Applied Practitioner Psychologist

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an Applied Psychologist to join MPFT’s Forensic Directorate Psychological Service, within our secure inpatient Learning Disability Service at Ellesmere House, Stafford. This post is a fixed-term post, for a period of 12 months, to provide maternity leave cover.

Ellesmere House is a 12-bed inpatient service in Stafford.  The service supports the recovery of adult men with cognitive needs and who present with risk behaviours, via high quality multi-disciplinary care.

Applications are invited from Clinical, Counselling and Forensic Psychologists at Band 7 or 8a, depending on experience. Experience of working in forensic services is not essential as relevant training will be provided, but is desirable. Of primary importance is an interest in working with our client group and a commitment to contributing to improving the quality of life of the service users we support.

We would love to hear from you if you have an interest in person-centered, compassion focused, trauma informed approaches and are keen to offer a psychological perspective and approach within an established and supportive MDT.

You will be well supported and receive supervision from a Consultant Clinical Psychologist. The role is part of a wider psychology team - comprised of over 15 psychological professionals across MPFT’s forensic inpatient and community services. This wider psychology team is a source of support, peer learning and professional development.

Main duties of the job

The successful applicant will lead provision of a specialist psychological service on a forensic learning disability inpatient ward.  The service supports service users in their recovery in relation to their mental health and risk related needs.

The Psychological Service strives to provide a high quality, psychological service for men with complex, long term difficulties, who often have experienced trauma. Working in a forensic inpatient setting requires the ability to engage with service users responsible for offences that have caused violent or sexual harm. Strong emphasis is placed on supporting the wider workforce, enhancing their understanding of and support for psychologically-informed ways of working, for example through use of formulation-based meetings, while also supporting them in their roles through provision of reflective practice, critical incident support and training.

Supervision and support will be offered by and to other members of the wider psychology team.

The Psychological Service offer is multi-modal, using a wide and flexible range of therapeutic models and types of psychological interventions, both individually and in groups where appropriate. The post-holder will be expected to have established skills in the use of highly complex methods of psychological assessment and intervention. Experience of risk assessment, engaging hard to reach service users, inpatient working and coproduction are desirable.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see attached Job Description and Person Specification for the roles.

Clinical Responsibilities

• To work with service users and staff on the Forensic Directorate inpatient wards and in outpatient settings if appropriate.
• To work with service users and other professionals in community settings, including local hospitals, mental health resource centres, Social Services and Probation Offices as required.
• To work with service users and staff in prisons, special hospitals and other secure facilities as required.
• To routinely work with service users who have been perpetrators and/or victims of offences that cause serious harm and/or who show behaviour that is severely challenging services.  This includes behaviour that may be violent and or cause sexual harm.
• To provide highly specialist psychological assessments for service users of the Forensic Directorate based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex psychological data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological 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 user’s care.