Clinical Practitioner

Job description

Job responsibilities

Clinical:

To contribute to the provision of expert advice, consultation, formulation, assessment and treatment for individuals with personality difficulties and for staff working with these individuals.

To provide specialist psychosocial interventions, risk management and advice for highly complex service users with significant psychological difficulties following their release from prison; integrating highly complex information from a variety of sources addressing both risk and personality difficulties, and requiring analysis, interpretation and comparison of a range of options.

To formulate and implement plans for service users effective support and management, based upon an appropriate theoretical and evidence-based framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence and practice and professional guidelines.

To provide specialist advice and consultation on resettlement to probation and prison staff, mental health services, and other relevant criminal justice, health and third sector agencies.

To plan, organize and implement a range of specialist psychosocial interventions and activities requiring formulation and adjustment in response to service users, and where appropriate carers and involved professionals; co-working with clinical and non-clinical colleagues as appropriate.

To evaluate and make decisions about interventions and support, 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 communicate highly sensitive information and decisions in situations where there may be barriers to acceptance and a hostile, antagonistic or highly emotive atmosphere.

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for assessment and interventions with service users whose problems are managed by psychosocially informed care/pathway plans within the OPD Pathway.

To develop specialist desistance and stabilisation programmes for individual service users with highly complex presentations, and highly specialized advice for multi-agency professionals within the OPD Pathway

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual service users in community settings, and to provide advice to other professions on psychosocial aspects of risk assessment and risk management.

To take responsibility for initiating planning and review of psychosocial interventions and care/pathway plans including service users, their carers, referring agents and others involved the network of care.

To provide specialist psychosocial advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to service users formulations and pathway plans.

To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychosocially-based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all users of the service, across all settings and agencies.

To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner information concerning the assessment, formulation, intervention and support plans of service users within the OPD Pathway and to monitor progress during the course of multi-agency pathway delivery.

Teaching, training and supervision:

Management, recruitment and service development:

To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the teams operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.

To contribute to the development of the services governance and strategy, and to implement and monitor policy and practice initiatives as required.

To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychosocial and/or organisational matters need addressing.

To implement policy and propose changes to practices and procedures within the service area and the OPD Pathway.

To help manage the workloads of Band 6 and 5 clinical practitioners and support workers, within the framework of the team/services policies and procedures.

To be involved, as appropriate, in the shortlisting and interviewing of multidisciplinary staff.

To be involved in service development projects as agreed by the professional lead.

IT responsibilities

To be proficient in the use of IT for email, intranet and clinical record purposes. To be familiar with word processing and database packages; to use appropriate computer software to develop and create clinical or other service-related reports or documents.

Research and service evaluation

To use theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

To initiate, implement and contribute to the evaluation, monitoring and development of the service, including audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within and across the service, to help develop and improve services to all service users.

To contribute to the evaluation, monitoring and development of the multi-disciplinary team.

To contribute to the development, implementation, evaluation and monitoring of the Directorates and Trusts operational policies and services.

General

To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the post holders professional and service manager(s).

To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice across the service, by continuing to develop relevant professional skills taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the relevant disciplines.

To maintain 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 and Trust policies and procedures.

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.

Person Specification

Education & Qualifications

Essential

• First level qualification in social work, occupational therapy, or equivalent core profession
• Professional registration with the relevant regulatory body e.g. the Health and Care Professional's Council (HPC/HCPC); Social Work England OR Accreditation with a professional body (e.g. BABCP; BPC) in a recognised therapy (e.g. CBT, MBT, CAT etc.)

Desirable

• Received training (either formally or through experience) in risk assessments and/or formulation
• Received training (either formally or through experience) in a therapeutic approach commonly used with service users with complex personality difficulties

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working with service users with complex needs and challenging behaviour, including personality difficulties

Desirable

• Experience of working within a forensic setting or with a forensic population
• Experience of working in diverse inner-city areas
• Experience of providing supervision
• Experience of working in a multidisciplinary team

Knowledge & Skills

Essential

• Ability to work therapeutically with the client group, and maintain a safe therapeutic environment
• Skills in planning, organising and delivering appropriate interventions and activities based on analysis, formulation, monitoring and adjustment of individual and environmental factors
• Ability to work well within a team and foster good working relationships, as well as work autonomously to manage own caseload and time
• Ability to work under pressure and to deal with emergency situations/crises/highly emotional situations safely and effectively
• Skills in effective management of conflict, anger, rejection and other common difficulties presented by service users with personality disorder
• Ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, sensitive and potentially distressing information to service users and other professional colleagues, both within and outside the NHS
• Skills in delivering support in a range of modalities including face to face, over the phone and online
• Ability to be reflective in therapeutic practice and use clinical supervision and personal development positively and effectively
• Knowledge and understanding of issues relating to information recording and sharing, and confidentiality

Desirable

• Familiarity with therapeutic approaches commonly used with service users with complex personality difficulties
• Skills in providing low intensity psychological interventions
• Knowledge of the Offender Personality Disorder Community Pathway
• Specialist knowledge of the theory and practice of desistance with offenders
• Ability to give specialist advice on the recovery/desistance process with respect to people with serious offence histories and personality disorder, within and outside LPP, e.g. prisons, probation, MAPPA, CMHTs

Other

Essential

• Ability to work in probation services, in line with HMPPS policy and procedures and obtain and maintain enhanced security clearance.

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).

Employer details

Employer name

North London NHS Foundation Trust

Address

St John Street Probation Office

401 St John Street

Islington

EC1V 4RW

United Kingdom

Employer's website

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