Practitioner Psychologist - Forensic or Clinical

Job overview

To provide a comprehensive, highly specialist clinical and forensic psychology service within the National High Secure Healthcare Service for Women (NHSHSW). To provide highly specialist psychological assessment, formulation and intervention as well as offering advice and consultation regarding service users’ psychological care to other members of the clinical team. To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within Rampton Hospital.

The post-holder will provide a highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy service to female service users within the NHSHSW. The post-holder will offer advice and consultation on psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues, working autonomously within professional guidelines and the Hospital’s policies, procedures and service priorities.

The post-holder will participate fully in multidisciplinary clinical teams, at times leading them. They will develop knowledge and skills in general aspects of forensic clinical psychology and the assessment and treatment of service users who are legally detained as ‘mentally disordered’ and experience a range of complex mental health difficulties. The post-holder will be capable of conducting projects, working largely independently, with only general briefings and working directly to Trust senior managers.

Main duties of the job

Clinical or Work Practice

• To provide specialist psychological assessments to service users within the National High Secure Healthcare Service for Women, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex 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 and others involved in the service user’s care.
• To formulate and implement plans for the psychological treatment and/or management of a service user’s mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the service user’s difficulties, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions, individual and group, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of service users whose difficulties are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
• To liaise closely with other members of the multidisciplinary team, giving authoritative specialist advice on psychological aspects of care, contributing directly to formulation, diagnosis and treatment planning.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

As detailed above and in job description. In summary

Please note applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment. The cost of the DBS application is £26.40 (standard) or £54.40 (enhanced), this cost will be deducted from your salary over the first 2 months of employment.

You are encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service. An annual fee of £16 per year applies.

Rampton Hospital is currently consulting on the introduction of a probationary period. Candidates should note that, if approved, this may be applicable at the time of appointment to this post.

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.