Clinical/Forensic Psychologist

Job summary

This post is a 12 month part time position covering maternity leave.

The role will involve providing a comprehensive, highly specialist clinical and forensic psychology service to patients within the Men's Personality Disorder Service, as part of an integrated trauma informed treatment pathway. This includes highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy as well as offering advice and consultation on patients' psychological care to other members of the clinical team.

The maternity cover is for a WTE post is focused on providing long term individual integrated therapy, with predominantly forensic schema therapy, DBT, and EMDR approaches. This post provides the opportunity to work with these approaches and receive specialist supervision. Within the department there are experienced specialist therapy psychologists and accredited supervisors in schema therapy.

Main duties of the job

To provide highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy, and provide advice and consultation on patients' psychological care to other members of the clinical team.

About us

Nottinghamshire Healthcare employs over 10,000 colleagues who help #MakeADifference every day. We provide intellectual disability, mental health, community health, forensic and offender healthcare services across Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire. Care is delivered from over 120 sites within the community from acute settings and across low, medium and high secure environments including prisons.

As one of the largest mental health and community trusts in the East Midlands and one of the biggest employers in Nottinghamshire. We are also home to national and regional services such as the National High Secure Deaf Service and the Nottingham Centre for Transgender Health.

We are committed to flexible and agile working, including the opportunity to join our bank.

Your health and wellbeing is our priority and as such we invest significantly in this via our in-house Occupational Health Service, Staff Counselling Service and Health and Wellbeing Team.

We offer a number of employee-led staff networks, including Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) groups, our Green Champions Network, Freedom to Speak Up Network. Health and Wellbeing Champions Network and Menopause Champions. We provide care to a diverse range of communities and are passionate about supporting diversity and inclusion in the Trust.

If you believe in our values of Trust, Honesty, Respect, Compassion and Teamwork, then we would love to hear from you

#TeamNottsHC

Job description

Job responsibilities

Clinical or Work Practice

To provide specialist psychological assessments to patients within the allocated services, 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 patients and others involved in the patients care.

To formulate and implement plans for the psychological treatment and/or management of a patients mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the patients problems, 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 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.

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of patients whose problems 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.

To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all patients of the service.

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual patients and to provide advice and training to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.

To communicate in a skilled, persuasive and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment formulation and treatment plans of patients, and to monitor progress during the course of their multidisciplinary care.

To disseminate knowledge and skills in both general aspects of forensic clinical psychology, as well as a designated specialist area.

To represent Rampton Hospital and Psychology on Trust wide and other committees and groups, as agreed with the Head of Psychology and with a clear brief.

To develop networks and contacts to update the policy and practice of forensic clinical psychology, particularly as applied to mentally disordered offenders, to support professional and service development.

Teaching, Training & Supervision

To receive regular clinical supervision from a qualified psychologist and, where appropriate, other professional colleagues.

To deploy skills in the area of professional postgraduate teaching, training and supervision, particularly of clinical and forensic psychologists.

To supervise junior psychology staff and professional psychology trainees.

To provide teaching, training and supervision to staff and MDT colleagues, and other psychologists.

To continue to gain experience, and particularly in an agreed specialist area.

Research & Service Evaluation

To use theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other MDT colleagues.

To devise and undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to others undertaking research, to develop service and clinical forensic psychology knowledge base as agreed with the Lead Psychologist.

To undertake project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, as agreed with the Head of Psychology.

Policies & Procedures

The duties and responsibilities of this post will be undertaken in accordance with the policies, procedures and practices of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and with the Code of Conduct and Guidance on Professional Practice issued by the British Psychological Society and the Health and Care Professions Council. t is the post-holders responsibility to ensure that they keep up-to-date with these policies and other policy documents.

Works in accordance with Forensic Division and Rampton Hospital procedures, in particular security and health and safety.

Applies equal opportunities principles at all times and participates in training activities and Individual Performance and Development Reviews.

Management, Recruitment & Service Development

To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the services through the development of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit as agreed with the Head of Psychology.

To identify and to advise service managers on those aspects of the service where psychological or organisation matters need addressing.

To help manage the workloads of junior psychologists as directed by the Head of Psychology.

To conduct individual performance reviews of junior staff by agreement with the Head of Psychology.

To be involved, as appropriate, in the short-listing and interviewing of psychology staff.

Health and Safety

To work within the provisions of the Trust Health and Safety Policy.

General Duties

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 Head of Psychology.

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 fields of clinical and forensic psychology and related disciplines.

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 the British Psychological Society, the health and Care Professions Council and Trust policies and procedures.

To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific patient group and mental health.

To ensure that all aspects of professional activity ( communication with patients, relatives, colleagues as well as in the assessment, development/delivery of interventions) issues of diversity such as race, culture, identity, gender and sexuality are sensitively considered and incorporated to reflect individual differences appropriately.

To ensure that service users are appropriately consulted about relevant aspects of their care and are empowered to express their views in a responsive environment enabling such views to be assimilated/incorporated into continued service development and improvement.

Additional Duties

To develop individual formulations and to lead team formulation planning, applying theoretical models of the psychology for mental health and offending to observed behaviour, cognitive, emotional and interpersonal patterns, for patients in the allocated services, who present complex clinical cases.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

MSc or Doctorate in Clinical or Forensic Psychology. Must be HCPC registered and able to demonstrate eligibility for chartered status as a Clinical or Forensic Psychologist.

Desirable

Chartered Clinical or Forensic status. Further relevant post-qualification training.

Further training

Essential

Evidence of post-qualification specialist training. Advanced knowledge, experience and expertise in at least one specialist area of clinical/forensic practice gained through specialist training and supervised practice ( psychotherapy, neuropsychology, risk assessment, clinical and forensic supervision).

Desirable

Specific training in the delivery of structured mental health management, criminogenic/ offence focussed group work programmes.

Contractual

Essential

A full UK driving licence and vehicle for business use is required for this post; however reasonable adjustments will be made for disabled individuals in line with the Equality Act 2010.

Work Experience

Essential

Minimum two years supervised practice developing expertise in forensic clinical psychology practice. Experience of effective MDT working.

Desirable

Experience of delivering structured group programmes Experience of staff training. Experience of clinical audit and/or service evaluation.

Appitude/Skills

Essential

Broad knowledge of models of assessment, management and treatment of mentally disordered offenders. Record of clinical effectiveness; High level of ability to plan and organise clinical service provision to meet service demand Proven ability to work within multi-disciplinary teams; Can demonstrate competence in supervision of junior qualified psychology and MDT staff and psychology trainees; Presentation and teaching skills; Groupwork Skills; Research Skills; IT literacy; Knowledge of legal system/MHA.

Desirable

Experience of SPSS, databases/spreadsheets. Experience of conference presentation/teaching. Publications.

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