Practitioner Psychologist inLondon inLondon PUBLISHED THU 16 JAN 2025

Job Overview

The Psycho-oncology team at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (ICHT) is seeking to appoint a highly motivated candidate to the position of Specialist Practitioner Psychologist / Psychotherapist within cancer services. The post has been developed to deliver a high quality psychology service to patients with cancer across all sectors of cancer care at ICHT through the provision of psychological support for patients, their family / carers and staff. It is expected that the post holder will offer teaching, training, group facilitation and consultation to the MDT alongside psychological assessment and therapy. The post holder will support the cancer lead but work autonomously within HCPC / UKCP professional guidelines and within the policies and procedures of the service. The post holder will be expected to utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and to support research within the service. The post holder will enable staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.

Main duties of the job

• To provide a specialist psychology service to patients with cancer across all sectors of cancer care at ICHT through the provision of psychological support for patients, family / carers and staff as require
• 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 and consultation as appropriate
• To undertake service evaluation, audit and research
• To work as an autonomous professional within BPS and HCPC guidelines and codes of conduct, and guided by the policies and procedures of the service, taking responsibility for own work including treatment and discharge decisions with support of clinical supervisor
  
  

Working for our organisation

As an Assistant Psychologist working within the Imperial Psycho-oncology team the post holder will be a member of the wider Clinical Health Psychology Department, in which regular professional meetings are held and CPD provided. The post holder will also receive supervision from a senior Psychological Practitioner. All psychologists in the Clinical Health Psychology department are employed by Central North West London NHS Foundation Trust and have Approved Associate status with ICHT.

Our catchment area spans diverse communities, with over 100 first languages spoken. It contains areas of great affluence as well as areas of much deprivation. We are committed to providing services that meet the needs of the people who use them, and we actively encourage involvement from local people who can help make a difference. We're proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BAME and people with disabilities to promote good relations and understanding between our staff.

The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

Clinical and Client Care

• To provide specialist psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for patients with cancer across all sectors of cancer care at ICHT
• 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 act as liaison on the patient pathway, between the acute hospital, primary care and community services as necessary for the psychological well-being of the patient
  
  

Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

• To contribute to the effective working of the Psycho-oncology service and to a psychologically informed framework for the service.
• To contribute to the team’s delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
• To be proactive in challenging discrimination and supporting the development of culturally competent services.
  
  

Policy and service development

• To implement policies and procedures in own area of work, and to propose improvements or beneficial changes.
• To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.
• To contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.
  
  

Care or management of resources

• 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.
  
  

Management and supervision

• To be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of an assistant psychologist if required, under supervision from a more senior psychologist.
• To supervise trainee applied psychologists within own area of specialism after completion of the relevant Training Course’s Supervision Training.
  
  

Teaching and Training

• To provide occasional specialist training in psychological approaches to care to other professions as appropriate.
• To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.
  
  

Record-keeping and Information Governance

• To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.
• To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.
  
  

Research and development

• To undertake regular complex service evaluation, audits or research relevant to service needs.
  
  

Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

• To receive re