Practitioner Psychologist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Responsibilities

Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

Honours Degree (minimum 2:1) in Psychology accredited by the British Psychological Society.

Practitioner Psychologist (Clinical, Forensic or Counselling) registered with the HCPC.

Experience of working with individuals with complex needs including, personality disorder, intellectual disability, mental illness, neurodiversity and forensic issues.

Experience of working across a range of settings including, in-patient forensic services and community services.

Good knowledge of relevant psychological theories, psychometric assessment and theory.

Good knowledge of cognitive-behavioural therapy and one other model of psychological therapy.

Proficiency in psychological assessment, and a high standard of report writing including detailed psychological formulations.

Proficiency in research including sampling, qualitative data collection, quantitative data collection and statistical analysis.

Proficiency in keyboard skills, word processing, and internet and email use.

CLINICAL

To undertake psychological assessments of service users applying psychological measures, including psychometric tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with service users, family members and others involved in the service users care & management.

To facilitate consultation and formulation of complex cases with staff groups from a range of professional backgrounds.

To participate in the formulation and delivery of action plans involving the psychological treatment and/or management of a service users problems.

To lead on the delivery and evaluation of group treatment programmes.

To participate in the development of a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all service users, across all settings where care takes place.

To attend and contribute to appropriate multi-disciplinary meetings.

TEACHING, TRAINING AND SUPERVISION

In common with all practitioner psychologists, to receive regular clinical supervision in accordance with professional practice guidelines.

To gain wider experience of professional psychology within the NHS over and above that provided within the principal service area where the post-holder is employed.

To develop skills and competencies that assist in the delivery of current duties.

To contribute to the training and support of other staff in psychological care, especially in areas related to offending behaviours, learning disabilities, mental health and personality disorder.

MANAGEMENT, RECRUITMENT, POLICY AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT:

To assist in the design and implementation of service development projects within the service as required.

To attend meetings in which service developments are planned and discussed.

INFORMATION RESOURCES:

Responsible for personal record keeping, processing and storage of data and taking and transcribing minutes where appropriate.

To ensure that all databases related to their service area are maintained satisfactorily.

RESEARCH AND SERVICE EVALUATION:

To lead on the design and implementation of audit and research projects relating to the assessment and treatment of service users.

To lead on the design and implementation of service evaluation projects to evaluate group programmes.

To undertake data collection and analysis using SPSS and Excel.

To undertake searches of evidence-based literature and research to assist in evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

To produce audit and research reports to be disseminated locally and nationally through poster and oral presentations at a variety of research, academic and clinical forums.

GENERAL:

To be noted

This is not an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities, and the post holder may be required to undertake other duties which fall within the grade of the job, in discussion with the manager.

This job description will be reviewed regularly in the light of changing service requirements, and any such changes will be discussed with the post holder.

The post holder is expected to comply with all relevant Trust policies, procedures and guidelines, including those relating to Equal Opportunities, Health & Safety and Confidentiality of Information.

Physical Working Conditions and Environment

This post is based within the medium and lowsecure inpatient services in Hertfordshire, which form part of the Learning Disability and Forensic Division of Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust.

The role involves regular exposure to emotionally distressing and sensitive material, including detailed discussions with patients about their personal histories, which may involve significant trauma. This also includes reviewing patients offending histories, which can involve serious offences such as sexual assault, homicide, and acts of extreme violence.

The post holder may occasionally be exposed to traumatic or challenging incidents within the clinical environment, including severe verbal abuse, challenging behaviour, and the risk of physical aggression. At times, the role will require managing interactions with patients who may present as hostile, aggressive, severely distressed, or engaged in selfharming behaviour.

Person Specification

Training and Qualifications

Essential

• Doctoral level training in clinical, forensic or counselling psychology or chartered forensic psychologist status, (including specifically models of psychopathology, risk assessment, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS).
• Full Registration with the HCPC.

Desirable

• Further training in the use of assessment tools pertinent to offending behaviour e.g. IPDE, PCL-R, RSVPv2, HCR-20v3.

Experience & Knowledge

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
• Previous experience of working with clients with offending histories and/or Learning Disability, including the use of complex risk assessments.
• 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 including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialized psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnosis, people with additional disabilities, forensic clients etc).
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical /forensic fields of psychology.

Desirable

• Experience of the application of clinical/counselling/forensic psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Previous experience of working within the criminal justice system
• Specialist theoretical and practical knowledge of psychology applied to forensic issues
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialized psychological therapies.
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and its implications for work with mentally disordered offenders
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and nonprofessional groups.
• Skills in working with trauma related difficulties

Communication Skills

Essential

• 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
• Able to provide and receive highly complex, highly sensitive or highly contentious information, where there are significant barriers to acceptance which need to be overcome using the highest level of interpersonal and communication skills such as would be required when communicating in a hostile, antagonistic or highly emotive atmosphere

Analytical Skills

Essential

• Able to make judgements involving complex facts or situations, which require the evaluation of a range of options (e.g. the assessment of specialist clinical conditions and the determination of treatment options).

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

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Warren Court

Woodside Road

Abbots Langley

WD5 0HT

Employer's website

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