Clinical/ForensicPsychologist

Job description

Job responsibilities

1. To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the team 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 semistructured interviews with clients, and others involved in the clients care.2. To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients psychological problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy.3. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals and groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisionalhypotheses.4. To evaluate, monitor progress and make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeuticmodels and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.5. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.6. To provide specialist psychological advice guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plans.7. To ensure that all members of the clinical team have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of psychological research and theory.8. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide both general and specialist advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.9. To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, highly complex information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care where there may be conflicting views, high emotion and significant barriers to understanding and change, and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.10. To provide expertise, advice and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the treatment team.11. To receive regular clinical professional supervision from a senior clinical psychologist and, where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues.12. To provide clinical placements for trainee clinical and/or counselling psychologists, ensuring that trainees acquire the necessary skills, competencies and experience to contribute effectively to good mental health care and to contribute to the assessment and evaluation of such competencies.13. With experience, provide clinical placements for trainee clinical and/or counselling psychologists, ensuring that trainees acquire the necessary skills, competencies and experience to contribute effectively to good mental health care and to contribute to the assessment and evaluation of such competencies.14. To provide advice, consultation and training and clinical supervision to other members of the team for their provision of psychologically based interventions to help improve clients functioning.15. With experience, provide pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinicalpsychologists and/or other psychological services staff as appropriate.16. To maintain and develop skills in the area of professional pre- and post-graduate training and clinical supervision.17. To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.18. To manage the workloads of Assistants, Trainees and recently qualified psychological services staff, where appropriate, within the framework of the Directorates and teams/services service policies and procedures.19. To participate as a senior clinician in the development of a high quality, responsive and accessible service including advising both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.20. To exercise delegated responsibility for managing the psychological resources available to a team, whether in the form of additional qualified and unqualified graduate psychology staff, or in the form of psychological materials employed in the assessment and treatment of patients.21. To exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service/team.22. To participate as appropriate in staff recruitment, both in the short-listing process and as a member of interview panels, for assistants, trainees and recently qualified psychological services staff.23. To act up for line manager as appropriate.24. The post holder will be expected to make full use of IT packages available within thework area, for example, microsoft office, email, internet and statistical packages.25. To take the psychology lead, as a senior clinician, in the evaluation, monitoring and development of the teams operational policies, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit and ensuring incorporation of psychological frameworks for understanding and provision of highquality care.26. To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-basedpractice in individual work and work with other team members.27. To undertake appropriate research as agreed with the Head of Service and provide research advice to team colleagues undertaking research.28. To initiate project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within and across the service to help develop and improve services to clients and their families.29. To undertake a defined role in Directorate Service Governance structures as agreed.30. To ensure the development, maintenance and dissemination of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external and external CPD training and development programmes and to provide evidence of CPD undertaken, e.g. in the form of CPD logbook.31. To ensure the development and articulation of best practice in psychology within the service area and contribute across the service by exercising the skills of a reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology and related disciplines.32. To maintain and promulgate the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the British Psychological Society, Directorate and Trust policies and procedures.33. To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health.34. To perform other duties of a similar kind appropriate to the grade, which may be required by their Psychological Services manager.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology accredited by the BPS or its approved equivalent or equivalent qualification in forensic psychology, accredited by BPS.

Desirable

• Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice

Knowledge

Essential

• Assessed experience of working at a highly specialist level
• Significant experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care coordinator and also within the context of a multi-disciplinary care plan.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision
• Expertise in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, formulation, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Well developed and effective communication skills, oral and written, 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 consultation to other professional and nonprofessional groups.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to client group and mental health
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical psychology field.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS.
• Knowledge of IT systems including word processing, email and local electronic patient information systems.

Desirable

• Demonstration of an awareness of boundary and security issues in a secure setting
• Experience of assessing and treating clients across the full range of care settings.
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities.
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.

Skills

Essential

• Ability to identify provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours.
• Ability to identify, and employ, as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings.
• Ability to self reflect, use clinical supervision appropriately and consider complex organisational and team dynamics.

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

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

Address

HMP Altcourse

Brookfield Drive

Liverpool

L9 7LH

Employer's website

https://www.merseycare.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)