Band 8d BNSSG Divisional Head of Therapies - Bristol

Main area: Psychological Therapist
Grade: Band 8d
Contract: Secondment: 12 months (Fixed Term)
Hours: Part time - 15 hours per week
Job ref: 342-BR248-0923

Site: Callington Road
Town: Bristol
Salary: £83,571 - £96,376 per annum pro rata
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 03/10/2023 23:59

Job overview

BNSSG 8d Divisional Head of Psychological Therapies (secondment) 0.4

This is an exciting 1 year secondment opportunity for a very experienced psychological professional to lead the transformation of AWP psychological therapy services. You will work with locality leads and a wide range of external partners to scope the provision of existing services and develop proposals to improve people’s access to evidence based psychological interventions across BNSSG.

For more information please get in touch with BNSSG’s Community Mental Health Programme Director, Victoria Bleazard, on Victoria.Bleazard@nhs.net or Dr Eva Dietrich, BNSSG Clinical Director on Eva.Dietrich@nhs.net

Main duties of the job

This key leadership post in AWP gives a senior experienced psychological professional the opportunity to shape the future provision of psychological services both in AWP and across the BNSSG system.

This post will lead the scoping of the provision of NICE recommended psychological therapies and psychologically informed interventions across the BNSSG division (community and inpatient) for people with serious mental health problems.

You will work with similar leadership roles in the third sector and local IAPT services to develop a model to improve access to evidence based psychological interventions/ therapies across the footprint of BNSSG for service users with serious mental illness and complex mental health needs.

You will work collaboratively with system partners to develop a more standardised and equitable model for the provision of psychological therapies/ interventions, including expansion of supervision capacity. In particular you will focus on AWP provision across the BNSSG division.

You will lead the co-ordination of NHSE funded training programmes in BNSSG including demand scoping and training place allocation, excluding Personality Disorder Training

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

LEADERSHIP AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT

To provide professional leadership to the Divisional Therapies Services, ensuring that everyone receives support, supervision, annual appraisals and a development plan which ensures on-going service development that fits the needs and priorities of each sector.

To work with the Clinical Director, locality Clinical Leads and Heads of Therapy to ensure good governance of these services.

To strategically lead the planning and development of BSW Therapy Services working with other senior managers and Clinicians to ensure that these services meet the ambitions of the 10 year plan.

To work with system partners to ensure a whole system approach to the provision of therapeutic interventions, training, supervision, clinical outcomes and service evaluation.

To liaise with the Clinical Director, Division and Locality Managers/ Leads to ensure that an appropriate range of services and interventions are provided by psychological therapists within community teams and inpatient services, including IAPT.

To take a lead role in service/business development and performance and clinical outcome monitoring of therapy services across BSW. This includes horizon scanning for new service development opportunities which support the Divisional Business Plan, especially those working with system partners and Primary Care.

To identify gaps in service provision and also to seek opportunities for the development of Therapy Services in the BSW Division within defined frameworks.

To lead the redesign of therapy services across BSW division and work with the locality managers and leaders to redesign services promoting the development of services in line with national guidance. This includes ensuring that therapy services are integrated across care pathways so that interventions can be provided where the person is in their care.

To be a source of clinical expertise to managers, professional colleagues and leaders within the Trust and across the BSW system on both public and internal matters.

To deal with complaints and disciplinary matters in liaison with other managers and professional leads both within and outside of Therapies, especially those of a particularly complex nature.

To support the negotiation of innovative, integrated ways of working with system partners to ensure service developments in the area of therapies are driven by population need.

To convene and chair regular therapy meetings in the Division and across the BSW System to improve integration, monitor performance and outcome measures, share learning from experience and coordinate integrated approaches to quality improvement.

To establish a framework for effective management of therapy staff in the Division.

To ensure that Trust Health and Safety Regulations are adopted within the Therapy Services.

To identify appropriate staffing levels and skill mix for Psychological Therapies, drawing on advice from relevant colleagues as required and promoting innovation.

To promote the Trust in professional networks and to ensure that other Therapy staff do likewise in specific situations relevant to their posts and responsibilities.

To manage senior clinical staff in divisional roles e.g. Personality Disorder Lead.

To participate in the Senior Out of Hours on call Rota.

CLINICAL (Note therapy covers Psychology, CBT/ IAPT, Arts Psychotherapy , Psychotherapy, Family Therapy Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Dietetics )

To provide a highly developed, evidence based clinical care comprising assessment, formulation and therapy, consultation and teaching and supervision. This should account for 0.2 WTE of the role.

To formulate plans for the treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems based upon an appropriate conceptual framework, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.

To be responsible for implementing a range of therapeutic interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

To make highly skilled evaluations and 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.

To be responsible for ensuring that all members of the therapy services have access to a psychologically based framework for the understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of expert knowledge, research and theory.

To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, complex information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care to clients, carers, relatives and other staff and respond appropriately in situations where there is hostility or a highly charged emotional atmosphere.

To receive appropriate Clinical and Caseload supervision for all aspects of clinical work.

To fully implement the Integrated Care Programme Approach in all aspects of clinical work.

To carry a small highly complex caseload.

PROFESSIONAL

To fully observe relevant Professional Practice Guidelines.

