Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust is a Top Employer Award Winner and works in partnership to provide responsive and dependable primary care, mental health, intellectual disability and substance misuse services to the diverse and culturally rich communities we serve.

In our quest to deliver patient-focused quality care we are looking to recruit a highly motivated, innovative and enthusiastic Clinical, Counselling or Forensic Psychologist to join our forward thinking, friendly and expanding Health & Justice team at HMP High Down. By joining our Prisons Health Care Team, you will not only look after the healthcare needs of our patients residing in secure environments, but will also have the opportunity to have a real impact on promoting health and well-being. You will be joining a large psychology and psychological therapies department that is expanding its therapy and neurodiversity pathways, with a wealth of expertise and training available.

Our motto is Caring NOT Judging so by working in partnership with the criminal justice system and other agencies, we provide responsive, dependable and high-quality primary care and mental health services to those who may have offended and those at risk of offending in the communities we serve, to improve their health status and to encourage social inclusion.

Applications welcomed post-qualification and from psychologists in their final year of training. This post can be offered as a Band 7 preceptorship.

Main duties of the job

• To provide a comprehensive, specialist psychology service to patients of the Health and Justice Services Directorate.
• To provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy.
• To provide training, advice and consultation to other staff about the psychological needs of the patients.
• To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the Health and Justice Services Directorate.
• To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the Trust's policies and procedures.
• To support the team and Service Line
• The post holder will be expected to provide a psychological service to patients of the Health and Justice Services Line.

As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.

PLEASE NOTE ANY CANDIDATE WISHING TO APPLY FOR ANY OF OUR ROLES IN SURREY WILL BE SUBJECT TO VETTING CLEARANCE. WHICH REQUIRES YOU TO HAVE BEEN A RESIDENT IN THE UK FOR A MINIMUM OF 3 YEARS.

About us

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust offers its staff ongoing career progression through:

• Monthly supervision
• Annual personal development plans/appraisals
• Access to exciting internal and external training opportunities.

Excellent progression through various career pathway opportunities such as but not limited to:

• Preceptorship Programme
• Support and guidance with Revalidation
• Hidden Gem and annual award ceremonies

Excellent staff benefits, our benefit packages are amongst the best in London and include:

• Health and wellbeing services
• Season ticket loans
• Cycle to work scheme
• Relocation package

The trust alsovalues its staff and you are entitled to become a member of MyTrustBenefits. MyTrustBenefits is an online portal for all CNWL staff, as well as their family and friends. It offers over 1400 discounts at hundreds of retailers nationwide. Save money on your weekly food shops, toiletries, cosmetics, cinema, meals out, holidays, travel and entertainment. You can also access free online courses on a variety of topics, professional and personal, ranging from business management, languages, law and teaching.

All of our sites in Surrey offer free use of the onsite leisure facilities and free parking for staff. HMP Highdown is within easy reach of London and surrounding counties.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Please see main job description for full list of responsibilities:

• To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the clients care.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
• To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
• To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulations, diagnoses and treatment plans.
• To attend seclusion and segregation reviews, recovery team meetings and safer custody meetings in the prison as appropriate and to offer psychological opinion about management and appropriate referrals in that context.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
• To act as care coordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating, planning and review of care plans under enhanced CPA including clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved the network of care.
• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.
• To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping, including electronic data entry and recording, and report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance, in accordance with professional codes of practice of the Health and Care Professions Council and Trust policies and procedures.
• To work innovatively and in conjunction with colleagues (both mental health and prison staff) to develop appropriate, evidence based and effective services for those in prison.

Person Specification

TRAINING & QUALIFICATIONS

Essential

• Doctoral level training in clinical, counselling or forensic psychology or its equivalent, accredited by the BPS. Training in models of developmental lifespan psychology, psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology and two or more distinct psychological therapies.
• HCPC Registered as a Practitioner Psychologist.

Desirable

• Other relevant CPD qualifications, pre- or post-training. Especially training in working with people with trauma presentations, research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.
• Training in more than one psychological therapy.

EXPERIENCE

Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity. Maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Experience working with and delivering psychological therapy to those with a diagnosis of personality disorder and/or a history of self-harm and substance misuse and experience of working with complex trauma
• Experience of working effectively in multidisciplinary settings
• Experience of teaching and training

Desirable

• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural and specialist contexts.
• Experience of working in secure settings, either prison or secure hospitals.
• Experience of working with service-users to develop peer facilitated support or treatment initiatives.
• Experience of working using multitherapeutic approaches.
• Experience of using a trauma informed approach.
• Experience in supervising others in the delivery of psychological therapy.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

Essential

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Skills in providing training, advice and psychological information and consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• High level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
• Broad knowledge of models of assessment, management and treatment of mentally disordered and PD offenders.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnoses).
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
• High level of knowledge and skills in neuropsychology and neuropsychological testing.
• Ability to work intensively with people who present challenges in the complexity of their problems and needs, including sexual and violent offending and self-harming and suicidal behaviours.

Desirable

• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.

Attitudes, aptitudes personal characteristics

Essential

• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
• Good understanding of the current context of service provision within the NHS.
• Willingness to work flexibly to meet demands of contracts, commissioners and other stake-holders to provide high-quality and effective care.
• Ability to work in a secure environment, in line with HMPS policy and procedure - and to achieve and maintain enhanced security clearance.

Desirable

• Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.
  
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