Clinical / Forensic / Counselling Psychologist
Location: Exeter, EX1 1RD
Salary: £53755.00 to £60504.00
Date posted: 19th February 2025
Closing date: 5th March 2025
Our professional responsibility is to reduce the risk of infection to others as far as possible. Getting vaccinated against diseases that can be passed person-to-person in healthcare settings is part of this responsibility. The Trust will provide advice, guidance and support on vaccinations and access to vaccinations where requested.
Job Description:
We are looking for a 12-month fixed term Band 8a Clinical / Forensic / Counselling Psychologist to join the Support to Succeed Team. The role is to cover a member of staff on maternity leave.
This role is based across multiple Probation sites, with base location dependent on preference as well as WFH.
The successful applicant will also be subject to Probation vetting checks prior to start dates being agreed.
Support to Succeed forms the community part of the offender personality disorder (OPD) pathway in Devon. The OPD pathway is based in prison and probation, with NHS and HMPPS staff working together to increase the wellbeing and reduce the risk of those screened into the pathway, whilst improving the knowledge and attitudes of the wider workforce. STS offers support to probation staff through consultation, formulation and training; and psychologically-informed intervention and risk management (IIRMS) for those leaving prison, including a hub service with activities and psycho-education/skills groups.
This is a cohesive and enthusiastic team including a probation practitioner, psychologist, assistant psychologists, social worker, a peer support worker, support time and recovery workers and admin support. Space is protected for supervision, reflective practice and training, including both whole-team training and the opportunity to undertake training in specific areas of interest relevant to the service.
Main Duties of the Job
The role will include offering psychological intervention, developing and facilitating psycho-educational and/or skills-based groups, and providing psychologically-informed and relational support to people with complex presentations including significant trauma, difficulties with interpersonal relationships and emotion regulation, substance misuse, history of offending sexually and/or violently and often isolated/stigmatised by society. IIRMS is a growing and evolving service, allowing opportunities to support service development in this post.
The role will also include facilitating consultation, reflective practice and training for probation practitioners; offering clinical supervision and line management to assistant psychologists and others; and helping to oversee the day-to-day running of the service.
We welcome applications from motivated individuals who are keen to have an opportunity to work with complex presentations, balancing clinical need with risk management. A core part of the role will be to work alongside colleagues from a range of disciplines sharing psychological knowledge and consistently improving the psychological mindedness of the probation and other services. To be successful in this role, you will need to be enthusiastic, forward-thinking and emotionally resilient with a passion and commitment to supporting people with personality difficulties.
The post-holder will receive regular clinical and managerial supervision from the clinical lead.
About Us
We provide mental health, learning disability and neurodiversity services, as well as a range of specialist & secure services for the wider south west region & nationally. We are passionate about promoting good mental health & wellbeing. We strive to use the expertise & resources within our organisation, and through our partnerships, to deliver high quality services that are safe & focused on people's recovery.
We are committed to developing a culture of coproduction, involving patients, families & carers in everything we do.
Job Responsibilities
Job Purpose
Devon's Support to Succeed (STS) service combines the existing probation consultation service and the new Intensive Intervention and Risk Management service (IIRMs). The probation consultation arm of the service offers mainly indirect work with probation practitioners and includes: psychological consultation to probation practitioners; devising psychological formulations; workforce development; and limited joint working. It principally aims to enhance probation practitioners' practice. IIRMs aims to provide a community-based service that delivers individually tailored and psychologically informed interventions directly to people on probation as they transition out of prison and settle in the community. Both services seek to enhance the management of risk of serious harm to others and reduce re-offending, but also to develop psychological wellbeing and social engagement among users. While probation consultation largely offers indirect work with people on probation, the IIRMs service will work directly with clients.
The role will consist of:
1. Being an autonomous practitioner responsible for your own clinical activity and accountable for observing and interpreting professional and Trust guidelines for professional conduct including accurate record keeping.
2. Providing consultation, advice, and clinical supervision to other professionals and agencies including Band 5 Assistant Psychologists, Trainee Psychologists and others.
3. Devising, supervising and formulating a client's presenting difficulties(s), based upon the appropriate theoretical and conceptual frameworks and evidence-based practice.
4. Delivering individual and group interventions.
5. Organising and agreeing each client's intervention plan including risk management and crisis-planning arrangements for people being released from prison into Devon or otherwise i.e. agreeing across agency arrangements for high risk people on probation released to out-of-area Approved Premises and/or IIRMs.
6. Overseeing the weekly drop-in, custodial in-reach, referral consultation and joint assessment and clinical aspects of the role.
7. Ensuring that frequent case and risk reviews occur and are recorded for all clients.
8. Agreeing plans for the management of non-attendance and eventual discharge of individuals engaged in the OPD Pathway.
9. Meeting appropriate standards of practice in the quality and timeliness of the service provided. Standards of practice will include those defined by: the British Psychological Society (including the Division of Clinical Psychology); the HCPC; and Devon Partnership Trust.
10. Keeping adequate clinical records in accordance with Trust guidance.
11. Undertaking risk and other assessments (where relevant) and collaborating on the risk management of individuals together with His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service.
12. Undertake other responsibilities e.g. quality improvement initiatives or service development/evaluation projects to ensure an ever-improving, high quality, professional service.
13. Liaise with a range of other services relevant to the STS Service (including health, criminal justice, prison and third sector agencies).
14. Communicating in a clear, professional, skilled and sensitive manner.
Duties and Responsibilities
Communication & Working Relationships
* Clients, family and others: To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner with service users with a mental health, learning disability, challenging behaviour and/or personality disorder who may have specific difficulties in understanding and/or communicating and who may be hostile, antagonistic or highly emotionally disturbed.
