Trainee High Intensity Therapist - Aylesbury

Trainee High Intensity Therapist - Aylesbury

Job description

Job overview

Are you interested in training to be a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist?

This is an exciting opportunity to join Bucks Talking Therapies as a Trainee High Intensity Therapist! We are a nationally recognised, high performing, diverse and innovative Talking Therapies service, offering excellent care.

We work using a hybrid model, with time spent in office bases, face-to-face clinic and working remotely. The training year will consist of a mixture of face-to-face teaching days in Reading and an expectation to work from your office base and offer a face-to-face clinic.







Until successful completion of the course you are required to work from either an office / clinic base or university for 4 days per week and will have the opportunity to work from home 1 day per week.

Once training is complete all newly qualified members of staff will need to complete a new hybrid working agreement. Please note this will be subject to review in line with service requirements.

We run clinics from a variety of community venues across Buckinghamshire and our main bases are located centrally in High Wycombe in the south and Aylesbury in the north of the county.

We have opportunities for trainee CBT therapists in both High Wycombe and Aylesbury.

There are separate adverts for the posts in each base, if you wish to be considered for both locations, you only need to apply once.

Main duties of the job

You will have a core mental health profession, for example mental health nurse, social worker or occupational therapist.

Applicants who do not have a core professional qualification as defined by the BABCP (such as qualified Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners) are required to provide evidence of knowledge,





skills and attitude (KSA) competences (details below).

Bucks Talking Therapies supports over 10,000 adults every year to manage their common mental health difficulties, such as anxiety and depression.

Our service has over 250 staff including PWPs, High Intensity Therapists, referral coordinators, employment advisors, managers and administrators.

You will be trained to deliver effective, evidence-based psychological therapies either in person, online via digital platforms, or telephone, either individually or in groups.

Working for our organisation

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.







HI therapists at Bucks Talking Therapies receive weekly clinical supervision (both individually and in groups); a monthly clinical skills forum meeting;

opportunities for ongoing training in addition to regular Line Management. There is a wealth of opportunities for career development.

We’re looking for people who are compassionate, work well in a team, have plenty of enthusiasm and motivation. You will need experience of working in a mental health setting and excellent written and verbal communication skills.

If you think you have the qualities we’re looking for, we look forward to hearing from you.

Click here to find out more about .

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

In return, we offer you a thorough training in CBT based at the University of Reading (UoR), clinical experience through Bucks Talking Therapies, and a supportive supervisor team, at both University and on placement, throughout your training.

The training programme is scheduled to start late February 2025 and ideally people will start work with the service in early February to complete induction and other duties.







Applicants must be able and willing to travel to Reading regularly for their training year (university supervision is blended and teaching is held in person).

You will attend the UoR Post Graduate Diploma in Evidence Based Psychological Treatments for two days a week from March 2025.

You will receive clinical supervision (CBT) from the UoR and Bucks Talking Therapies BABCP accredited clinicians, as well as managerial supervision in service.

Please note : for those applicants who already hold a psychological therapist qualification (e.g. clinical, counselling or health psychologists or core profession) these posts will be a Band 7 during and post training.

Please mention this during your interview if you think you may be eligible to be paid at Band 7 during training.





For all other applicants, the post will be a Band 6 during training, moving to a Band 7 once the training course has been passed and competencies have been achieved.

Following completion of the course, moving to a qualified Band 7 post will be contingent on meeting a number of strict criteria related to the roles and performance of a HI therapist.

These will be regularly assessed over the first 6 months post qualification and all these need to be fulfilled to meet the full requirements of a HI therapist.

PWP’s are eligible to apply when they have completed a minimum of 2 years of employment as a PWP after passing all PWP course requirements at internal exam board.







The only exception to this 2 year rule is if a PWP holds a previous core professional qualification recognised by the BABCP.

You will have an understanding and experience of cognitive behaviour therapy and wish to complete a BABCP accredited training in CBT.

