Clinical Psychologist Stroke

We would particularly welcome applications from people from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic background and from people with a disability; these groups are currently under-represented at senior level, we value diversity within our Trust and are working to achieve equality in our recruitment.
COVID-19 vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course our patients from the virus when working in our healthcare settings. Whilst COVID-19 vaccination is not a condition of employment at this time, we do encourage our staff to get vaccinated. We will be checking the vaccination status of all new starters so that we can manage individual and environmental risks, and so that we can support those who may be undecided about vaccination. If you are unvaccinated there is helpful advice and information at COVID-19 Vaccination | How to access your vaccine in the Black Country and West Birmingham (blackcountryandwestbirmccg.nhs.uk) where you can also find out more about how to access vaccination. There is a current Government consultation underway which will determine whether some new starters may need to be vaccinated.
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust is proud to be part of the Armed Forces Covenant. The Trust currently holds the Bronze Award which underlines the Trust's commitment to supporting the Armed Forces Community. As an organisation, we are aiming to achieve the next level Silver award, with our sights firmly on Gold.
RESPECT - COMPASSION - TEAMWORK - PROFESSIONALISM, The post holder will work in an out-patient setting as well as the in-patient Stroke Rehabilitation Unit. They will work closely with rehab assistants, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech language therapists, medical staff and social care staff. They will also provide consultancy, teaching and training to other staff, supervision and research skills. Psychology enjoys good working relationships in the multi-disciplinary stroke team and aims to foster good psychological awareness and high standards of practice. The post holder will work alongside the existing Consultant Clinical Psychologist in the Stroke Service. They would be expected to help plan and further develop psychological services in this area.
The post is a preceptorship at band 7 to 8a. The post holder will be supported in developing the necessary knowledge and skills with a view to fulfilling the requirements of the 8a post. A plan will be drawn up with the post holder to facilitate professional development over a period of approximately twenty four months., The post holder will be responsible for providing, specialist comprehensive psychological and neuropsychological assessments (stroke) and programmes of psychological care for individuals who have experienced a stroke and their families. This will include work with people in the in-patient stroke rehabilitation unit and following discharge into the community where appropriate. They will work collaboratively with the other health and social care professionals, third sector staff and non-professional carers. They will help organise and initiate service developments in consultation with the lead psychologist. As well as managing their own patient workload they will be responsible for supervising the psychological work of Assistant Psychologists and other MDT staff. They will work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the Stroke Service's policies and procedures.
Key Responsibilities
Clinical
+ Provide a specialist clinical service to patients and their families who have had a stroke.
+ Develop trusting and empathic relationships with clients and be able to communicate highly emotive information with clarity and sensitivity.
+ Assess and interpret complex clinical situations and information from a variety of sources including, self-report measures, rating scales, structured observations and semi structured interviews with patients, family members and others involved in the patients care.
+ Develop formulations and use psychological models and frameworks to provide patients and their families with specialised programmes of care, based on evidence of efficacy, to aid rehabilitation and help them adjust to and cope emotionally with the often significantly distressing aspects of their condition. This may occur in individual or group settings.
+ Evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
+ Provide assessment and interventions to enable rehabilitation for clients referred from the stroke rehabilitation unit.
+ Carry out neuropsychological assessments where appropriate and communicate findings to the client, family members and other health and social care staff involved.
+ Make recommendations and contribute to the neuropsychological and physical rehabilitation of clients with a stroke.
+ Help facilitate therapeutic groups where needed in collaboration with other psychologists and MDT staff.
+ Participate in multi-disciplinary team meetings and work collaboratively and in an integrated manner with other health professionals e.g. Specialist Nurses, Occupational therapists, Medical Consultants, Physiotherapists, Speech Language Therapists and other NHS and social services staff.
+ Liaise regularly and work collaboratively with the existing psychologist in stroke.
+ Exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
+ To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
+ To carry out and contribute to mental capacity assessments where appropriate in accordance with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
+ Responsible for prioritising work activities according to service and user needs and resources and managing own clinical case load.
+ Responsible for providing specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation on the psychological care of clients to non-psychologist colleagues as appropriate.
+ Responsible for maintaining own competency to practice through continuing professional development and further develop specialist knowledge and skills relevant to the service and clinical psychology.
+ Participate in Professional Development Reviews, line management meetings and peer support.
+ To attend and participate in Stroke and Clinical Health Psychology Team meetings and contribute to clinical governance in these services.
2. Management, Policy and Service Development
+ Work collaboratively within the NHS and multi-agency groups to advance good working relationships with local health, social care, third sector and voluntary staff and service users to ensure integration of initiatives and services
+ Advise both service and professional management on developments to the Stroke Service in consultation with other staff and in line with local and national guidance documents e.g. National Clinical Guidelines For Stroke.
+ Responsible for maintaining satisfactory records of service operation and clinical activity in accordance with agreed protocols, regular auditing service data and ensuring security of confidential data.
+ Adhere to current policies in the Stroke and Clinical Health Psychology Services and all trust policy and procedures related to risk, health and safety and confidentiality of information.
+ Participate in quality improvement projects in Stroke and Clinical Health Psychology in conjunction with the lead Psychologist.
+ To be accountable to the Head of Clinical Health Psychology and the Team Leads for clinical governance e.g. issues of quality, clinical effectiveness and clinical risk.
+ To be managed by the Consultant Clinical Psychologist in consultation with the relevant Team Lead.
Teaching, Training and Supervision
+ Provide leadership and direction on psychological issues in MDTs, in conjunction with the existing psychologist.
+ Receive regular clinical supervision in accordance with good practice guidelines and as expected for all Clinical Psychologists
+ Provide regular supervision for Assistant Psychologists and other MDT staff where appropriate.
+ Provide support to other staff working in challenging circumstances to manage the emotional demands of their clinical roles.
+ Responsible for providing education and training in the psychological aspects of care to empower and enable other health and social care staff to achieve the highest standards of psychosocial care, under the guidance of a more senior psychologist.
+ Take appropriate care of trust equipment and resources used in the course of work.
+ Undertake all trust mandatory training requirements.
4. Research and Development
+ Utilise research skills for audit and service evaluation as well as clinically relevant research.
+ Disseminate results through presenting at case discussions, workshops, and conferences and/or through publication.
+ Supervise the psychologically related research of trainees, assistants and other health professionals.
+ Consider theory, evidence based literature and research to support evidence based practise in individual work and work with other team members.
+ Examine and study new ways of working or transferring existing practical and theoretical models of work from one context to another.
5. Information Technology
Skilled at use of information technology systems to support service related work e.g. word processing and use of databases.
+ Uses information technology systems to support formal and informal research activities: developing databases, collecting, collating and entering data and statistical analysis.
Please note your application will be transferred from the NHS Jobs system to internal Walsall Healthcare Trac System. All correspondence will be sent via Trac
Following our recent CQC visit the Trust was rated as outstanding for care and this has been recognised by NHS Improvement.

