Featured Job, April 2022
A range of psychological roles, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust (BEH).
28 February 2022
Dr Kim Joliffe, who takes up her new role as Psychological Therapies Lead, Barnet Division as this advert appears, is hugely enthusiastic about the future. ‘The range and number of jobs we’re advertising reflects the exciting process of change we’re going through, aiming to create a 21st century mental health service, focused on the client and giving due weight to social and environmental factors. We’re looking for clinical, health and counselling psychologists who are accredited, autonomous practitioners, and who can therefore make clinical decisions and be clinically responsible. These are not assistant roles for psychology graduates seeking clinical experience. We do have these opportunities, but we advertise them separately.’
I asked Kim to describe the roles in more detail. ‘By joining our teams, psychologists will be able to apply all the skills and knowledge from their training with a wide range of service users and colleagues. To some extent, the roles will be shaped by the person appointed. From this you can see we’re looking for creative, innovative people who can suggest ideas and projects. We also offer hybrid working which can contribute to staff having the best work-life balance. Staff welfare continues to be at the forefront, particularly following the pressures of the pandemic.’
‘Core to the new way of working will be joint projects with the third sector and, therefore, psychology will be central to clinical governance in this capacity. There will be opportunities to assist in the developing psychological skills of non-psychology colleagues. At the same time we’re making changes to the CPA model and moving to DIALOG+ which puts our service users at the centre of the process, taking greater account of their personal needs and social and environmental factors.’
What is Barnet like? ‘A fascinating place to work: the largest London borough with over 380,000 inhabitants ranging from the affluent to the hugely disadvantaged. The population is ethnically diverse and there is a high percentage of over 65s. Parts of it are in the Green Belt, it includes a number of nature reserves and it borders rural Hertfordshire, yet it has direct underground links into the centre of London. If you move here, you can live in a village, work in a diverse city suburb but have direct access to central London.’
What would you say to a good candidate as a final reason why they should work with you? ‘It’s a great, supportive place to work. When people come to work with us, they stay. So, if anyone is interested, I would ask them to get in touch so we can talk through the possibilities.’