Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen within CPFT for a qualified Psychologist to join the Liaison and Diversion Service. The successful candidate will be working with people who have received a Mental Health Treatment Requirement (MHTR) by the court as a result of having committed low level offending and experiencing co-occurring mental health conditions across Cambridgeshire.

This is a part time position of 3 days a week which can be flexible within the needs of the service.

Main duties of the job

The service delivers MHTRs for adults within the demographic area.

The post holder will provide supervision to assistant psychologists completing structured assessments of offenders who the courts are considering placing on a MHTR order.

The post holder will need to consider the appropriate use, interpretation, and integration of complex data from a variety of sources to help the assistant determine suitability for the offender to be offered a MHTR and to commence a manualised psycho-educational treatment programme provided by the assistant psychologist. Also undertake risk assessment and risk management of offenders prior to them commencing manualised treatment programmes with an assistant psychologist. To exercise full responsibility and autonomy for the treatment of and discharge of offenders receiving manualised treatment under MHTRs, ensuring appropriate assessment, formulation and interventions are communicated with the assistant psychologist providing the treatments.

The post holder would be expected to offer regular clinical supervision to the assistant psychologists delivering the MHTR interventions. They would be expected to provide clinical oversight and guidance around the assessment, formulation, treatment planning and delivery of the intervention.

The post holder would be expected to  contribute to the wider service development, considering the local needs and how the implementation of the MHTR service can be achieved across Cambridgeshire.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities
• To provide clinical oversight and guidance of Assistant Psychologists work relating to assessments, formulations, treatment planning and delivery of care to service users.
• To offer regular clinical supervision to Assistant Psychologists who will be carrying out suitability assessment and delivering low intensity psychological interventions.
• To hold their own small caseload of direct clinical therapeutic work with the service users.
• To formulate risk and clinical need in collaboration with team members.
• To formulate plans for the psychological treatment and/or management of offenders based upon appropriate conceptual frameworks of risk management, mental health, family systems and individual psychological functioning.
• To make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about risk management and treatment options considering both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical, developmental, and systemic processes that have shaped the offender.
• To provide expertise and specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to offenders’ formulation, diagnosis, and treatment plan.
• To provide clinical expertise to the Liaison and Diversion Service, providing a high quality, specialist applied psychology service to offenders.
• To manage risk and improve outcomes for offenders by providing weekly supervision to an assistant psychologist who will be working with offenders to offer them a manualised treatment under Mental Health Treatment Requirements (MHTRs) ordered by the courts as a part of a Community Order.
• To support the clinical lead in providing consultation and clinical expertise to colleagues in the Liaison and Diversion service to encourage a psychological approach in their work and to facilitate their professional development, reflective capacity and the effective and safe delivery of Liaison and Diversion Services.
• To utilise research skills for audit, service development and research, particularly with respect to evaluating the MHTRs and monitoring outcome for the interventions provided by the assistant psychologist.