Clinical/Forensic Psychologist

To provide a qualified clinical psychology service to clients of the service team, across all sectors of care; providing highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy at the same time as offering advice and consultation on clients’ psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other, non-professional carers, working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedures. To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the area served by the team/service.

Main duties of the job:

• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or 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.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups.
• 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, family or group.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
• To provide specialist psychological advice guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
• To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
• To act as a care coordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans under CPA including clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.

Person specification:

• Qualifications/ Registrations: Doctoral level training in Clinical, Child and Educational or Counselling Psychology as accredited by the HCPC and BPS Doctoral or Masters level training in forensic psychology with full competencies completed. Registration with HCPC. Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.
• Skills/ Abilities: Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration. Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups. Able to contain explore and formulate an understanding of high levels of distress both directly with patients and indirectly via supervision or case reviews with other staff. Ability to write reports using accessible language and demonstrating clinical reasoning. Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS. Specialist training in supervision. Confident and experienced in delivering training or providing consultation to other professionals. Skill in the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in working with mentally disordered offenders.
• Experience/ Knowledge: Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across a range of care settings, which can include outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings. Evidence of clinical experience of working with client population. A clear track record of managing complexity and risk whilst maintaining high standards of service delivery. 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 emotive and distressing problems and where there is a history of violence. Experience of working within a forensic setting/service. Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision. Experience supervising junior psychologists, trainees, or assistant psychologists. At least 18 months post qualified for the 8a role. Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts. Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.
• Personal Qualities: Flexible, engaging and approachable who can work quickly and responsively with both clients and the multidisciplinary team. Creative in approach as well as reflective about their own practice. Demonstrates empathy with clients, carers, and families often where barriers to understanding exist ensuring that effective communication is achieved to persuade and motivate participation in therapeutic activities. Able to work autonomously as well as under supervision and with colleagues.
• Other Requirements: Ability to work flexibly at different bases within the borough and occasionally outside of the borough. Able to make own effective travel arrangements and willingness to travel within and across boroughs. Flexible approach and openness to innovation. 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. Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings. Car owner (Ability to travel across all sites).