• Please Note that this post may be identified as suitable and a preference given for Internal at Risk Employees

We would particularly welcome applications from people from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic background and from people with a disability; these groups are currently under-represented at senior level, we value diversity within our Trust and are working to achieve equality in our recruitment.
IMPORTANT NOTE ON COMPLETION OF REFERENCE SECTION OF APPLICATION FORM
References from current and previous employers will be sought and must cover a minimum of 3 years employment. When completing the reference section of your application form, please give the address, telephone number and work email address of each of your current/previous line managers that cover this period. Failure to complete this section may result in your application not being processed.
Please review the attached Job description and person specification carefully before applying to ensure that you meet the essential job requirements.
Candidates should be aware that, regardless of country of origin, their ability to communicate in written and spoken English to the standard required to carry out the post, will be assessed during the selection process.
Referee email addresses should be provided on your application form.
Following the closing date, if you have not heard from us within 6 weeks you may assume your application has been unsuccessful.
We reserve the right to close this job early. Interested applicants are therefore advised to apply as early as possible.
If a large number of applicants meet the essential criteria then random selection will be applied.
We are committed to operating flexible working practices wherever possible and committed to equal opportunities.

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust provides integrated acute and community Healthcare in the West Midlands serving a population of 260,000 residents. Walsall Manor Hospital houses the full range of district general hospital services. The £170 million development was completed in 2010 and we are continually upgrading. Construction of the new integrated critical care unit was completed in 2018, extension of a Neonatal Unit and an approved plan to build a brand new, state of the art Emergency Department which commenced in 2021
We provide high quality, friendly and effective community health services from multiple sites covering Walsall. Our multidisciplinary services include rapid response and homebased care, so that those with long term conditions and the frail elderly can remain in their own homes.
We are recommended by colleagues as a place to work which is supported by the trusts values to work as part of a team, being respectful, compassionate and professional. We are committed to investing in our workforce
Following our recent CQC visit the Trust was rated as outstanding for care and this has been recognised by NHS Improvement.
The work we do is highly rewarding, and in addition to an attractive salary, we offer a valuable range of benefits, including: salary sacrifice scheme; car leasing scheme; on-site staff accommodation (subject to availability); the ability to retain your NHS pension (where applicable) or the opportunity to join an alternative scheme; and the opportunity to develop and implement your expertise in an encouraging yet challenging environment