Band 7 Senior Practitioner-HMP Eastwood Park

Band 7 Senior Practitioner-HMP Eastwood Park

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join our Nexus Day Service at HMP Eastwood Park which forms part of the National Offender Personality Disorder Pathway (OPD) provision within the prison. The Nexus Day Service sits alongside our Nexus Provision PIPE (Psychologically Informed Planned Environment) and Nexus Outreach Service.

We are looking for a Registered Mental Health Professional (Psychological Therapist, Art Therapists or Clinical/Counselling/Forensic Psychologist/Social Worker/Occupational Therapist/Mental Health Nurse) to join our dynamic Day Service team. Nexus is a welcoming, compassionate and innovative team to work within and consists of a multi-disciplinary clinical and operational team. There are lots of opportunities for development within our service from specialist training and supervision.

We are looking for someone with an interest in working with female offenders with a Personality Disorder. People that attract a diagnosis of personality disorder are often stigmatised and we are therefore keen to find somebody driven to support the wider system to challenge the stigma surrounding personality disorder. The Day Service delivers forensic psychological assessment and interventions and we are therefore looking for someone with this skill set and/or desire to develop their psychological assessment and therapy skills in this forensic setting.

Main duties of the job

You will provide a forensic assessment and treatment service for individuals that screen into the Women's OPD Pathway and are motivated to engage in a psychological intervention service to manage their risk of re-offending and their difficulties associated with personality disorder (emotion regulation, relationships and sense of self-identity). The successful candidate will also have the opportunity to provide management and clinical supervision to junior clinicians within the team and operational colleagues. Specialist supervision will be provided. This is an excellent opportunity to further develop your specialist knowledge and skills in working with female offenders within the OPD Pathway.

• To carry out specialist assessment and formulation
• To provide specialist therapy to individuals and groups as appropriate.
• To undertake Research and Development, service evaluation and clinical audit.
• To clinically supervise junior team members as appropriate to level of experience.
• To provide management supervision to clinical team members
• Providing training, consultation and supervision to operational colleagues within Nexus and the wider prison estate
• To oversee and facilitate Pathway Planning for service participant's journeys into, during and out of the service
• Liaison with other agencies within the prison and the community

About us

We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust): a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care.

We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.

Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.

AWP is committed to support and create a positive research and evidence-based environment and culture, which can have a beneficial impact on everyone who works for the organisation and the care we provide to those who use our services.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

Job responsibilities

• To carry out specialist assessment and formulation to develop an understanding of the development of offending behaviours and psychological difficulties
• To provide specialist therapy to individuals and groups as appropriate (current therapeutic approaches offered are: DBT, Schema Therapy, Art Psychotherapy, Integrative Psychotherapy, Offence interventions, Compassion focussed interventions and Trauma interventions)
• To develop specialist Risk assessments (including HCR-20s)
• To undertake Research and Development, service evaluation and clinical audit.
• To clinically supervise junior team members as appropriate to level of experience
• To provide management supervision to clinical team members
• Providing training, consultation and supervision to operational colleagues within Nexus and the wider prison estate
• To oversee and facilitate Pathway Planning for service participant's journeys into, during and out of the service
• Liaison with other agencies within the prison and the community

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Registered Mental Nurse (RMN), Social Work qualification (CSS, CQSW or DipSW), Occupational Therapy, Psychology, Art Therapist, registered Psychotherapist, Dietician, Physiotherapist or Speech and Language Therapist qualification.
• Current Registration with relevant professional body (e.g. HCPC, RCN, BACP)

Experience

• Specialist therapeutic interventions with Forensic clients, including adults with severe and enduring mental health problems and personality disorder
• Specialist assessment, including relevant psychological assessment, and developing formulation skills
• Work with other mental health or Criminal Justice (Prison/Probation) professionals
• Experience of working with female service users in a forensic setting
• Supervision of staff of different professions/disciplines

Skills

• Effective team player with very good communication skills
• Self awareness and emotional resilience in face of highly distressing situations.
• Empathy/engagement skills with Forensic client group

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.

£46,148 to £52,809 a year, pro rata