Applied Psychologist

Job responsibilities

Job Purpose

The principal purpose of the job is to improve the psychological health and wellbeing of people under the Forensic Personality Disorder Service (FPDS) and wider Community Forensic Service (CFS), to provide clinical leadership within the FPDS service, and peer support to psychologists in the CFS and wider secure services directorate.

This will be achieved in the post by:

Using advanced theoretical and practical knowledge to provide a psychological service to service-users and to their families as required as well as members of clinical teams working in the Secure Services Directorate and outside agencies. To provide complex specialist psychological assessment, formulation and treatment. To co-ordinate and deliver these psychology services and provide specialist advice/consultation and reflective practice to other professionals.

The role will include:

1. Being an autonomous practitioner responsible for own clinical activity and accountable for observing and interpreting professional and Trust guidelines for professional conduct including accurate record keeping.
2. Ensuring the systematic provision of a high-quality psychological services in a specialist field of practice, across identified locality area, as a key component of mental health and secure services across Devon Partnership NHS Trust
3. Providing clinical leadership, specialist advice, consultancy and training to professionals as well as direct therapeutic work with patients.
4. Providing supervision and line management to assistant, trainee clinical psychologists, psychologists other professionals where appropriate, and providing consultation and supervision to partner agencies (e.g. inpatient teams, community teams, housing providers) where agreed.
5. Undertaking regular service development, research, clinical audit, teaching and lecturing as job responsibilities as required and engage in activities for continuing professional development.
6. Supporting service developments associated with the Secure Services Directorate.
7. The post holder will receive regularly professionals and clinical supervision in accordance to Trust policy and to Professional Practice Guidelines as set out by the British Psychological Society or appropriate designated body.
8. Meeting appropriate standards of practice in the quality and timeliness of the service provided. Standards of practice will include those defined by: the British Psychological Society (including the Division of Clinical Psychology); the HCPC; and Devon Partnership Trust

Communication and Working Relationship Skills

• Clients, family and carers: To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner with service users with a mental health, learning disability, challenging behaviour and/or personality disorder who may have specific difficulties in understanding and/or communicating and who may be hostile, antagonistic or highly emotionally disturbed.
• Multidisciplinary team colleagues: To work closely, collaboratively and supportively with colleagues in the multi-professional integrated mental health and wellbeing service on a day to day basis.
• Health & social care staff: To communicate with a wide range of health & social care staff in hospital and in community settings in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, complex and sensitive information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under the services care. To provide support & guidance in the application of psychological principles and techniques, and to foster reflective practice.
• Senior managers & professional staff: To maintain and build good working relationships with senior professional staff and managers in the Community Forensic Service, the Secure Directorate, and in DPT. to foster a positive approach to the integrated mental health and wellbeing service and to enable effective negotiation.

Analytical and Judgement Skills

• To provide specialist psychological expertise and advice
• To provide psychological therapies, developing specialist psychological formulations and assessments of clients, formulating plans for their psychological treatment and implementing specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups. Proficiency in in both individual and group therapy approaches is desirable.
• To support the Service Manager, Practice and Strategic Development Leads and Professional Leads by undertaking service development and redesign projects and coordinating the resulting work within the team.
• To provide complex assessment of specialist conditions (including gatekeeping into secure care).
• Ability to reflect and critically appraise own and others performance.

Planning and Organisational Skills

• The psychology service: To plan and organise the work of the psychology service within FPDS and to contribute to the development and improvement of provision of psychological services within the commissioned forensic secure services and wider DPT, to best meet the organisations strategy and priorities.
• The multidisciplinary service: To provide psychology leadership to the multi-professional planning, development and marketing of the Forensic Personality Disorder Service and wider Community Forensic Service. Plan, prioritise and organise own workload as well as the team workload, monitoring and adjusting activities and programmes as necessary.
• The directorate: To work as part of the psychology management structure and contribute to the planning and implementation of service developments.
• The trust: Ensure representation of your professional discipline at a strategic level in Devon Partnership NHS Trust, as appropriate and agreed with Line Manager.

Responsibility for Patient/Client Care, Treatment and Therapy

• Assessment & intervention: To provide expert psychological assessment (including risk assessment) and intervention to the Secure Services Directorate, developing specialist psychological formulations and assessments of service users, formulating plans for their psychological treatment and implementing specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, and to demonstrate awareness of diversity issues.
• Consultation & guidance: To provide advice, guidance and consultation on psychological aspects of service user care to service users, colleagues, other service providers, and families/carers. To provide training to enhance psychological understanding.

Responsibility for Policy and Service Development Implementation

• The post holder is accountable for their own professional actions, acting within Trust policies and procedures and Professional Practice Guidelines. A supervision and line management structure is in place to support implementation of Trust police and Professional Practice Guidelines.
• Policy & service: To interpret and contribute to the development of policies and procedures for the provision of psychology within the secure directorate and the wider trust.
• Research & Development: To contribute to and support the R&D activities of the psychology service and wider secure directorate, and to undertake a research programme as agreed within the service.
• Audit and evaluation: To ensure all psychology staff participate in appropriate audit and evaluation of outcomes of the psychology service and wider community forensic service.

