Clinical Neuropsychologist (ICAP treating team)

Job summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Clinical Neuropsychologist or Psychologist with advanced clinical skills to work within an Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Programme (ICAP) at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN). The post is being offered as a 2 year fixed term contract to deliver an outpatient ICAP with a randomised control trial (RCT) in collaboration with University College London and City St George's University.

The focus of this role is to provide neuropsychological therapeutic interventions for people with aphasia and their carers in the ICAP arm of the NIHR sponsored RCT. The key roles will be to design, deliver, and adapt evidence-based interventions for people with aphasia, systemic working with families, and work with the treating speech and language therapists especially when psychological and cognitive are present.

Main duties of the job

The post will play a key role in the leadership and development of the service and staff. The post offers exceptional opportunities to use specialist clinical skills and contribute to the research and teaching programmes within this highly specialised patient population. Applicants will have an opportunity to be involved in presenting results from the ICAP at conferences (e.g. BAS, UKSF, ESOC) and writing up for journals. The Division is fully committed to research and development and actively supports and funds the continuous professional development of its staff.

About us

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) is one of the most complex NHS trusts in the UK, serving a large and diverse population. We provide academically led acute and specialist services, to people from the local area, from throughout the United Kingdom and overseas. Our vision is to deliver top-quality patient care, excellent education, and world-class research.

We provide first-class acute and specialist services across eight sites:o University College Hospital (incorporating the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Wing)o National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgeryo Royal National ENT and Eastman Dental Hospitalso University College Hospital Grafton Way Buildingo Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicineo University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centreo The Hospital for Tropical Diseaseso University College Hospital at Westmoreland Street

We are dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of many complex illnesses. UCLH specialises in women's health and the treatment of cancer, infection, neurological, gastrointestinal and oral disease. It has world class support services including critical care, imaging, nuclear medicine and pathology.

We are committed to sustainability and have pledged to become a carbon net zero health service, embedding sustainable practice throughout UCLH. We have set an ambitious target of net zero for our direct emissions by 2031 and indirect emissions by 2040.

Job responsibilities

For the full Person Specification and more information regarding the main responsibilities of this role, please refer to the attached Job Description.

Come and be a part of the best NHS trust in England to work for, according to our staff*

* UCLH top trust to work at in England - In the most recent NHS staff survey UCLH had the highest percentage of staff who said they would recommend us as a place to work, out of all general acute or acute/community NHS trusts in England for the third year in a row.

UCLH recognises the benefits of flexible working for staff To find out more, visit: Flexible working.

To discover more about what makes UCLH a great place to work, visit: Why Choose UCLH?

Person specification

Knowledge and Qualifications

Essential

• Honours degree in psychology or related disciplines, and a Doctorate and/or PhD level in clinical psychology/clinical neuropsychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS.
• Doctoral level research completed in a relevant area of clinical psychology/neuropsychology.
• Specialist knowledge of neuropsychology syndromes, functional neuroanatomy, assessment techniques and psychometrics
• Specialist knowledge of interventions and neurorehabilitation and an ability to guide and advise therapy staff on these principles

Experience

Essential

• Demonstrable substantial years' experience post-qualification of the application of clinical skills to specialist neuropsychology settings.
• Previous experience presenting to peers / colleagues on a range of clinical and research issues.
• Neuropsychological experience across a range of clinical settings, client ages and neuropsychological syndromes
• Experience of proposing and implementing service development projects within own service including implementing psychotherapeutic interventions.

Communication & Customer Care

Essential

• Demonstrates understanding of, and ability to, manage the needs of patients with acute and chronic disability, including the use of supportive counselling skills as appropriate.
• Demonstrates professional and effective verbal and written communication skills including excellent negotiation skills with patients, carers, and other health professional staff in service delivery.
• Ability to communicate highly sensitive information to cognitively impaired and/or psychologically vulnerable people and their carers, who may have significant barriers to understanding or acceptance.
• Management of behavioural disturbances e.g., verbal aggression, inappropriate behaviour, and risk of physical aggression from people with a behavioural / cognitive disturbance.

Personal & people development

Essential

• Ability to establish good rapport and professional working relationships within multidisciplinary teams and other agencies for extended periods of time.
• Ability to show leadership, initiative and utilise clinical supervision in different services effectively.
• Ability to identify areas for own personal / professional development through highly developed reflective practice skills and integrate knowledge gained into own practice.
• Effective time management and ability to prioritise own workload.
• Ability to autonomously manage own caseload.
• Ability to represent clinical psychology in multi-disciplinary group settings and within specialist clinical services.

Desirable

• Ability to complete clinical and research duties in an autonomous fashion.

Academic and research

Essential

• Previous experience of research indicating the ability to conduct research autonomously.
• Interest in conducting scientific research within relevant areas of clinical neuropsychology.
• Ability to critique and evaluate scientific data and best practice clinical guidelines.

Quality and service improvement

Essential

• Evidence of working effectively in multidisciplinary teams
• Evidence of effective clinical reasoning in the assessment and management of complex neuro-disability.

Desirable

• Evidence of active engagement with stakeholders within the wider community e.g. NHS England; relevant Charity organisation

Information processing (IT skills)

Desirable

• Competent IT skills (word processing, spreadsheets, statistical packages)

Responsibilities towards promoting Equality Diversity and Inclusion

Essential

• Demonstratable understanding of the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

Personal Qualities

Essential

• A high level of interpersonal and communication skills.
• Must be able to cope with highly emotive and psychologically challenging demands of working with neurologically impaired patients for long periods of time.
• Must be able to communicate effectively with a wide range of people in a sensitive, caring, and non-judgemental manner.

Other Requirements

Essential

• Demonstrate a commitment to professional development of self and others.
• Knowledge of equalities issues and strong commitment to the promotion of equality in employment.