The training prepares you to meet BABCP accreditation requirements in order to work in Talking Therapies services. This is an excellent, but demanding course and candidates are expected to complete all its requirements within 12 months of starting the training.

The course you will be completing at the University of Reading as part of this role is a Level 2 accredited course with BABCP.

This means that upon completion trainees will meet criteria to apply for accreditation as a CBT therapist with the BABCP.

To apply,





you must meet the criteria for CBT training and also have a BABCP-recognised professional background in mental health or related areas.

This means having a recognised Core Profession. If you do not have a Core Profession, you must complete a portfolio of evidence to show that you have equivalent training and experience.

This is known as the Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes portfolio (KSA). You can find out more on the KSA portfolio here :

If your application is successful and you are invited for an interview, you should have completed your KSA. You will be asked for a copy of you self-statement for KSA criterion 4 in the interview.

Please see the BABCP website for guidance and exemplars.

Please also be aware, if you have completed previous Health Education England funded training (e.g. PWP training), you cannot attend High Intensity training until 2 full years after your previous training’s exam boards we will require proof of this time period prior to interview if you completed any NHS England funded psychological therapies training before 23rd February 2023.

The completion date will usually be the date of your qualifications certificate. If you are uncertain, please contact your awarding institution.

As the training course will begin on 24th February 2025, any NHS E (formally Health Education England) funded training certificates must be dated two full calendar years before this.

Please be advised that we intend on holding interviews mid-November.

The 2-year psychological professions funding rule policy was implemented from 1st April 2022 and applies to any person starting on one of the NHS-E funded psychological professions training programmes from 1st April 2022.

For further information about the policy, FAQs and the affected training programmes visit NHS-E’s website.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

- Core health profession as defined by BABCP
- Experience of working in a stepped care service for anxiety and depression

Desirable criteria

Relevant degree e.g. Psychology BSc MSc

Experience

Essential criteria

- Demonstrable experience of working in mental health services
- Demonstrable experience of delivering CBT based interventions under supervision
- Ability to meet agreed / specified service targets
- Ability to manage own caseload and time
- Demonstrates high standards in written communication
- Able to write clear reports and letters to referrers

Desirable criteria

- Experience of working in Primary Care Services
- Worked in a service where agreed targets in place demonstrating clinical outcomes

Knowledge

Essential criteria

- Demonstrates an understanding of anxiety and depression and how it may present in Primary Care
- Knowledge of medication used in anxiety and depression and other common mental health problems
- Demonstrates an understanding for the need to use evidence based psychological therapies and how it relates to this post
- Has received training (either formal of through experience) and carried out risk assessments within scope of practice
- Ability to evaluate and put in place the effect of training
- Excellent written communication skills (overall quality and readability of written application)

Desirable criteria

- Fluent in languages other than English
- Demonstrates a knowledge of the issues surrounding work and the impact it can have on mental health
- All new starters have a thorough induction process, both local and Trust wide, which aims to create a positive supportive working environment allowing new employees to learn key elements of their role over a reasonable timescale.
- 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 are ambitious in our pursuit of excellence, driven by the belief that a fair, just and fully inclusive organisational culture enables our teams to deliver the best quality of care and services possible and we work hard to ensure that our diverse workforce reflects the communities that we serve.
- We welcome applications from all sections of the community, are an Equal Opportunities employer with a number of internal networking groups to support our employees and where possible will always look to make reasonable adjustments in order that you can fulfil the role to recognise your full potential.

All our employees are committed to demonstrating through their behaviour our core values safe, caring and excellent.

- 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.
- Oxford is a world-renowned centre of excellence for research. Oxford Health works closely with the University of Oxford department of Psychiatry and the Department of Primary care, has a Biomedical Research Centre dedicated to improving mental health and the NIHR Clinical Research Facility at the Warneford site.

The Trust also hosts the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) which carries out applied research that directly impacts patient health and wellbeing

▶️ Trainee High Intensity Therapist - Aylesbury
🖊️ Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
📍 Aylesbury