Job summary
To work as a member of the clinical/service/team, providing a high quality, specialist applied psychology service to clients, their families or carers. To support psychological practice within the team through consultation, supervision, formulation and training.
To participate in systemic clinical governance. To offer clinical supervision to assistant, trainee and more junior psychologists and other staff. To utilise research skills for audit service development and research within the area served by the team/service.
To provide a qualified, high-quality specialist psychology service to individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams, in line with best, evidence-based practice and trust care pathways.
To be responsible for holding and managing a clinical caseload and to exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the planning and prioritising of own workload and the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients, within the bounds of the service operational policy.
Main duties of the job
1. To carry out specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the service, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex psychological 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 clients, family members and others involved in the client's care, in order to reach a psychological formulation of the client's difficulties.
2. To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and management of a client's mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client's problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
3. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, 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.
About us
By joining CNWL's Health & Justice Directorate you will be joining a large department of psychologists and psychological therapists that provide a variety of mental health and OPD services across prisons, the youth estate, secure hospitals and the community. Our staff are dynamic and welcoming and the networking and CPD opportunities are central to our services ethos. We have active research forums and promote our services and work through academic and clinical forums. All staff receive regular supervision and are supported with career aspirations and progression.
The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.
Date posted: 10 April 2025
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 8a
Salary: £53,755 to £60,504 a year per annum (pro rata if P/T)
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 333-D-HJ-1794
Job locations: HMP Aylesbury, Aylesbury, HP20 1EH
Job description Job responsibilities
1. To use analytical and judgment skills and be responsible for taking clinical management decisions in complex clinical issues.
2. To clinically supervise assistant psychologists, trainee psychologists and junior psychologists, psychological therapists or counsellors and other staff as appropriate.
3. To professionally supervise and, when appropriate, manage, assistant psychologists and trainee psychologists.
4. To provide consultation, mentorship, supervision and advice about psychological issues to other members of the team/service and other professionals working with service users, across a range of agencies/ settings as appropriate.
5. To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service/team.
6. To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the teams operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit, and to advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.
7. To utilise research skills to undertake service evaluation, audit and research as appropriate and disseminate the results in the service and nationally.
8. To propose and implement policy changes within the area served by the service.
Person Specification
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE Paid/unpaid relevant to job Essential
* Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings.
* Demonstrate specialist experience gained post qualification of working as an applied psychologist with evidence of having received a substantial amount of clinical supervision (normally in the region of approximately 50 hours).
* Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
* Experience of representing psychology within context of multidisciplinary care.
* Experience of the application of applied psychology in different cultural contexts and experience of working within a multicultural framework.
* Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
* Experience or demonstrable knowledge of working with the particular client group served by the team/service.
* Knowledge of guidance and legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.
* Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialist psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnosis, people with additional disabilities etc).
* Experience of delivering brief, primary care, CBT interventions or equivalent.
* High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
* Formal Training in Supervision of other psychologists.
* Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC.
EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS Essential
* Doctoral level training in clinical, counselling or forensic psychology or its equivalent, accredited by the BPS. Training in models of developmental lifespan psychology, psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology and two or more distinct psychological therapies.
* HCPC Registered as a Practitioner Psychologist.
* OR A recognised post graduate qualification in Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy (or equivalent). Accreditation with the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy (BABCP) (via having a recognised qualification in one of the core mental health professions e.g. nursing, psychology, medicine, social work, occupational therapy or evidence of having achieved the Knowledge Skills and Attitudes (KSA) route).
* OR A recorded/registered qualification in counselling or psychotherapy and further post accreditation qualification in a nice recommended or evidence-based therapy (e.g. CBT; EMDR) Accreditation with a Professional Standards Authority recognised Accreditation Body.
* Evidence of post-qualification specialist training, experience and developing expertise in a specialist area of clinical practice relevant to this role.
Other Essential
* Willingness to work flexibly to meet demands of contracts, commissioners and other stake-holders to provide high quality and effective care.
* Commitment to multidisciplinary team working.
* Ability to work in a secure environment. Must be able to obtain and maintain prison security clearance and work in accordance with HMPS and Sodexo policies and procedures.
* Ability to travel across sites.
SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE, ABILITIES Essential
* Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
* Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
* Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
* Possesses range of clinical knowledge, skills & information technology expertise relevant to post.
* Can demonstrate competence in supervision of junior qualified psychology and MDT staff and professional psychology trainees.
* Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
* Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
* Broad knowledge of models of assessment, management and treatment of those in the criminal justice system with mental health difficulties and personality disorders.
* Ability to work intensively with people who present challenges in the complexity of their problems and needs, including sexual and violent offending and self-harming and suicidal behaviours.
* High level of ability to plan and organise clinical service provision to meet service demands, and to maintain high quality professional practice.
* Evidence of continual development of specialist knowledge and skills through engaging in relevant study and Continuing Professional Development relevant to the forensic population.
* An Understanding of the social determinates of health inequalities and relevant psychological theory and practice.
* Good understanding of the current context of service provision within the NHS.
* Experience of software e.g. SPSS, EXCEL.
Desirable
* Ability to write reports for varied audiences, including courts and purchasers of services.
* Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology and psychological therapies.
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.
Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
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: Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
Address: HMP Aylesbury, Aylesbury, HP20 1EH
Employer's website: https://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/work (Opens in a new tab)
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