Clinical/ Counselling/ Forensic Senior Psychologist 8a

Joining #TeamNELFT means you'll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We're CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award-winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for three consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Job overview

An opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic and competent Band 8A Psychologist to join an expanding Community Forensic Psychology Service. This is an exciting area of forensic services to work in; forensic community teams across the country are being expanded and invested in, consistent with the NHS Long Term Plan. This post is a consequence of additional funding which recognises the importance of psychological input for forensic service users who are stepping down into less restrictive settings and back into the community.

The post holder would join a well-established and well-respected forensic team: NELFT's low-secure forensic unit, Morris ward, has ranked first in the UK and Ireland according to the Quality Network for Forensic Mental Health Services (QNFMHS).

Main duties of the job

The post holder will provide assessment and evidence-based interventions to service users presenting with complex mental health issues including psychosis, trauma histories, and substance misuse, in addition to offending behaviour. Interventions will include individual, group, and family work. The post holder will work mainly with service users in the community but some work with inpatient service users and teams may be required. This post would suit someone with a strong interest in multidisciplinary working and working with wider systems including family and carers. The role will require creative and innovative input including offering consultation to forensic and non-forensic colleagues. Good applicants would be passionate about addressing discrimination and inequalities and have an awareness of how this affects mental health, recovery, and risk.

This job will require direct face-to-face working with service users. This post will involve travel between sites within the areas served by NELFT.

The boroughs covered by the Trust are very diverse and we would actively encourage applicants to apply who represent this diversity.

Working for our organisation

The psychology department is friendly, supportive, and innovative: You would have good access to CPD opportunities across the Trust. We actively support the development of leadership skills and aim to nurture our staff and support them in their development. Members of the wider psychology department have strong links to academic institutions and are engaged in research and teaching.

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period. Internal applicants are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or currently a bank member of staff).

Starting with NELFT

NELFT places a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training, and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process, new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers and attend a number of drop-in sessions focusing on engagement, health and wellbeing, and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

High Cost Area Supplement - Outer London

This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (with a minimum of £4,313 to a maximum of £5,436 p.a. pro rata for part-time).

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical Skills

• To provide specialist psychological assessment of service users referred to the Forensic Psychology Service, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation, and integration of complex data from a variety of sources. Methods used will include selecting, administering, scoring, and interpreting appropriate standardised psychometric assessments; using self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with service users and/or others involved in their care as appropriate, and collating and interpreting historical and developmental data.
• To undertake specialist forensic risk assessments and risk management relevant to individual service users, including protective and risk factors present in the network of significant relationships.
• To implement a range of specialist psychological interventions for individual service users and groups in the forensic service, and, where appropriate, for carers, co-working with psychologist and non-psychologist colleagues as appropriate.
• To make skilled evaluations to formulate and implement plans for the treatment and management of service users' mental health difficulties based on a psychological framework and employing research-based evidence.
• To be responsible for developing a formulation of the service users' psychological and mental health difficulties using different theoretical models. To use this formulation in agreeing an effective care plan and treatment pathway in collaboration with the service user, their family, and the wider multidisciplinary team.
• To provide specialist individual, family, and group psychological therapies with clinical autonomy, drawing on a range of models.
• To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options, taking into account highly complex factors concerning historical, relational, and developmental processes that have shaped the service user and their difficulties.
• To exercise professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment, and discharge of service users whose problems are managed by psychological care plans.
• To work jointly and collaboratively with other team members in the community and in the inpatient service, in order to enhance and develop work with service users by providing highly specialist psychological knowledge and skills.
• To provide specialist consultation, advice, and guidance to other professionals at all levels, both within the service and in partner agencies. This will include liaison and working with professional networks, involving complex issues such as serious violent and sexual offending, child protection, deliberate self-harm, violence, trauma, and suicide risk.
• To maintain clinical records and communicate effectively verbally and in writing, especially with referrers via written reports.
• To communicate complex clinical information in a skilled and sensitive manner, including assessment, formulation, and treatment plans of service users, to monitor progress during the course of multi-disciplinary treatment.
• To actively work to make psychology research, theory, formulations, and clinical work accessible and understandable to colleagues.

