Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has been rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

We are a responsive and innovative Foundation Trust that places our values of Caring, Safe and Excellent at the heart of everything we do. We take great pride in our staff and believe that investing in you is key to us achieving our vision of outstanding care delivered by outstanding people.

We work with a wide range of partner organisations to deliver care and support to people in their own homes and from a number of hospitals and community bases. We focus on delivering care as close to home as possible.

Job overview

TalkingSpace Plus, the Oxfordshire IAPT service is looking to recruit a Senior Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (SPWP) to join the busy and high performing PWP supervisor team. This role would be a great opportunity for qualified PWPs with post qualification experience and / or CMS supervisory experience, who are committed to this model, and want to develop their career in the low intensity service.

TalkingSpace Plus is a nationally recognized, high-performing and innovative IAPT service supporting around 15,000 adults every year to manage their common mental health difficulties, such as anxiety and depression. We are based in the beautiful city of Oxford, surrounded by Oxfordshire’s stunning countryside.

This is an excellent opportunity to join Oxford Health: a large and innovative NHS Foundation trust, with a strong track record for supporting the development of psychological therapy services. The Trust has two IAPT services, a range of specialist psychological therapy services and employs over 500 psychological therapists and hosts the Oxford Institute of Clinical Psychology Training and Research and the Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre.

TalkingSpace Plus is actively involved in research. The service benefits from being a member of the Oxford Academic Health Sciences Network Anxiety and Depression Network led by Professor David Clark. We are an exciting, innovative and successful service to work for. Find out more on our TalkingSpace website. 

Main duties of the job

This role involves case managing a group of PWPs to ensure the quality of their work is maintained, facilitating clinical skills supervision and line managing some trainee or qualified PWPs. 

The post-holder will also offer high volume evidence-based practice in Guided Self-help (Telephone, Digital or Face to Face) and contribute to the Psycho-educational Courses programme, working with people with common mental health problems. You could also be involved in other workstreams or projects such as digital interventions and increasing access for people with learning disabilities

Working for our organisation

The service has over 200 staff including Psychological Therapists, Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners and staff from our partnership organisations. A team of clinical supervisors and managers support staff to deliver the service effectively and safely. 

Staff wellbeing is a top priority for us. We have a very active, award winning, wellbeing team within the service and work hard to ensure that a supportive, collaborative and productive culture is in place. We offer robust supervision from skilled supervisors and managers and ongoing Continuing Professional Development including an annual CPD budget for relevant external training courses.

In everything we do, we strive to be caring, safe and excellent. We expect our staff to share and demonstrate these values as we work to constantly improve the quality of care we provide. This ensures that we have the right workforce to deliver effective team-working and excellent patient care and experience.

Benefits of working for Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust include:

  • Excellent opportunities for career progression
  • 27 days annual leave, plus bank holidays, with an increase to 33 days with continuous service
  • NHS Discount across a wide range of shops, restaurants and retailers
  • Staff accommodation
  • Competitive pension scheme
  • Lease car scheme
  • Cycle to work scheme

    • Detailed job description and main responsibilities

    Qualified PWPs are expected to comply with the national requirement effective from 10th June 2022, for PWP registration with the British Psychological Society (BPS) or the British Association of Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP). Registration must be maintained annually, at the practitioners expense. Please ensure you complete the section within this application form asking for your PIN. If you are awaiting confirmation of registration, please provide evidence of your submission for registration. Successful candidates who have not completed the approval process will be required to practice at a training grade (Band 4), and will be paid accordingly, until such time as the registration is confirmed.

    In this role, your main responsibilities will be to carry out screening calls and deliver low intensity intervention, offer line management and Case Management Supervision to other trainee and qualified PWPs, focus on the quality of interventions ensuring adherence to the evidence base, to stay up to date with clinical and policy changes and support others to do the same and to contribute to the development of the service.

    We positively encourage applications from all areas of the community, regardless of gender, race, faith, disability, age or sexual orientation and we encourage applications from users of mental health services. This is part of our commitment to equality and reflecting the diversity of our population.

    Please Note:

  • New starters have a 6 month probationary period. This, together with the induction process aims to create a positive supportive working environment allowing new employees to learn key elements of their role over a reasonable timescale.
  • Candidates not currently employed by the Trust who attend an interview for non-qualified Band 1-5 posts are required to undertake numeracy and literacy assessments.
  • Appointment to this post is subject to the trust receiving satisfactory references covering 3 years of employment or study. Please ask your referees to respond promptly to reference requests.
  • Employees are expected to undertake mandatory and statutory training related to their role.
  • We positively encourage applications from all areas of the community, regardless of gender, race, faith, disability, age or sexual orientation and we encourage applications from users of mental health services. This is part of our commitment to equality and reflecting the diversity of our population.
  • Oxford Health is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, we expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

    • Person specification

    qualifications /professional

    Essential criteria

  • Post-Graduate Certificate in Evidence Based Psychological Treatments (IAPT pathway).
  • PWP Registration with BPS/BABCP

    • Desirable criteria

  • To have completed, currently training (have been offered a place) on the IAPT Accredited PWP Supervisor Training.
  • To have completed or be willing to attend IAPT LTC/PPS top up training

    • Experience

    Essential criteria

  • Post-qualification experience as a PWP in an IAPT service
  • Experience of mentoring other staff, through case management supervision, induction, peer supervision, etc.
  • Experience of handling safeguarding concerns.

    • Knowledge

    Essential criteria

  • A clear understanding of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies IAPT programme; Key Performance Indicators KPIs and related guidance/legislation

    • Experience of IAPT supervision

    Essential criteria

  • Experience of mentoring other staff, through case management supervision, induction, peer supervision, etc.

    • Skills & Communication

    Essential criteria

  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • Ability to deliver the full range of Low Intensity interventions and demonstrate consistent recovery rates above the 50% minimum IAPT target.
  • Skills in using IAPT database such as PCMIS or IAPTUS. Skill in using Microsoft Word / Outlook / Excel / PowerPoint
  • Able to write clear reports and letters
  • Able to demonstrate the need for confidentiality
  • Ability to be self-reflective, whilst working with service users, in own personal and professional development and in supervision

    • Ability to travel

    Essential criteria

  • Ability & willingness to travel between sites and to regional meetings
  • To work flexibly within and outside office hours

    • Benefits of working for Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust include:

  • Excellent opportunities for career progression
  • 27 days annual leave, plus bank holidays, with an increase to 33 days with continuous service
  • NHS Discount across a wide range of shops, restaurants and retailers
  • Staff accommodation
  • Competitive pension scheme
  • Lease car scheme
  • Cycle to work scheme
  • New starters have a 6 month probationary period. This, together with the induction process aims to create a positive supportive working environment allowing new employees to learn key elements of their role over a reasonable timescale.
  • Candidates not currently employed by the Trust who attend an interview for non-qualified Band 1-5 posts are required to undertake numeracy and literacy assessments.
  • Appointment to this post is subject to the trust receiving satisfactory references covering 3 years of employment or study. Please ask your referees to respond promptly to reference requests.
  • Employees are expected to undertake mandatory and statutory training related to their role.
  • We positively encourage applications from all areas of the community, regardless of gender, race, faith, disability, age or sexual orientation and we encourage applications from users of mental health services. This is part of our commitment to equality and reflecting the diversity of our population.
  • Oxford Health is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, we expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

    • Employer certification / accreditation badges