Clinical Psychologist

Nexgen Locum requires a qualified psychologist in Wellingborough with some managerial experience and knowledge of complex mental health and forensic needs to support the development and embedding of a trauma-informed mental health service model across one male establishment. Research shows that males coming into prison have multiple unmet social, emotional and mental health needs and high-risk behaviours that have persisted over time. Although individuals coming into prison may meet the diagnostic criteria for multiple disorders, their needs and risks can be best understood as arising within the context of traumatic life events and disrupted relationships, often beginning in childhood. Research shows that over 25% of the adult prison population has previously been in care and 55% of girls in the 15-18 age group in custody have spent time in care. The successful candidate is someone that understands the impact of childhood adversity and socio-cultural oppression/deprivation and its impact on mental health and offending behaviour. The needs and risks of people in prison can best be supported by using a psychologically informed approach to support the mental health team and the discipline staff in their day-to-day work with the residents. Supporting these relationships and upskilling frontline professionals in their daily interactions will enable the residents to acquire the skills necessary to manage their own emotions and behaviour more effectively. This approach focuses on supporting both mental health and discipline staff in working collaboratively through developing awareness of trauma processes and how this impacts both residents and professionals interpersonally as well as on how this contributes to the maintenance of survival strategies and/or risky behaviours. This approach does not preclude the use of specialised interventions, or existing processes and roles within the current mental care health pathway, but integrates these into a more comprehensive pathway that also includes the discipline staff and other professional groups within the different settings.

The Role

Offering clinical support and oversight to the Integrated Mental Health Team (IMHT) in the form of training, reflective practice/ clinical supervision, case consultations & clinical supervision of Assistant Psychologists. The role also includes core duties such as undertaking psychological assessments, supporting complex multi-disciplinary formulations and delivering psychological interventions for cases of great complexity. Currently, therapeutic expertise across our services includes cognitive-behavioural, schema focused, compassion focused, EMDR, dialectical behaviour and mentallisation based therapies. Experience of using and reporting structured clinical judgment tools is desirable and a familiarity with relevant psychometric assessments essential. The emphasis is to provide a high quality, psychological service for individuals with complex, long term problems. There is an expectation that you’ll contribute through consultation with the prison to discussions and management of complex patients and feed into prison processes such as the Assessment Care in Custody Teamwork (ACCT) process and the Challenge, Support and Intervention Plan (CSIP). To support the current Talking Therapies and Psychology delivery and assist the integrated mental health team in the overall development of the availability of evidence based therapies.

The role involves the delivery and oversight of both 1:1 and group-intervention as part of the Trauma Informed ‘Making Sense’ Programme.

To deliver teaching and training to healthcare staff and prison staff as required as well as contribute to the training programme for the organization.

To contribute to the development of audit, service evaluation and research profile as appropriate.

Give expert clinical advice and outstanding evidence based care, listening and acting on patient feedback so that care is personalised and informed by what matters to them. You will also provide supervision of the day to day delivery of mental health therapies and lead on development of clinical practice and the implementation of the mental health/talking therapies pathway.

Deliver non-judgemental, culturally sensitive care by leading the team to deliver care that is safe, evidence-based and of high quality, patient centred care and meet CQC requirements following our policies, procedures and always considering safeguarding.

Inspire excellence in your colleagues by pro-actively leading and motivating the team recognising that our workforce is our most valuable asset. You will provide professional leadership to ensure we provide a service that people can trust, feel safe within and feel proud of.

Promote trauma informed care, best practice, clinical supervision, evidence based care and continuous quality improvement embedding a culture of reflection and shared learning.

Share knowledge, skills and expertise to ensure safe care and support your clinical and non-clinical colleagues to do a great job

Essential Skills Needed:

· Satisfactory completion of a British Psychological Society accredited Doctoral Level postgraduate professional training course in clinical psychology (the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996), the completion of which includes the study of models of psychopathology, psychometric and neuropsychological assessment, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.

· Assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical/forensic/counselling psychologist for a minimum of 3 years post qualification. Highly developed theoretical and practical knowledge of the field of clinical/forensic psychology, consistent with doctoral level professional training and further post qualification study, training and supervised experience as a qualified psychologist.

· Experience of highly specialist psychological assessment and individual and group based treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including primary and secondary/ specialist care and inpatient/residential, outpatient and community team settings and forensic settings.

· Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, with clients of all ages across the lifespan and of wide-ranging presenting problems that reflect the full spectrum of clinical complexity and severity.

· Skills in the use of highly complex methods of psychological assessment commensurate with doctoral level training, including specialist clinical interviewing, behavioural observation, complex psychometric testing and specialist neuropsychological testing.

· Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills (written and verbal) including the ability to empathically, sensitively and effectively communicate clinical and condition related information to clients, their families, carers and professional colleagues (within and outside the organization) that is extremely complicated or technical; extremely sensitive and potentially distressing to the recipient; or that is extremely contentious or challenging.

· Registered with professional body or regulatory body as appropriate to psychological therapy discipline i.e., HCPC/BPS

· Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the professional body.

· Experience working with psychological Trauma

· Team Player

Additional information

Disclosure and Barring Service - a Disclosure and Barring Service disclosure at the enhanced level is required for this role. A risk assessment will be undertaken if necessary.

Prison Vetting - a HMPPS (Her Majesties Prison and Probation Service) clearance is required for this role in accordance with Ministry of Justice, plus local prison vetting.

Full Time Permanent

Monday to Friday

Salary £63,000 per annum

If you have the qualifications and experience please apply and we can take the next steps to get your cv across for interview.