Psychological Therapist - HMP Downview

Job overview

Central & North West London NHS Foundation Trust is a Top Employer Award Winner & works in partnership to provide responsive & dependable primary care, mental health, intellectual disability & substance misuse services to the diverse and culturally rich communities we serve.

In our quest to deliver patient-focused quality care we are looking to recruit a highly motivated, innovative and enthusiastic Psychological Therapist to join our forward thinking, friendly & expanding Health & Justice Team at HMP Downview. This is a new post developed to expand the therapy provision & joins an established MDT, which includes nursing, psychiatry, assistant psychologists, clinical psychologists & art therapy. By joining our Team, you will not only look after the healthcare needs of our patients, but who also have the opportunity to have a real impact on promoting health & well-being.

Our motto is “Caring NOT Judging” so by working in partnership with the criminal justice system & other agencies, we provide responsive, dependable & high-quality primary care & mental health services to those who may have offended & those at risk of offending in the communities we serve, to improve their health status & to encourage social inclusion.

Why not see what our staff say about working within our award winning teams: https://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/health-and-justice/find-out-what-its-work-health-and-justice

Main duties of the job

We are keen to recruit a confident & compassionate Psychological Therapist with tier 3-4 stepped care therapy expertise to join our team. You will be a clinician with experience of working with complex needs & a real passion for providing support to some of the most vulnerable in society. We want to see someone who will work well with a range of professions, both within the established MDT & also with the wider prison staff, respecting & integrating a range of opinions and approaches to provide the best outcome . A clinical interest in trauma informed approaches & working with personality disorders would be advantageous.

CNWL Health & Justice Services provide healthcare in numerous secure & community settings & employ a range of psychologists & psychological therapists with clinical, counselling & forensic trainings. We provide mental health services in multiple sites, across prisons & secure hospitals, with children & adults, men & women and across the range of security categories. Psychologists also lead four specialist Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) services & the Sexual Behaviour Service in the youth estate. Joining a large, forward-thinking Trust will bring successful candidates excellent development opportunities, an exciting career structure, and job satisfaction. Psychologists from across Health & Justice come together for professional & clinical development and supervision and continuing professional development & post graduate training is actively encouraged.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

KEY RESULT AREAS

Clinical

• To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients, 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 clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, and groups, 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 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 clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
• To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulations, diagnoses and treatment plans.
• To attend seclusion and segregation reviews, recovery team meetings and safer custody meetings in the prison as appropriate and to offer psychological opinion about management and appropriate referrals in that context.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
• To act as care coordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating, planning and review of care plans under enhanced CPA including clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved the network of care.
• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.
• To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping, including electronic data entry and recording, and report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance, in accordance with professional codes of practice of required professional accrediting body, and Trust policies and procedures.
• To work innovatively and in conjunction with colleagues (both mental health and prison staff) to develop appropriate, evidence based and effective services for those in prison.

Teaching, training, and supervision

• To receive regular clinical supervision from a suitably qualified and experienced psychological therapist and, where appropriate, other professional colleagues.
• To develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision and to provide supervision to other MDT staff’s psychological work, as appropriate.
• To provide professional and clinical supervision of Band 6 psychological therapists, assistant/graduate psychologists and, as appropriate, to contribute to the supervision of individual cases for trainee psychologists and psychological therapists.
• To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of applied psychology and psychological therapy, as appropriate.
• To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.

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 advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.
• To manage the workloads of Band 6 psychological therapists, assistant and graduate psychologists, within the framework of the service’s policies and procedures.
• As negotiated and within time constraints, the post holder will be expected to attend relevant clinical and professional meetings within and outside the prison.
• To develop, with colleagues from the prison, health and third-sector organisations peer led/service-user facilitated support, education and treatment programmes.

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 appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research.
• To undertake project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues to help develop service provision.
• To familiarise themselves with, and to comply with, the Trust’s requirements on research governance.

IT responsibilities (other than those used for research)

• The post holder will input and maintain, appropriate computer and manual clinical records and statistical data and provide this to the Service Manager/Head of Speciality when necessary.
• The postholder will engage in relevant computer and IT training as required.
• The postholder will be responsible for ensuring that the psychology service staff they are responsible for/supervise engage in relevant computer and IT training as required and will input and maintain, appropriate computer and manual clinical records and statistical data.

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 postholder’s professional and service manager.
• To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychology across the service, by continuing to develop the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of applied psychology and related disciplines.
• To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health.