Practitioner Psychologist Band 8b - Forensic Psych Services

Job overview

1 x Band 8b Clinical/Counselling/Forensic Psychologist Post - (0.8wte)

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Senior Psychologist, with considerable clinical experience working in forensic inpatient services, to join EPUT’s Forensic Psychological Service in a combined clinical and leadership role.

Main duties of the job

This role will involve providing highly specialist clinical services to forensic patients (0.5 wte) as well as providing operational leadership (0.3 wte) within the service. The post will be based at Brockfield House (Wickford, Essex) and will also include some clinical and management responsibility for staff at EPUT’s other forensic inpatient units: Edward House (Chelmsford, Essex), Robin Pinto Unit (Luton) and Wood Lea Clinic (Bedford).

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES CLINICAL

• To provide highly specialist psychological assessments of service users referred to the team, based upon the appropriate use, analysis, interpretation and integration of highly complex psychological data from a variety of sources including: psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations, semi-structured interviews with service users, family members and others involved in the service user’s care.
• To be responsible for formulation and implementation of complex plans for formal psychological treatment and/or management of service users’ offending behaviours, mental health/developmental disability/behavioural problems, based on an appropriate conceptual framework of the problems and employing methods of evidence based efficacy across the full range of care settings.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups based on formulations and drawing on different explanatory psychological models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
• To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options and any adjustment to plans, as treatment progresses, taking into account theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical, developmental processes, which have shaped the individual, family or group
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for psychological assessment, treatment and discharge of service users, communicating with MDTs and others involved in care on a regular basis
• To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to colleagues in the team, carers from the public, private and voluntary sector and families, as well as courts and solicitors where required
• To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group
• To ensure members of the clinical team have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding care of service users through provision of advice and consultation and dissemination of psychological research and theory. To advise, support and facilitate effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the team

Please see full 'Job Description' and 'Person Specification' attachments for full details of the role.

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.