Offender Personality Disorder Psychologist

Job responsibilities

Provide specialist consultation/formulation and supervision to the Probation Service East/West Kent PDU for their work with offenders with severe and complex personality disorders.

Undertake work with the Probation Service East/West Kent PDU for offenders with severe and complex personality disorders. To record and submit performance data in a timely fashion.

Undertake high quality direct (assessment and therapeutic) and indirect(consultative, advisory and evaluative) specialist psychology interventions in theseservices taking substantial professional responsibility and exercising autonomous judgement in their professional practice.

Ensure the clinical effectiveness of own practice and of service functioning by undertaking research and development activities relevant to the service area.

Be regularly responsible for providing supervision to trainee psychologists in this specialism.

Please see the attached Job Description for full details and main responsibilities of the role.

Training, Qualifications and Registration

Essential

• The post holder will be a chartered psychologist (Forensic, Clinical, Counselling) with a minimum of two years post qualification experience in working in a variety of mental health settings.
• Post-graduate doctoral level training in applied psychology [or its equivalent for those trained before 1996 or outside the UK*] as approved by the HCPC, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology. *For forensic psychologists working in forensic settings: Masters degree (with the award of the British Psychological Society qualification in forensic psychology or equivalent).
• Professionally registered as a Practitioner Psychologist with Health Care Professions Council.

Desirable

• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.

Experience

Essential

• They will have experience of working successfully in a team context, providing direct clinical services in a team setting, including dealing with complex cases. They will be able to work independently within the general guidelines set by the Psychology Service.
• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings.
• Demonstrate specialist experience gained post-qualification of working as an applied psychologist with evidence of having received a substantial amount of clinical supervision (normally in the region of approximately 50 hours).
• 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.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience of the application of applied psychology in different cultural contexts and experience of working within a multicultural framework.
• Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
• Experience or demonstrable knowledge of working with the client group served by the team/service - The post holder will have a thorough understanding of personality disorder, trauma informed practice and neurodiversity.

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Knowledge of guidance and legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialist psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies. High level of knowledge and skills in neuropsychology and evidence of further practice and/or training since qualification.
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC.
• Approach/Values - Demonstrate support for the values and beliefs of the Care Group and those of the Trust.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the practices of Human Rights in the delivery of this role.
• Commitment to empowering service users, their relatives and carers at all levels.
• Commitment to multidisciplinary team working. The belief that people with mental and physical illness have the capacity for personal growth and learning, and the same goals as any other person.
• The belief that service users have the intrinsic right to be involved in all aspects of their care, including the development and evaluation of the service.
• Ability to travel across sites.
• Supports the values and beliefs of Biopsychosocial models of work.
• Punctual and flexible across hours of work when required.
• Emotional Effort: Ability to deal with distressing or emotional circumstances and take care of own well being on a very regular and frequent basis.
• Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours on a regular basis.
• 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.
• Communication/Relationship skills: Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical, and 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 non-professional groups.
• Analytical & Judgement skills: Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment formulation and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Planning & Organisational skills: Ability to work within a large geographical area effectively, managing travel arrangements and using creative working solutions.
• Ability to plan and manage a complex work load with competing demands.
• Ability to plan and implement projects.
• People Management/Leadership/Resources Skills in clinical supervision of others.
• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• IT skills Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings.
• Ability to use electronic clinical record systems. Experience of software e.g. SPSS, EXCEL and MS Teams.
• Physical skills: Ability to use a keyboard /computer.

Desirable

• Full, clean driving licence.

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).