7.

This will be further discussed as part of the interview and recruitment process as appropriate. Applications from newly qualified/soon to qualify clinicians would therefore be welcomed.