Overview
Contract Type: 0
Salary: £59,798 – £67,020 inclusive of 5% Fringe HCAS, per annum, pro rata
Partner Org: Surrey and Borders Foundation Trust Partnership
Job overview
This is a NHS role, within Mindworks led by Surrey and Borders NHS trust. It demonstrates the significant contribution Educational Psychologists (EP) can make (particularly with knowledge and skills regarding social, emotional and mental health, school systems, and consultation) in promoting child and young person emotional wellbeing and mental health.
We are a small group of EPs, linked to Mental Health Support Teams (MHST), and embedded within a School Based Need (SBN) service. We work jointly with a range of Children and Young People Services – Mental Health professionals (e.g. clinical psychologists, play therapists, CBT practitioners) in pursuit of a shared goal around CYP thriving. Our particular focus is around ‘Whole School Approaches,’ which involves work with school leaders on different areas of school functioning (as set out in Public Health England’s Whole School Approach Framework, for example).
Our team’s overall ethos is captured by a focus on outcomes (not outputs), approaches (not just activities), and the idea that if a young person is not thriving we should intervene in their environment first before looking within the individual. Our EPs get monthly supervision, and we meet half termly for a CPD focussed ‘together day’ (last day we looked at shared psychological frameworks and a neighbouring service facilitated a PATH for us; for our next day we’re receiving training from a systemic practitioner on group dynamics relevant to school leadership teams).
Main duties of the job
Innovative work that is preventative, multi-systemic, and at the intersection of health and education.
As a specialist EP you will deliver on three types of work: (1) with schools, (2) within linked MHSTs, and (3) on whole Surrey programmes.
In your school work you will facilitate systemic change by working with school leaders, and in partnership with a range of health and education colleagues. We use a consultation approach and the application of a range of psychological frameworks to understand the needs of, and affect change within, a system. You will build a shared understanding of whole school need, plan and at times deliver activities (inc. training, staff groups), and support the implementation of new practices. This is all in collaboration with health and education colleagues, in pursuit of a shared goal around improving the lived experience of everyone in a school community.
In addition to this work with schools, we provide support to Mental Health Support Teams and their varied mental health professionals. This includes consultation, joint work, training, and contribution to multi- professional meetings. This role comes with the opportunity to work with our MHST which supports Surrey Specialist Schools.
EPs working within Mindworks also collaborate with Local Authority partners on whole county training and implementation (e.g. Attachment Aware and Trauma Informed Schools), Senior Mental Health Lead supervision, and Team Around the School work.
Working for our organisation
Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is the leading provider of mental health, learning disability, neurodevelopmental and drug and alcohol services in Surrey and North East Hampshire. We support people of all ages and are passionate about providing high quality care that is delivered at the right time as close to home as possible to help people recover and stay well.
We are one of the top 10 mental Health, Learning Disability and Community Trust to work for nationwide. Our Trust is an inclusive and supportive employer that offers a wide range of staff networks, flexible working, free parking and excellent health and wellbeing support. We also provide a wide range of opportunities to help staff develop and progress.
Surrey is a beautiful county lying just 30 minutes away from Central London and from the South Coast. Our historic market towns and bustling districts are enveloped in wonderful countryside, and our excellent road and rail networks bring the rest of the country within easy reach. For international travel, both Gatwick and Heathrow airports are nearby.
Please note that we reserve the right to close posts as soon as sufficient applications are received.
Regrettably, due to UK Home Office requirements we cannot offer sponsorship for all our job roles.
Applicants must have the right to work in the UK for the duration of the role.
We look forward to receiving your application!
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see the attached job description.
The teams work as part of 3 geographical hubs (North, South and East) with clinic bases across Surrey in Chertsey, Frimley, Godalming, Guildford, Leatherhead and Redhill.
Please contact us for any questions relating to the role. This could be to discuss flexible working requests, transferable skills or any barriers to employment.
When your employment begins, you will need to be a member of HCPC. An enhanced DBS ‘Disclosure and Barring Service’ check for regulated activity (formerly known as CRB) and the Children’s and Adults’ Barred List checks will be required for this role.
For an informal discussion about this opportunity please contact Dr Dave Damon.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Doctorate in Clinical, Counselling or Educational Psychology qualification or equivalent
- Completion of an appropriate clinical supervision course to enable supervision of trainees (or completion within 12 months of commencement in post)
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of working with people from across different developmental stages with a range of mental health issues and cognitive profiles.
- Experience across a range of psychological models including systemic, behavioural and individual therapeutic
- Demonstrable post registration/clinical experience and competency relevant to this care group
- Experience of contributing to clinical practice/service development / project work.
- Experience of supervising assistant and trainee practitioner psychologists
- Demonstrable interest/skill in a relevant specialist area.
We are seeking to enrich the diversity of our Trust to better reflect demographic needs of the populations we serve and to enhance the skills of our workforce. We actively encourage applicants with underrepresented personal characteristics to apply for this role if you match the job description. Please note that you are not restricted from applying for this role if you do not identify with these characteristics and all applicants will be considered fairly against the job description.
As a flexible working and friendly organisation, we want to ensure that you can work in a way that is best for us, our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s job share, part time or any other flexible working patterns.
Gender Pay Gap Action
Women in our Trust are under-represented in some senior grades. We are therefore encouraging women to apply for posts at 8A and above.
Sponsorship
Regrettably, due to UK Home Office requirements we cannot offer sponsorship for all our job roles. If you apply for a role that we cannot offer sponsorship for, unfortunately, your application form will be rejected from the process.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
IMPORTANT: Before applying for this role, please make sure you have the right to work in the country where the role is based. Unless it clearly stipulates within in the job advert above that the hiring company is looking to or able to sponsor applicants it is deemed that the hiring employer will only consider applications from those able to comply with and work in the country where the role is based.
