Clinical/Forensic/Counselling Psychologist

Job overview

This is a Part-time post 0.6 WTE. There may be opportunities for an additional 0.4 WTE in the future.

This role is based oi the services delivered by London Pathways Partnership (LPP) for the national Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) Pathway service in HMP Brixton. LPP is a consortium of five NHS Trusts. All LPP services are co-delivered with criminal justice partners, and aim to reduce reoffending, improve psychological wellbeing and develop the skills and confidence of the workforce.

The London Pathways Unit (LPU) service in HMP Brixton is a residential unit for high-risk people in prison with significant psychological, emotional and personality difficulties who are approaching release. The post holder will offer assessment, interventions and desistance-focused resettlement support.

Main duties of the job

This is an innovative role, which aims to enhance the development of appropriate pathways through custody and into the community for people in prison/on probation. It is open to psychologists with a demonstrated interest in working with complex psychological, emotional and personality difficulties within a forensic context, ideally including experience of working in a prison setting. The post provides numerous opportunities to develop leadership, consultation, liaison and training skills and clinical expertise and experience. As well as jointly delivering a service with prison and probation colleagues, the post holder will work closely with the wider forensic psychological therapies team, LPP and will have additional opportunities to develop skills and experience.

The post holder will contribute actively to service development, including culturally and trauma informed services for people of differing ethnicity and socio-economic status. The role will include supervisory responsibilities for junior colleagues. There are numerous opportunities for training in specialist psychological modalities (MBT, Schema, EMDR).

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key tasks and responsibilities

Clinical:

• 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 service user’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence and practice and professional guidelines.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychosocial interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
• To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options 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 exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of service user’s whose difficulties are managed by psychologically-based care and risk plans.
• To provide specialist advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to service user s’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment.
• To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically-based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all service user’s of the service, across all settings and agencies.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual service user s and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
• 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 work jointly with HMPPS staff to undertake key work tasks and develop desistance plans.

Teaching, training, and supervision

1. To receive regular supervision from a senior clinical psychologist and/or relevant senior professional colleague, and line management from the identified line manager.

2. To continue to gain post-qualification experience in psychosocial interventions and management, within and beyond the principal service area where the post-holder is employed.

3. To develop skills in teaching, training and supervision and to provide supervision to other multi-agency staff and relevant professional practice as appropriate.

4. To provide mentorship and supervision to students on placement from the relevant professional practice area.

5. To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of relevant multi-disciplinary and multi-agency staff as appropriate.

6. To co-produce and co-deliver workforce development interventions with service users within and beyond the postholder’s principal service area.

7. To contribute to external and internal training programmes.

Management, recruitment, policy and service development

• To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team’s operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.
• To contribute to the development of the service’s 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 practitioners and junior staff within the framework of the team/service’s 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, database and statistical packages, and to use such packages for complex data analysis as necessary.
• To use appropriate computer software to develop and create clinical or other service-related reports or documents.

Research and service evaluation

• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
• To undertake research as appropriate within the service, Directorate or multi-centred research across Trusts and to supervise research and audit projects.
• To initiate, implement and contribute to the evaluation, monitoring and development of the service, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within and across the service, to help develop and improve services to service user s and their families.
• To contribute to the evaluation, monitoring and development of the multi-disciplinary team.
• To contribute to the development, implementation, evaluation and monitoring of the Directorate’s and Trust’s 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 holder’s 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 service user group and mental health.

Confidentiality

In the course of your employment with East London NHS Trust you may handle confidential personal information concerning either patients or staff which may be held by the Trust. You must not read, discuss, disclose or pass on confidential information unless it is necessary in the pursuance of your legitimate duties.

Unauthorised disclosure of such information will be treated as a serious disciplinary matter. In addition it is important that you realise that if this confidentiality is breached, this may result in civil proceedings or a criminal prosecution.

This confidentiality must continue at all times and this agreement will continue beyond your period of employment with East London NHS Trust.

Risk Management

The Post holder will ensure compliance with the Trust’s risk management policies and procedures. These describe the Trust’s commitment to risk management, the recognition that our aim is to protect patients, staff and visitors from harm and stress and that all staff have a responsibility to minimise risk.

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.