Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnic minorities, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.
Job overview
The Specialist Pathway and Risk Consultation Service (SPaRCS) is seeking a Practitioner Psychologist to develop and deliver this innovative service. The successful candidate will have opportunity to contribute to develop their expertise in specialist assessment, consultation, liaison, risk management and service development. The post is suitable for an experienced psychologist, or a newly qualified psychologist looking to progress into an 8a role via a preceptorship model.
SPaRCS comprises an inter-disciplinary team that works with Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust (MCFT) services, PROSPECT Lead Provider Collaborative and partner agencies to ensure the safe and appropriate care of individuals identified as having the potential to cause serious harm to others. This includes a diverse range of service users who may have a forensic history and present with severe and enduring mental health needs, neurodevelopmental conditions and difficulties associated with complex trauma, substance use and cognitive function. The service provides a range of clinical activities including specialist clinical risk assessment, formulation, consultation and liaison with partner services and agencies. Leading and contributing to multi-agency risk management forums is also integral to the team’s work. SPaRCS are committed to evaluating and developing the service and seek a post-holder who can contribute to these initiatives while upholding clinical responsibilities.
Main duties of the job
The successful candidate will have experience of working with individuals with complex clinical presentations and risk related behaviours. They will be required to contribute to the team’s clinical activities and provide a specialist psychological perspective on the strengths, risks and needs of referred individuals. This will involve working closely with colleagues, service users and their families in developing specialist psychological assessments, formulations and treatment / care / risk management plans. The ability to provide supervision, reflective practice and expert consultation is also necessary. Mindful use of language and attention to process will be required when working across settings to promote psychological thinking and ethical practice. The postholder will also be expected to contribute to service development initiatives and research.
In support of their work, the post-holder will have the opportunity to access training in using specialist clinical assessments and evidence based approaches to risk assessment and management. They will also have the opportunity to access regular CPD and clinical / professional supervision in line with service and professional standards.
Applications from newly qualified practitioner psychologists or those about to complete training are welcomed under a preceptorship arrangement at Band 7.
Working for our organisation
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.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
GENERIC RESPONSIBILITIES FOR ALL STAFF
All post holders will agree to:
• Commit to the vision of supporting Mersey Care in becoming a leading organisation in the provision of community services, mental health care, addiction services and learning disability care, and in doing so fully utilise their skills and experience to support the objectives of the Trust.
• Role model the values of the Trust – Continuous Improvement, Accountability, Respectfulness, Enthusiasm and Support– in all activities and interactions with employees, service users and other stakeholders.
• Challenge the stigma associated with mental health and learning difficulties.
• Comply with the Duty of Candour, defined by Francis as: 'The volunteering of all relevant information to persons who have or may have been harmed by the provision of services, whether or not the information has been requested and whether or not a complaint or a report about that provision has been made.’
• Work across professional and organisational boundaries to improve services for all.
• Maintain their specific knowledge base and develop new skills.
• Value the contribution of the patient/ service user voice.
• Operate within any organisational codes of practice or those from a relevant professional body.
• Respect equality and diversity across all areas of working practice and communications with staff, service users and other stakeholders.
• Take responsibility for the accurate and timely collection and recording of data and ensuring all personally identifiable information is protected and used only for the purposes for which it was intended.
• Comply with all health and safety legislation and local policies and procedures.
• Adhere to all organisational policies.
• Have knowledge and understanding of technology in the workplace which is sufficient to maintain their efficiency and also how technology can empower service users in a digital environment.
• Comply with the NHS Constitution in relation to the staff responsibilities that it sets out for NHS employees.
• Attend a one day Just and Learning & Civility and Respect training workshop.
• Be an ambassador for Just & Learning and Civility & Respect following the training.
• Positively advocate the just and learning culture within your team.
• Support their team/ services to create a positive environment for Just and Learning Culture.
• Participate in Just and Learning Culture events.
• Bring Just and Learning Culture updates/ information to the attention of team members and other MCT colleagues they work with.
• Support and encourage the sharing of concerns about the safety and quality of care with senior leaders with the aim of improving safety and quality.
• Actively participate in creating an open culture within your team so that concerns and difficulties can be discussed safely and respectfully.
• Speaking up in the event that they are exposed to incivility between colleagues in the workplace #iwillspeakup.
• Listening and understanding others who have concerns and taking a collaborative approach to work towards a solution to improve civility and respect.
Person specification
Qualifications
* Doctoral level training (or equivalent) in a professional area of psychology conferring HCPC registration as a practitioner psychologist.
* Registered or eligible for registration with the HCPC as a practitioner psychologist.
Knowledge
* Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of service users across a range of care settings.
* Experience of working with a wide variety of service user groups, presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity.
* Experience of maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
* Previous experience working with the service user group with which the post is specified.
* Experience of teaching and training.
* Knowledge of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
* Knowledge of utilising supervision systems to manage the impact of research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the applied fields of psychology.
Skills
* Well developed skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, incorporating a range of methodologies, e.g., clinical interview, psychometrics, structured clinical tools.
* Well developed intervention skills, including at least one modality-specific clinical training to a high standard.
* Ability to assimilate complex information from a range of sources to complete psychological formulation and clinical risk assessment in order to develop effective treatment plans for service users with complex needs.
* Demonstrated ability to effectively engage service users who may present with significant clinical obstacles to engagement.
* Demonstrated ability to maintain clear and appropriate personal and professional boundaries and to recognise own limitations.
* Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to service users, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
* Demonstrated skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
* Knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practised within the field of applied psychology.
* Ability to sit in a constrained position when working with service users.
* Ability to sustain intense levels of concentration responding and participating as required.
* Ability to self-reflect and use clinical supervision appropriately.
* Ability to cope and deal with highly distressing emotional circumstances.
* Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
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