Responsibility for Finance, Equipment and Other Resources

• Responsible for managing resources for psychologists and other assigned staff under the direct of the professional manager. To use resources appropriately, including psychometric tests.
• To be response for the safe keeping of equipment under own use.
• Ensure travel and any external training is cost-effective for yourself and supervisees

Responsibilityfor Human Resources

• Management: Responsible for line management of allocated staff as part of psychology department and FPDS team structure.
• Leadership & supervision: To provide leadership as a qualified psychologist/psychotherapist and to professionally supervise psychology staff, trainees, assistants and volunteers and other professions as required.
• To ensure therapy supervision for non-psychology staff providing psychological therapies whereby support is being provided by the community forensic services.
• To provide psychology leadership in FPDS and the wider community forensic service.
• To support placements for trainee staff in line with professionals guidelines.

Responsibility for Information Resources and Admin Duties

• To maintain accurate records in accordance with local and professional guidance and standards.
• To be responsible for using an email account to generate, monitor, and respond to the e-mail traffic by which the Trust conducts much of its internal communication.

Responsibility for Research and Development

• Please see attached job description for details.

Freedom to Act

• Please see attached job description for details.

Any Other Specific Tasks Required

• To ensure all clinical care and treatment provided by psychologists/psychotherapists/therapists is carried out under appropriate supervision and leadership.
• To ensure that all relevant staff groups continuously update the skills and techniques relevant to their clinical work.
• Working with service-users with extremely challenging and risky behaviour who have typically been excluded from other services and who are difficult to engage. An emotionally demanding job that requires excellent personal and professional boundaries and a high level of reflective capacity. To engage in sometimes intensive interventions with service-users who may present significant risks to themselves and/or others. To engage with high levels of expressed emotions in professional groups working day-to-day with a challenging group of service-users.

Experience

Essential

• - Experience of work in forensic personality disorder services or agencies and work with people with severe and complex presentation with a personality disorder diagnosis.
• - Experience of providing teaching, training reflective practice and supervision.
• - Experience in undertaking leadership roles within services in the NHS and in contributing to the development, implementation and evaluation of strategies and clinical policies in multi disciplinary, multi agency contexts.
• - Experience, and/or training in diversity awareness and social inequality.
• - Experience of providing a range of complex assessments (including risk assessment), formulation and therapies to address forensic as well as complex mental health difficulties including personality disorder.
• - Evidence of providing supervision for professionals to address forensic and mental health difficulties.
• - Experience of completing thorough assessment and risk assessment of individuals with complex needs.

Desirable

• - Proficiency in in both individual and group therapy approaches is desirable.

Communication and Working Relationship Skills

Essential

• - Excellent verbal, nonverbal and written communication skills
• - Strong leadership qualities, resilience and ability to handle ambiguity and uncertainty.
• - Skills in managing conflict, negotiation and achieving consensus in complex situations in the pursuit of agreed strategic aims
• - Ability to build effective working relationships in stressful and demanding situations.

Qualifications

Essential

• - Qualified Clinical or Counselling or Forensic Psychologist (D.Clin.Psychol. or equivalent), eligible for Chartered Clinical Psychologist Status in the British Psychological Society OR Professional Doctorate in Clinical Psychology as accredited by the HPC (or equivalent qualifications as assessed by the HPC) OR Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology (or equivalent as assessed by the HPC).
• - Further training in related area to personality disorder
• - Further training (or equivalent experience) in at least one (other) relevant psychological therapy (e.g. MBT, CAT, DBT)
• - Training in violence risk assessment (e.g. HCR-20)

Desirable

• - Further training in forensic psychology or relevant clinical specialism (e.g. forensic psychology, substance misuse)
• - Supervision training
• - Reflective practice training
• - Management / leadership training

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• - Broad knowledge of forensic services and of the services in the NHS where psychology is commonly applied.
• - Extensive knowledge of the skills, practice and knowledge base of Clinical/Forensic Psychology / Psychological Therapy.
• - Knowledge of the policy context of services within DPT and of leadership in this setting.
• - Significant understanding / knowledge of theories and methods of practice specific to people with a diagnosis of personality disorder.
• - An understanding of government policy / strategies with regard to services for people with personality disorder.
• - A good understanding of safeguarding adults/children, the Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act and the CPA process.

Analytical and Judgemental Skills

Essential

• - Ability to integrate complex data; make highly skilled evaluations and decisions; and take a long term perspective.
• - Ability to reflect and critically appraise own and others performance

Planning and Organisational Skills

Essential

• - Organisation, planning and time management skills. Ability to prioritise and work responsively and flexibly to manage individual, supervisee and organisational goals.
• - Project management skills / experience
• - Ability to work under pressure and cope with deadlines
• - Ability to work autonomously, seeking guidance as necessary

Other

Essential

• - Good communication skills when presenting / facilitating to varying groups of people.
• - Highly skilled in specialist interventions with the client group.
• - Advanced psychological assessment and formulation skills including risk assessment.
• - Ability and motivation to work independently within defined occupational procedures and use initiate within a forensic mental health service.
• - Ability to work as a member of a clinical team and to work collaboratively, flexibly and supportively.
• - Ability to tolerate ambiguity and maintain own morale and motivation in challenging service delivery contexts.
• - Ability and experience of reflecting on practice and to understand, respond to and be receptive to the process of professional development.
• - Understanding that clinical supervisors and line management may change and that this role is not restricted to one area of the Directorate.
• - The ability to travel across the South West Peninsula in order to carry out client assessments and to attend relevant meetings as required.
• - An Enhanced CRB Check will be required for this role.

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).