Job summary
The Beacon is a prison-based assessment and treatment service for men with personality related needs underlying their risk and offending behaviour. It is a partnership based service between Merseycare Foundation Trust and HMP Garth and is located within HMP Garth in Leyland, Lancashire.
The service is part of the National Offender Personality Disorder Pathway of services. It provides a range of group based and 1:1 interventions as part of a therapeutic milieu which involves a focus on attachment, trauma and systemic interventions, alongside comprehensive risk assessment and management.
Core aims of the service are consistent with those of the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway in improving psychological wellbeing, reducing risk, improving staff skills and competencies and formulation and pathway focused interventions.
The service has a positive, enthusiastic and dedicated partnership team who have a commitment to creative and diverse interventions, to reflective practice and discussion, and to promoting genuine collaborative and compassionate working with all our service users. We have an equal commitment to understanding men and their behaviour in the context of their lives, and to engaging and working with the complex factors involved in change and rehabilitation at all levels of service delivery and development.
Main duties of the job
The Beacon is looking for a Consultant Clinical or Forensic Psychologist to provide maternity leave cover for 12 months. The successful candidate will share our passion for the above principles and values and will be motivated to support the leadership and management team on the further development and maintenance of the same across our respective partner agencies, and within and across the national OPD pathway.
You will have a demonstrable commitment to the provision of the highest standards of care and service delivery for individuals and services with complex clinical and risk needs. You will have a clear and proven ability to engage and provide clinical leadership within teams including within complex service and systemic contexts.
You will value the challenges and opportunities involved in supporting the clinical leadership of the service and in collaborating with partner colleagues and service users. You will have a sophisticated knowledge of the needs and strengths of individuals who may meet criteria for a diagnosis of personality disorder, or personality difficulties. You will have equal knowledge and ability to act in a senior role in leading and supporting staff teams to manage the personal, professional and ethical challenges and opportunities work within this area can involve. The post involves working in close partnership with operational managers and with the service Custodial Manager and with clinical and officer colleagues in the wider multidisciplinary team.
About us
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles
Date posted: 26 March 2025
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 8c
Salary: £74,290 to £85,601 a year per annum pro rata
Contract: Secondment
Working pattern: Part-time
Reference number: 350-SC7011138-A
Job locations:
Beacon at HMP Garth
Ulnes Walton Lane
Leyland
PR26 8NE
Job description Job responsibilities
You will find full details of the roles and responsibilities within the job description and person specification.
Person Specification
Qualifications Essential
* Honours degree in psychology.
* For clinical psychologists: Doctoral level training or equivalent for those who trained prior to 1996, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the British Psychological Society or its equivalents.
* For forensic psychologists: MSc in forensic psychology (or DFP qualifying exam) and stage II post-qualifying training and therefore have full membership and chartered status of the Division of Forensic Psychology or will have completed the forensic psychology doctorate and therefore have full membership of the Division of Forensic Psychology and chartered status.
* For clinical and/or forensic psychologists: Post qualifications specialist training, research or study with evidence of additional theoretical or conceptual knowledge acquisition in the field of personality disorder.
* Eligibility for appointment at this grade as assessed by an appropriate panel.
Desirable
* Higher degree by research.
* Further training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.
* Qualifications in specific therapeutic approaches.
* Management training.
Knowledge Essential
* Assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical or forensic psychologist for a minimum of six years, including at least three years' post-qualification experience working in the personality disorder field in a forensic setting.
* At least six years' experience of working with complex cases involving the maintenance of a high degree of professionalism in the face of emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
* Experience of exercising responsibility and leadership for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as a professional care coordinator and in the context of multidisciplinary care planning.
* Experience of developing and maintaining good working relationships with staff, professionals and services across health and HMPPS settings.
* Extensive supervision experience within an applied clinical context.
* Experience of teaching and training psychologists and other health workers and professionals in the area of personality disorder and forensic issues.
* Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
Desirable
* Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to engage and treat groups (for example personality disorder dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities and severely challenging behaviours, etc).
* High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two highly specialised psychological therapies.
Skills Essential
* Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
* Enthusiasm for a broad range of psychological phenomena, an interest in models of service delivery and an ability to articulate the value added by psychology services within the context of multidisciplinary mental health services.
* Ability to cope and deal with highly distressing emotional circumstances and work on an individual basis with service users in crisis situations, for example in seclusion regimes.
* Ability to demonstrate leadership and management skills, particularly in the context of staff teams, including less experienced members.
* High level of self-reflective and supervision skills and a commitment and ability to use clinical supervision appropriately.
* Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to hold the stress of others in highly-demanding training and clinical environments.
* Ability to identify and employ, as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
* Ability to follow and maintain security procedures and protocols.
Desirable
* Record of having published in either a peer-reviewed or professional journals and/or books.
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.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Employer details
Employer name: Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
Address:
Beacon at HMP Garth
Ulnes Walton Lane
Leyland
PR26 8NE
Employer's website: https://www.merseycare.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)
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