Practitioner Psychologist - Forensic/Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Job overview

SPECIALISED DELIVERY UNIT - NEXUS PERSONALITY DISORDER SERVICE, HMP EASTWOOD PARK BAND 7 FORENSIC/CLINICAL/COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGIST 0.6 WTE, 22.5 hrs p/w, Fixed Term position - 30 months

The Nexus Service within HMP Eastwood Park forms part of the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway and is jointly commissioned by Avon & Wiltshire NHS Trust and His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service.

The Nexus service encompasses a residential PIPE treatment service, a Day treatment service and an Outreach service (within the prison). Individuals accessing Nexus engage in psychological treatment to help understand the origins and nature of their difficulties, and develop an individualised treatment plan.

The role will include assessment, formulation and intervention (1:1 and group) with individuals convicted of violent and sexual offences, in addition to offering consultation and supervision to other agencies and colleagues as appropriate. The post-holder will also take on other duties in the team as required, including conducting risk assessments, audit and service evaluation.

Main duties of the job

To observe professional and Trust guidelines for professional conduct, including accurate record keeping and to undertake CPD and attend personal clinical supervision sessions. To provide clinical supervision to Assistant Psychologists, other professionals and Forensic Psychologists in Training

 D.  TRAINING AND STAFF DEVELOPMENT

Working for our organisation

We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust): a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care.

We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.

Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

1. 1 To provide a specialist psychological service within the Nexus Personality Disorder Service including assessment (risk assessment) and therapy for both individuals and groups as appropriate.
2. 2 To communicate, for prolonged periods of time highly, complex and sensitive information to distressed and/or aggressive service-users including psychological formulations and treatment options.
3. 3 To provide a specialist consultancy service to multidisciplinary teams and other agencies providing care for the client group.
4. 4 To participate in generic team duties as agreed by the operational manager and Psychology Lead as appropriate, to the needs of the service.
5. 5 To participate in regular clinical and caseload supervision arrangements provided by the Psychology Service in accordance with good practice guidelines.
6. 6 To maintain accurate records and to monitor clinical workload using agreed systems.
7. 7 To ensure timely recording of all data required by the Trust.
8. 8 To provide peer clinical supervision to other MDT staff where appropriate.
9. People leadership and management
10. 1 Provide inclusive, compassionate and effective leadership for your team by setting clear vision and direction.
11. 2 Develop a culture and environment in which members of staff are encouraged and supported to deliver high- quality services and are supported to innovate and improve services where appropriate.
12. 3 Encourage your team to feel able to raise concerns openly and safely.
13. 4 Promote equality of opportunity in service delivery and employment, ensuring that no person receives less favourable treatment than another on the grounds of gender, marital status, race, religion, creed, colour nationality ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation or disability.
14. 5 Support prompt recruitment by identifying vacancies to the AWP Recruitment Team as soon as they arise, and participate in the selection and effective induction and on boarding of new joiners to the team.
15. 6 Ensure that all team members have a very positive introduction to the team and a well-supported first year.
16. 7 Take responsibility for encouraging people to stay with AWP, ensuring that you are aware whenever a member of your team is considering leaving, seeking to understand their reasons and encouraging them to stay.
17. 8 Ensure that key messages are cascaded in your team and that your team are encouraged to put forward suggestions.
18. 9 Show appreciation to your team when they do good work and support them when they are struggling.
19. 10 Consider the individual needs of team members for a healthy work-life balance and think about how their needs can be supported by providing flexible ways of working.
20. 11 Support all team members to keep their mandatory and statutory training up-to-date and identify the learning and development needs of all team members of the team ensuring that everyone has an up-to-date personal development plan (PDP).
21. 12 Ensure that every team member as at least an hour of supervision (one-to-one meeting) each month, this may include both managerial and clinical supervision.
22. 13 Ensure all team members receive a constructive assessment of their performance each year and set SMART objectives for the coming year.
23. 14 Seek support from the HR Team to tackle any worries regarding matters of discipline, including both conduct and capability concerns, supporting a ‘just and restorative culture’. Take prompt action regarding serious concerns and ensure clear plans are in place for problems which are less serious in nature but prove difficult to resolve.
24. 15 Act as a positive role model at all times, encouraging people to feel equal members of the team whilst working within clear frameworks and policies.
25. 16 Promote effective use of bank and agency nursing staff, providing a safe and effective service, complying with regulatory standards.
26. Performance and information management
27. 1 Ensure that you and your team understand all of the agreed key performance indicators for your service, particularly relating to outcomes and essential standards to be met.
28. 2 Ensure that you and your team understand data quality standards and that all the necessary records for your service are maintained and reported.
29. 3 Ensure that you and your team understand all of the clinical and business action plans relevant to your services.
30. 4 Ensure that you and your team understand all of the monitoring, auditing and reporting systems relevant to your services.
31. Service development and planning
32. 1 Actively seek opportunities for improvement for the services which you and your team provide by identifying research evidence and best practice elsewhere, interpreting/translating and facilitating adaptation for AWP.
33. 2 Analyse and interpret data to inform the strategic direction of the services which you and your team provide
34. 3 Ensure multidisciplinary involvement and the use of quality improvement (QI) techniques in service improvement, by negotiating shared solutions, facilitating the resolution of complex or contentious issues and managing any conflict into constructive outcomes.
35. 4 Ensure effective risk identification, analysis, mitigation and management within your services, encouraging all members of your team to be aware of and to manage risks.
36. Governance and policy
37. 1 Ensure that you understand all of the key governance requirements, policies and standards for your services and that these are communicated to your team; make sure your team understand the importance of good governance.
38. 2 Support the development of policies relevant to your services, including your team in this work.

PLEASE SEE JD ATTACHED FOR MORE DETAILS

Person specification

Experience

• Qualified Psychologist Practitioner registered with HCPC
• Significant experience of undertaking psychological therapy on a 1:1 or group basis
• Experience of developing and communicating formulations to multidisciplinary teams to understand an individuals difficulties
• Experience of providing clinical supervision to multidisciplinary teams
• Experience of undertaking risk assessments

• Experience of working with female service users in a forensic setting
• Experience of supervising Forensic Psychologists in Training
• Experience of undertaking clinical consultancy and project work

This includes people with a variety of disabilities and neurodivergent conditions (for example autism, ADHD, sensory, physical and learning disabilities).

We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service users.

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Please apply to join us, we would love to hear from you. Any personal details you supply to us are kept safe in line with the General Data Protection Regulations.

Adverts normally close for application a few minutes before midnight on the closing date and we will let you know if we are offering you an interview by email via our recruitment system ‘TRAC’. We contact all applicants within 4 weeks after the closing date, so please check your emails regularly once you have submitted your application; you are welcome to contact us, via the TRAC system, if you have any queries about your application.

Please note the use of AI is monitored and if you have used it in your application you are required to declare this.