Band 8A Sequoia MBT Lead - Callington Road Hospital, Bristol

Main area: Clinical Psychologist, Psychological Practitioner
Grade: NHS AfC: Band 8a
Contract: Fixed term: 10 months (Secondment) - There may be capacity to extend to 12 months if you do 2 days a week)
Hours: Part time - 18.75 hours per week (We may accept less that 18.75 hours)
Job ref: 342-BR234-0923

Site: Callington Road Hospital
Town: Bristol
Salary: £50,952 - £57,349 per annum pro rata
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 26/09/2023 23:59
Interview date: 04/10/2023

Job overview

Sequoia is a brand new service that is co-produced with people with lived experience and co-delivered with our partner agency Rethink. Sequoia provides primary care level interventions for people with complex emotional needs.

The service covers the whole of Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. Interventions are delivered both online and in person. More information on the service is contained in the service summary attached.

We are looking for an experienced mental health professional and welcome applications from any of the registered professions. We value diversity and lived experience. Our service will represent the people that we serve. This post is specifically to lead on the MBT offer within Sequoia. You will be skilled in MBT, both group and individual, you will have experience of setting up services. You will be forward thinking and want to do things differently.

We can offer up to 2.5 days and between 10-12 months contract. You will work in a hybrid way between home and locations within our communities. We can offer good quality supervision both within AWP and from external MBT experts.

Main duties of the job

You will design and deliver MBT in a short format. You will setup care pathways and referral routes. You will review referrals and facilitate groups. You will use a test and learn approach to evaluate and improve the MBT offer over the course of the 12 months. You will supervise other staff in Sequoia. You will be comfortable with technology and able to deliver interventions online.

You will also contribute to the day to day running of Sequoia in general. You will be collaborating with Rethink staff to deliver the service as one team.

By the end of the contract you will have setup several MBT groups both online and in person. These groups will then be continued to be overseen by our MBT senior specialist band 7.

Working for our organisation

We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust): a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care.

We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.

Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical Responsibilities:
1. As a member of the AWP BNSSG Sequoia Tree Service, the post holder will provide a high quality service to people suffering from complex mental health problems, in particular people with complex emotional needs (CEN) associated with the diagnosis of Personality Disorder, such as attachment, interpersonal difficulties and emotional intensity. This will include highly specialist assessment to determine the most appropriate treatment.

2. To offer a highly specialist and entirely autonomous systemic complex psychological intervention service as a designated lead in MBT.

3. The post-holder will work closely with both internal and external stakeholders in the ongoing development of the service.

4. The delivery of group and individual treatments. The caseload will include people with significant complexity and risk.

5. Provide specialist clinical supervision and consultancy within the MBT Sequoia offer and for mental health professionals more broadly working with people with CEN as required. This will cover problem assessment, formulation, and therapy interventions.

6. To participate in clinical supervision and caseload supervision arrangements provided by Sequoia.

7. To provide an advanced and specialist treatment role in the sector, using appropriate specialist interventions with patients presenting with complex needs, including (but not exclusively) provision of MBT.

8. To provide an advanced and specialist psychological assessment (including risk assessment) and treatment service to service-users in the sector.

Professional:
1. Comply with their profession’s regulatory requirements, ethics and code of conduct.

2. Work within AWP’s policies to manage care pathways and risk.

3. Work within AWP’s procedures for Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults.

4. To participate in Sequoia business and professional meetings where agreed.

5. Participate in regular clinical supervision both giving and receiving.

6. To provide management supervision to band 7 Sequoia staff, as well as other staff in Sequoia, including both AWP and Rethink staff.

7. To maintain and further develop high standards of Sequoia practice, through co-operative work with other Sequoia members and peer supervision, as well as linking in with wider AWP and key stakeholders.

8. Demonstrate in clinical practice their respect for the experience of the people accessing our service.

9. Contribute towards the local clinical framework e.g. care programme approach (CPA), including taking on care coordination responsibilities as needed.

Clinical Administrative Responsibilities:
1. To support the Clinical Lead of Sequoia in the development and implementation of effective Clinical Governance across the Sequoia service.

