UK Covid-19 Inquiry Psychologist - Clinical Lead

The closing date is 21 April 2024

Job summary

We are looking for a practitioner Psychologist to join our Safeguarding and Support team on a part-time basis (4 days a week) for a period of 2 years. This is a fixed-term contract; candidates may, however, also apply on a Secondment or Loan.

Please ensure you have your line manager's approval to apply if you'd prefer to come over on Secondment or Loan should you be successful.

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 Inquirys 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 timeframes. 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.

Main duties of the job

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.

Depending on your skillsets and portfolio of work assigned to your role other responsibilities may include:

• Contributing to the Inquirys staff well-being strategy and activities by providing clinical expertise and direction, training opportunities and promotion of well-being. Clinical oversight of the emotional support provided through a contract with a specialist supplier.
• Contributing to the Inquirys strategy and engagement in relation to children and young people, including oversight of research projects that target children and young people.
• Liaison with the Inquirys media and communications team to ensure a trauma-informed approach to the teams work

About us

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 work in a pivotal role, 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 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 teams work is underpinned by the following values: safety, empowerment, collaboration.

This team sits within the Inquirys People, Operations & Finance Directorate in the Inquiry Secretariat, but works across the entire organisation. The Directorate covers a range of corporate functions including HR, finance and commercial, information management, data protection, governance and planning and delivery. It sits alongside the Policy, Research, Analysis and Legal Operations Directorate, the Communications and Engagement Directorate and the Inquiry's legal team.

More about the role

The post holder will have distinct workstreams allocated to them and will manage the work of other more junior clinicians. The workstreams 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.

Information session

If youre interested in learning more about the role, please attend our information session on Wednesday, April 10th, at 13:00 AM. You can register for the session by emailing recruitment.team@covid19.public-inquiry.uk. Once registered, you will receive an invitation via Google Meets.

To apply for this role, please submit the following documents no later than 23:55 on 21st April 2024: A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you provide employment history that relates to the essential and desirable criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained.

A Statement of Suitability (max 1250 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential requirements highlighted. You may also choose to reference the desirable skills listed.

For the shortlist, we will assess your experience and select applicants who demonstrate the best fit for the role, considering the evidence provided in your application.

Selection process

Advert closing date:23:55 on 21st April 2024

Shortlisting:w/c 22nd April 2024

Interviews:w/c 6th May 2024

Candidates are asked to note the above timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process.

Shortlist

The panel will assess your application to select candidates who demonstrate the best fit with the role. They will consider the evidence you have provided against the criteria set out in the essential requirements and desirable skills section of this pack. Failure to address any or all of these may affect your application.

Pre-interview assessment

As part of the interview, youll be given a scenario-based task to complete and present to the interview panel. The topic will be shared on the day.

The Civil Service behaviours tested at interview are:

• Managing a quality service
• Delivering at pace

Your interview will take place remotely via GoogleMeets.

Conflicts of Interest

Please note if there are any potential conflicts of interest with the Inquiry's subject matter, you are expected to raise these and discuss them, in confidence, with the recruiting manager in the first instance.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed.

 

The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals and certain family members of Turkish nationals who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• HCPC registered practitioner psychologist

Experience

Essential

• Significant experience of providing trauma-informed, psychological consultation to teams or organisations
• Experience of working at a senior level, including providing clinical supervision, line management, service development and evaluation
• Experience of working within a multidisciplinary environment and of a variety of working environments and cultures, including non-clinical settings, enabling you to communicate psychological concepts to non-clinicians
• Comprehensive, intersectional, and inclusive understanding of psychological trauma, prolonged grief, trauma-informed approaches and practice
• Personal qualities that enable you to work at pace to provide psychological consultation to fast-moving projects, be flexible and solution-focused
• Ability to assess and respond appropriately to risk, including safeguarding issues and organisational risk

Desirable

• Experience of working in an Inquiry, investigation or legal context
• Experience of managing or delivering a service
• Experience of overseeing the delivery of emotional support services via sub-contractors, including contributing to quality assurance processes and contract management systems
• Specialist experience of working with the following groups or areas:
• * Staff well-being
• * Seldom heard groups
• * Diversity and Inclusion
• * Research
• * Clinical health psychology

Disability confidence scheme

Essential

• The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
• Please let us know if you're applying under the DCS scheme by answering 'Yes' or 'No'
• If you have questions regarding this, please email recruitment.team@covid19.public-inquiry.uk

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Uk Covid-19 Inquiry

Address

121 Westbourne Terrace

London

W2 6BU

Employer's website

https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)