UK Covid 19 Inquiry - Clinical Lead Psychologist
| Posting date: | 25 March 2024 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £53,400 to £64,000 per year |
| Additional salary information: | National - £53,400-£59,700 London - £58,800-£64,000 |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 21 April 2024 |
| Location: | Birmingham |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Temporary |
| Job reference: | 346531/2 |
Summary
In December 2021 Baroness Heather Hallett, a retired Appeal Court judge, was appointed by the Prime Minister as Chair of the independent public inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic.
The UK Covid-19 Inquiry was formally established with full powers under the Inquiries Act 2005 in June 2022. The Inquiry sits independently of the Government with the Cabinet Office acting as the sponsoring department.
Following an initial set up phase the Inquiry began hearing evidence in May 2023. We are now seeking principal practitioner psychologists to fill two Clinical Lead posts within the Support and Safeguarding Team. The post holders will provide expert clinical consultation and guidance on trauma-informed engagement across the Inquiry.
This is an exciting role, offering the opportunity to lead a pivotal team, in fast moving circumstances, to ensure lessons are learned from the UK response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Further information about the Inquiry can be found on the UK Covid-19 Inquiry website.
About the Support and Safeguarding Team
The Support and Safeguarding team is led by the Chief Psychologist and comprises psychologists, social workers, counsellors and specialist civil servants. It holds a wide and varied workload of clinical and project work. The clinicians oversee the provision of emotional support to witnesses, members of the public who engage with the Inquiry and our staff. They also advise Inquiry staff on how to work in a trauma-informed way through training, case consultations, policy contributions and direct involvement in projects. The Head of Safeguarding within the team is responsible for safeguarding practise across the organisation including the duty safeguarding service. The team’s work is underpinned by the following values: safety, empowerment, collaboration.
To find out more about the team and the role, please refer to slides 5-6 of the attached candidate information pack.
The multidisciplinary Support and Safeguarding Team is responsible for ensuring the Inquiry delivers its functions in a safe and trauma-informed way. As a senior member of the team, reporting directly to the Chief Psychologist, the post holders will lead on the implementation of the Inquiry’s trauma-informed strategy. The role will involve providing consultation, training and advice to non-clinical colleagues and promoting and embedding trauma-informed practise across the Inquiry. The Inquiry is progressing at pace and is high profile; the post holder will therefore need to be able to adopt flexible approaches to providing quality advice and do so in tight time frames. Essential for this role is the ability to adapt to the unique context of working within a public inquiry; experience of working in non-healthcare settings will be an advantage.
The post holder will have distinct work streams allocated to them and will manage the work of other more junior clinicians. The work streams the post holders will contribute to include: public hearings and investigations; the Every Story Matters engagement campaign; engagement with key stakeholders such as the seldom heard, children and young people, people affected by long Covid and the bereaved. The role does not involve any direct client work but will likely include the provision of clinical supervision
Some of your responsibilities will include but are not limited to:
- Providing trauma-informed consultation, training and advice to colleagues, verbally and via written papers and policies
- Designing bespoke trauma-informed models of emotional support for engagement activities with the public
- Line management to other members of the team
- Clinical supervision
- Contributing to clinical governance and quality assurance activities within the team
- Acting as duty safeguarding officer on a monthly basis, providing safeguarding advice to Inquiry staff and contractors, in line with our policy and procedures.
Further information can be found on slide 7 of the attached candidate information pack.
Working hours
Working hours per week will be 29.6 hours (4 days) - Due to business needs the contractual hours for this role are non-negotiable. There is however some flexibility in how these are distributed across the week.
Information session
If you’re interested in finding out more about the role, please join our information session on Wednesday 10th April, at 13:00PM. You can book onto the session by completing this form, and you will be sent an invitation via Google Meets.