2. Keep appropriate electronic records of clinical interventions.

3. Provide appropriate data reporting on clinical activity.

4. To support and participate in multidisciplinary clinical audit in the service.

5. To promote the use of effective interventions in the service.

6. Complete clinical administrative responsibilities needed for the appropriate clinical frameworks e.g. CP

Training/Education:
1. Provide training around working with people with CEN to a range of mental health professionals from a range of backgrounds (including experienced clinicians as well as unqualified staff). Provide training to professionals from other agencies as requested (e.g. housing). Lead on the MBT aspects of this training.

2. To supervise trainees, staff and associate Sequoia workers, including VCSE partner staff in providing group and individual assessment and therapy.

3. Contribute to the learning and skills development of pre and post registration/qualification students, trainees, novice practitioners and new team members.

4. Maintain awareness of relevant developments in MBT and in thinking about working with people with CEN, including research, theory and best practice guidelines. Dissemination to clinical and
management colleagues as needed.

5. The post-holder will lead on the evaluation of MBT aspects of the service. This will include agreeing and using appropriate outcome measures, data input and analysis with appropriate supervision.

6. Keep up to date with statutory and mandatory training and maintain appropriate continuing professional development activities.

7. To agree a plan for personal development with the Sequoia manager and participate in an annual review.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Degree and Masters level qualification, or equivalent experience
Registered mental health professional or Doctoral Clinical/ Counselling Psychology qualification, qualification as a Psychotherapist or Arts Psychotherapist at an accredited training institution or equivalent professional qualification.
HCPC Registration, professional registration as an adult Psychotherapist, Arts Psychotherapist or Clinical Psychologist with UKCP, or other relevant body.
Post qualification specialist training in MBT. Completion of the MBT 3 day Post Graduate Introductory training in MBT and working towards MBT practitioner status

Experience

Essential criteria

Substantial Experience of delivering MBT to people with Complex Mental Health Difficulties.
Substantial experience of working alongside multidisciplinary colleagues
Clinical supervision/ consultation with other professionals.
Experience of working with other staff to develop skills in working with people with Complex Emotional needs and/or Personality Disorder
Evidence based highly specialist therapeutic interventions with client group and in particular people who might attract the diagnosis of Personality Disorder.
Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge in working with people with a personality disorder diagnosis. Ability to use this knowledge to think systemically/organisationally
Experience of risk assessment and management
Experience of delivery of training
Service development/project work

Desirable criteria

Experience of working with a diverse population and the ability to consider issues of diversity, accessibility and equality of access to services.
Completion of Relevant postgraduate training in working with people with a diagnosis of Personality Disorder and/or Complex Emotional Needs.
Experience of service Development or Leadership in an NHS context.
Relevant R&D or clinical audit work post qualification

Skills

Essential criteria

Ability to work effectively and flexibly as an integral member of a team.
Excellent communication and liaison skills.
Well organised with good administration skills.
Empathy/engagement skills with the client group.
Well developed IT skills
Ability to provide interventions online
Experience of running therapeutic groups

We are proud to be fostering a diverse workforce that reflects our communities. A key commitment to this is improving staff representation from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, those from the LGBTQ+ communities, people with ‘lived-experience’ of mental health conditions and people living with disabilities,– we are a ‘Disability Confident Employer’ offering a guaranteed interview to Disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria.

We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service users.

Please apply to join us, we would love to hear from you. Any personal details you supply to us are kept safe in line with the General Data Protection Regulations.

Adverts normally close for application a few minutes before midnight on the closing date and we will let you know if we are offering you an interview by email via our recruitment system ‘TRAC’. We contact all applicants within 4 weeks after the closing date, so please check your emails regularly once you have submitted your application; you are welcome to contact us, via the TRAC system, if you have any queries about your application.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

Further details / informal visits contact

Name: Peter Spavin
Job title: Sequoia Clinical Lead
Email address: peter.spavin@nhs.net
Telephone number: 07738264062
Additional information: We welcome candidates getting in touch prior to the interview.

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