Reg (HCPC) Principal Clinical / Counselling Health Psychologist

This is a rare and exciting career development opportunity for a clinical/counselling psychologist to lead a compassionate, committed psycho-oncology team (MaPS - Macmillan Psychologist Support) and a small psychological service in the Rapid Diagnostic Clinic (RDC) at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust.

The MaPS team provides psychological assessment and intervention to patients and their significant others across the cancer pathway, as inpatients and outpatients, as well as training, supervision, consultation and support to multi-disciplinary colleagues. There is scope to develop innovative services, with strong support from the Personalised Care Lead and Head of Nursing for Cancer and Haematology.

The RDC psychology team offers a pioneering service which aims to ensure patients attending for investigation of non-specific suspected cancer symptoms, are offered an holistic service, identifying contributory psychological factors and working with patients to ensure these are addressed through brief intervention or thoughtful onward referral.

Both teams are highly valued and well-supported by committed multi-disciplinary colleagues. This role would suit someone wishing to develop their leadership skills within a supportive service which is strongly focused on meeting the needs of the local community.

Main duties of the job

Both teams have a cancer focus; the RDC also allows the post-holder to retain a breadth of clinical experience in covering a wide range of psychological presentations.

This role primarily involves managing and developing the LGT psycho-oncology team (MaPS) (0.6wte) and the RDC psychology service (0.1wte). The MaPS team includes another clinical psychologist role, two psychotherapists and an Assistant Psychologist. The RDC team is a multi-disciplinary medical team and the psychological service is provided by an 8a clinical psychologist.

The postholder will work closely with multi-disciplinary colleagues to support and develop psychologically-informed working across cancer services. This post would suit an enthusiastic, passionate psychologist who is ready to take on greater leadership responsibility in a well-supported role with an experienced, compassionate team.

Both the MaPS and RDC teams are driven by strong patient-centered values to support the delivery of psychologically-informed care across the pathway. We work closely with multi-disciplinary colleagues in innovative ways and have a dynamic and supportive leadership team within cancer services. LGT cancer services work hard to serve their local diverse community in a holistic and inclusive manner. We work closely with psycho-oncology teams at Guy's and St Thomas's and King's College Hospital trusts and have strong support from the Personalised Care team in the South East London Cancer Alliance.

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to:
1. Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
2. Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
3. Improving the experience of staff with disability
4. Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
5. Making equalities mainstream