* Multidisciplinary team colleagues: To work closely, collaboratively and supportively with colleagues in the multi-professional integrated psychological consultation and intervention service on a day-to-day basis.
* Health, social care, CSJ and third sector staff: To communicate with a wide range of health & CSJ and other staff in community settings in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, complex and sensitive information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of individuals. To provide support & guidance in the application of psychological principles and techniques, and to foster reflective practice.
* Senior managers & professional staff: To maintain and build good working relationships with senior professional staff and managers in the OPD Pathway and secure directorate to foster a positive approach to the Support to Succeed service and to enable effective negotiation.
Planning & Organisation
* The psychology service: To plan and organise the work of the psychology provision of the Support to Succeed service and to contribute to the development and improvement of provision of psychological services within the commissioned service to DPT, to best meet the organisation's strategy and priorities.
* The multi-disciplinary service: To provide psychology leadership to the multi-professional planning, development and marketing of Support to Succeed.
* The directorate: To work as part of the psychology management structure and contribute to the planning and implementation of service developments.
Responsibility for Patient/Client Care, Treatment & Therapy
* Assessment & intervention: To provide expert psychological assessment (including risk assessment) and group/individual and support interventions, developing specialist psychological formulations and assessments of service users, formulating plans for their psychological treatment and implementing specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, and to demonstrate awareness of diversity issues.
* Consultation & guidance: To provide advice, guidance and consultation on psychological aspects of people with personality difficulties, including probation service colleagues, other service providers, and relevant other agencies (e.g. Approved Premises).
Policy, Service, Research & Development Responsibility
* The post holder is accountable for their own professional actions, acting within Trust policies and procedures and Professional Practice Guidelines. Supervision and line management structures are in place to support the implementation of Trust policy and professional practice guidelines.
* Policy & service: To interpret and contribute to the development of policies and procedures for the provision of psychological consultation and intervention service in collaboration with HMPPS and DPT.
* R&D / audit: To contribute to and support the organisation of the R&D activities of the psychology service, and to undertake a research programme as agreed. To ensure all psychology staff participate in appropriate audit and evaluation of outcomes of the psychology service.
Responsibility for Finance, Equipment & Other Resources
* Responsible for managing resources for psychologists and other assigned staff under the direction of the professional manager. To use resources appropriately, including psychometric tests.
Responsibility for Supervision, Leadership & Management
* Management: Responsible for line management of allocated staff as part of the psychology department structure.
* Leadership & supervision: To provide leadership as a qualified psychologist and to professionally supervise psychology staff, trainees, assistants and volunteers as required.
* Other: To ensure high quality consultation, individual/group intervention and joint working within the Support to Succeed service. To provide psychology leadership in the integrated multi-professional service.
Information Resources & Administrative Duties
* To maintain accurate records in accordance with local and professional guidance.
* To be responsible for using an email account to generate, monitor, and respond to the e-mail traffic by which the Trust conducts much of its internal communication.
Any Other Specific Tasks Required
* To ensure all clinical care and treatment provided by psychologists and other colleagues is carried out under appropriate supervision and leadership.
* To ensure that all relevant staff groups continuously update the skills and techniques relevant to their clinical work.
Person Specification
Experience
* Experience of work in Forensic Services in a range of service settings or agencies.
* Skills in applying complex methods of psychological assessment, formulation, intervention and management including risk assessment.
* Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision of psychologists.
* Experience in undertaking leadership roles within clinical psychology services in the NHS, and in contributing to the development, implementation and evaluation of strategies and clinical policies in multi-disciplinary, multi-agency contexts.
* Experience, and/or training in diversity awareness and social inequality.
* Experience of providing a range of assessments, formulation and therapies to address forensic as well as mental health difficulties.
* Experience of providing supervision for qualified psychologists, trainees and assistant psychologists in psychological therapies to address forensic and mental health difficulties.
* Experience of leadership and proven outcomes in service development.
* Innovation and creative development and implementation of evidence-based therapies.
Communication Skills
* Excellent verbal, nonverbal and written communication skills.
* Strong leadership qualities, resilience and ability to handle ambiguity and uncertainty.
* Skills in managing conflict, negotiation & achieving consensus in complex situations in the pursuit of agreed strategic aims.
Planning & Organising Skills
* Organisation and time management skills.
* Ability to prioritise and work responsively and flexibly to manage individual, supervisee and organizational goals.
Other
* Highly skilled in specialist interventions with the client group.
* Ability to work as a member of a clinical team, to work collaboratively, flexibly and supportively, and to work independently.
* Ability to tolerate ambiguity, and maintain own morale and motivation in challenging service delivery contexts.
* Ability and experience of reflecting on practice and to understand, to respond and to be receptive to the process of professional development.
Qualifications
* Qualified Clinical Psychologist (D.Clin.Psychol.) or equivalent e.g. Forensic Psychologist or Counselling Psychologist, with eligibility for Chartered Psychologist Status in the British Psychological Society.
* Further training in one or more psychological therapies, e.g. CBT, EMDR, CAT, Schema.
* Further training in forensic psychology or specialist area relevant to forensic settings.
* Supervision Training.
Analytical & Judgement Skills
* Ability to integrate complex data; make highly skilled evaluations and decisions; and take a long-term perspective.
Knowledge
* Broad knowledge of forensic services; and of the services in the NHS where clinical psychology is commonly applied.
* Extensive knowledge of the evidence base, skills and practice of Clinical/Forensic/Counselling Psychology.
* Knowledge of the policy context of services to DPT and of leadership in this setting.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
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