To work with Professional Leads to maintain and further develop high standards of practice, through co-operative work and peer supervision with other Therapy staff within and outside the Trust.

To be aware of and adhere to Trust policies and procedures.

CLINICAL AND PRACTICE GOVERNANCE

To support the AWP Head of Psychological Therapies/ the AHP Lead in the development and implementation of effective Clinical Governance across the Therapy Services.

To participate in Quality and Clinical Governance processes in the Division and across the Trust.

To strategically lead on the following on behalf of the Division across all services

Quality Improvement

Innovation and care pathway/service model transformation and/or advancement

Research and Audit

To Lead on Service evaluation including measurement of outcomes expected as part of the 10 year Plan

Reporting to commissioners and partners within the BSW ICS/ICSs , NHSE and Local Authorities as required

The implementation, embedding and monitoring of clinical outcome measures of PROMS, PREMS and Co-Production across all services

To lead and assure on the delivery of effective, evidence-based therapy and therapeutic interventions (e.g. as recommended by NICE) across services in the division and across the BSW system.

TRAINING AND STAFF DEVELOPMENT

To provide advanced training for specialist practitioners within the Trust and to related agencies where agreed.

To promote the Trust by developing a specialist profile through publications, national and international conference presentations and the provision of specialist training to various groups nationally.

With the, Professional leads, Managers and the Learning & Development Team, to ensure a training plan is in place to meet the needs of Therapy staff and others including system partners.

To work with the professional lead to ensure that all psychological therapists in the Area have an on-going training plan with annual appraisals based on the KSF.

To agree a plan for personal development with the SBU Head of Psychological Therapies and professional lead and participate in an Annual Review.

To support the development of training and supervision mechanisms to train a range of other professional groups in the delivery of psychological interventions as dictated by the SBU redesign project.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

To support, facilitate and supervise R&D activities by Therapy staff.

To undertake research in topic areas relevant to the work of the service and to initiate and implement project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within and across the service to help develop and improve services to service users and their families.

To work with the R&D department to promote opportunities for participation in research activities on behalf of the Division

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND RESOURCES

To use IT equipment to delivery services, prepare reports, for teaching presentations, to record activity data and for the analysis of data from research and audit.

To maintain skills in IT, updating where necessary, in order to carry out the tasks in 2 above effectively.

COMMUNICATIONS AND KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS

To be responsible for establishing good working relationships and communications with Therapy staff, staff from other professions, and other agencies.

To establish effective working relationships in the Area and across the Division
Divisional Directors and the Operations Directorate
Locality Managers, Clinical Leads and Therapy Managers
All relevant partners in the BSW ICA/ICSs and Local Authorities
Users/Carers Representatives
Police, Probation Service
Corporate Trust Services: NQD, Medical Directorate, HR, Finance, etc

Person specification

Education & Qualification

Essential criteria

Specialist therapy qualification e.g. Doctorate in Clinical Psychology.
Registered with the HCPC
Advanced Specialist clinical qualification in addition to core professional training
Management/Leadership training
Substantial relevant post qualification experience.

Desirable criteria

Experience of working in Third Sector organisations

Skills

Essential criteria

Excellent communication and inter-personal skills in highly complex situations.
Well organised with good administration skills.
Excellent relational/engagement skills with the client group who present severe and complex mental health problems.
High level of emotional maturity. Ability to tolerate, reflect upon and transform highly traumatic material and hostile behaviour.
Ability to cope with extreme workload pressure/prioritise workload.
Effective negotiation/mediation skills.
Planning and writing business case documents skills.
Flexible presentation skills appropriate to setting.

Desirable criteria

Advanced presentation skills
Familiarity with population health management tools

Experience and Knowledge

Essential criteria

Expert knowledge of specialist therapeutic interventions. Extensive Experience with the client group
Expert assessment and formulation skills. Expert in complex assessments of own patients and also expert opinions to other agencies, including contested opinions
Comprehensive experience of NHS management processes/systems.
Comprehensive knowledge of commissioning arrangements and system working
Familiarity and experience of working with all aspects of clinical governance.
Publications in specialist area
Awareness of key strategic health and care developments and implications for therapy services.
Successful delivery of service evaluation, quality improvement methodologies.
Experience of working in a wide range of relevant clinical settings including secondary care and primary care
Consultancy work in multi-professional settings and with partners
Significant R&D work in specialist area
Clinical audit work in specialist area.
Strategic approach to coordinating teaching/training with own staff group and other professions.
Advanced expertise delivery of clinical supervision with all grades of staff and with other professions. Strategic thinking to coordination of supervision across workforce.
Advanced consultancy skills to other professions/ agencies
Management of therapy staff or other professions.
Experience of strategic service development/ project /transformation work.
Work with Commissioners, including performance, activity and outcomes and case for change.

Desirable criteria

National profile in specialty. Role and links nationally (DoH, Academic links, senior role in national organisations).

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: Claire Williamson
Job title: Trust Head of Psychological Therapies
Email address: claire.williamson2@nhs.net
Additional information: For more information please get in touch with BNSSG’s Community Mental Health Programme Director, Victoria Bleazard, on Victoria.Bleazard@nhs.net or Dr Eva Dietrich, BNSSG Clinical Director on Eva.Dietrich@nhs.net

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