Counsellor | Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

We are seeking a highly motivated Counsellor who is accredited with the BACP/UKCP to enhance our thriving NHS Talking Therapies service. The post-holder will have experience of working with people with anxiety and depression in a primary and/or secondary care setting. The post-holder will be part of a strong experienced counselling team and will be expected to provide individual and group counselling interventions.

Oxleas has a large, well-established and supportive psychology department which is part of the Psychological Therapies Directorate within the Trust. This provides strong leadership and professional management and supports staff by prioritising supervision and continuing professional development. The department contains clinical/ counselling psychologists with extensive training and experience in CBT, psycho-dynamic and systemic approaches.

The post holder will work with people with different cultural backgrounds and ages, using interpreters when necessary and should be committed to equal opportunities. Community languages would be an advantage. The post-holder will be expected to work one shifted day (till 8pm) a week and will also be required to work remotely under Agenda for Change terms and conditions.,

• Contribute to the provision of the Locality Psychological Therapies Service, a direct access service that is part of the Trusts' Mental health services, by undertaking counselling with individual clients or, when appropriate, in groups.


• Using communication and relationship skills to undertake assessment of clients referred to the service by themselves, GPs or other professionals including risk assessment and referral on to appropriate services.


• To prioritise and manage own client caseload.


• To exercise professional responsibility for the assessment, intervention and discharge of clients, using highest level of interpersonal and communication skills when presenting and receiving complex, sensitive and contentious information to clients, family, support workers and other professional


• To provide counselling, collaboratively with clients including:


- Assessments: Psychometric assessments including the full range of NHS Talking Therapies data set requirements making use of Data management systems; behavioural assessment; observational assessment; assessment by interviewing; assessment by analysis of archive material, multi-disciplinary notes and discussions, reviews, and supervision.

- Interventions: Counselling and other psychological therapies as appropriate with a range of presenting problems primarily

- Anxiety, Depression, but including the full range of primary care mental health problems.

• To provide advice to other professionals within and external to the multi-disciplinary team, and agencies that provide services to this client group.


• To keep adequate clinical records in accordance with Trust guidelines, the BABCP/UKCP/BACP or BPS Division of Counselling Psychology and DoH guidance.


• To frequently sit in a restricted position for substantial proportion of working time during clinical sessions and meetings, requiring long periods of concentration.


• Dealing with frequent highly distressing situations i.e. clients with severely distressing mental health experiences, past and current abuse. Dealing with unpleasant working conditions i.e. verbal aggression, physical threats from client, family or others.


Management responsibilities

• To provide information and guidance to other primary care staff on the issues of psychological therapy.


• To attend meetings when required, within the working times of your post.


• To maintain statistical data.


• To liaise, collaborate and communicate with GPs and others concerned with the care and treatment of clients. This may also include the communication of sensitive information requiring knowledge and skills of data protection issues.


Leadership

• Workshops/presentations relevant to counselling.


• To sit on relevant working groups of the service as required.


Clinical Governance

• To implement and maintain the principles of Clinical Governance, including risk management.


• To implement and maintain good information governance in respect of British Psychological Society's (or other relevant professional bodies) and Department of Health's codes and guidance's on the proper management of client information, the Caldicott principles and the Data Protection Act.


• To maintain up to date clear client records and case notes in line with the policies and procedures and service standards of the Trust, using the electronic clinical record system.


• To abide by the postholder's appropriate Code of Professional Conduct and to follow guidance from NICE and the Department of Health.


• To engage in ongoing personal professional development.


• To maintain professional accreditation with relevant professional body eg the BACP, keep an updated CPD log and attend training to maintain therapy skills and competencies as appropriate.


• To collect session by session outcome measures.


Research and service development

• To use published research and information on good practice regularly to keep clinical practice up-to-date and evidence based.


• Participate in discussion and review regarding the development and evaluation of the locality counselling service, within the NSF directives.


• To undertake clinically relevant evaluation within the locality psychological therapy service.


• To provide information relating to the post-holders clinical and administrative activities as determined by the management of the Trust and the psychological therapy service.


Teaching, Training and Supervision

• To provide when appropriate, induction, line management and clinical supervision to counsellors on trainee clinical placement.


• Attend for regular supervision as agreed within the locality counselling service and professional ethical framework.


• To keep abreast of current developments in the professional field of psychological therapy through reading and attendance at appropriate training courses and CPD in accordance with the requirements of your own professional accrediting body.


Communication

• Clinicians within Greenwich Time To Talk service and clinicians within Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust.


• Senior Trust Officials, when indicated or appropriate i.e. service development


• General Practitioners and GPs with special interest.


• Service providers from both statutory and voluntary organisations e.g. Adult Mental Health Services, CAMHS, Social Services, Greenwich Mind and WDP.
  
  Disability Confident

About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children's centres, schools and people's homes.

We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:

• We're Kind


• We're Fair


• We Listen


• We Care