Leadership

• To participate as an experienced clinician in the development of a high-quality, responsive, and accessible service including advising both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where matters relating to psychology need addressing.
• To exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological therapies practice within the area delegated by the line manager.
• To participate as appropriate in staff recruitment, both in the short-listing process and as a member of interview panels as appropriate to experience.
• To participate in the development of an effective team and the development of productive working relationships throughout the Trust.
• To take an active interest in working parties and groups within the Trust to develop and improve on service delivery, protocols, and guidelines.
• To participate in the audit process, linking in with the clinical governance agenda.
• To advise, encourage, and share knowledge utilising the latest research and practice development, through literature and peer reviews.

Administration

• To be computer literate and encourage implementation of the Trust's IM&T Strategy.
• To ensure accurate recording of actions, and updating service users' records, maintaining confidentiality at all times.
• To take part, and assist, in the planning and administration relating to the day-to-day running of the caseload.

Communication

• To communicate and relate at the highest level where complex formulations need to be developed, synthesised, and explained.
• To communicate effectively, orally and in writing at a highly technical and clinically sensitive level to service users and professionals within and outside the NHS in line with confidentiality and safeguarding protocols.

Teaching, Training and Supervision

• Provide structured supervision and training to community and inpatient teams, including doctors, psychologists, and other mental health professionals regarding psychological work with service users, their families, and other professional networks. To provide supervision of other professionals in the service who are members of the Trust.
• To organise and provide psychology groups in line with research and service and training needs.
• To provide clinical supervision as agreed by the Lead Psychologist for the Forensic Psychology Service to trainees and newly qualified psychologists in ways that fit with the individual's stage of professional development and is in accordance with standards prescribed by the BPS.
• To act as a highly specialist psychologist by providing supervision, consultation, and training including academic presentations to team members and to other agencies.
• To support and supervise honorary staff in training to work within the specialised modality being offered.
• To ensure own continued professional development and support a culture of lifelong learning in self and others.
• To undertake own mandatory training.
• To undertake a regular appraisal, developing a personal development plan that includes clinical competencies reflecting the health needs of the local population and relates to Trust strategy.
• To support new staff and their integration within the team.

Research and Service Evaluation

• To use theory and research to inform evidence-based practice in work with groups, individuals, and their networks in line with current and best practice.
• To undertake or participate in relevant clinical research, service evaluation, and audit in line with service objectives.
• To undertake project management including complex audit and service evaluation with colleagues within the service to help develop service provision.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Doctoral qualification in psychology (clinical or counselling or forensic psychology) accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS)
• Professional registration with the HCPC

Desirable criteria

• Qualification in more than one modality of psychology
• Recognised qualification and training in supervision

Experience

Essential criteria

• Substantial, relevant post-qualification clinical experience in working with serious mental health difficulties including psychosis, personality disorder, and serious offending behaviour
• Experience of psychological clinical work in forensic services (e.g. offender mental health settings; low-secure and/or medium-secure inpatient units; prisons; or community forensic services)
• Experience of offering supervision, teaching, training, and consultation.

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Advanced knowledge and skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment and treatment of individuals, frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
• Knowledge of forensic risk assessment and its importance in inpatient rehabilitation and community settings (e.g. HCR-20; RSVP)
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult-to-treat groups (offending behaviour, psychosis, personality disorder, substance misuse)
• Knowledge of the Mental Health Act and its application to forensic clinical groups
• An awareness of NHS Plan, NSF, and clinical governance priorities

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge and experience of working with individuals with a diagnosis of Learning Disability/Difficulty.

Skills

Essential criteria

• Communication and relationship skills of the highest level where complex formulations need to be developed and explained.
• Highly developed skills in providing consultation to other professionals and teams.
• Ability to engage in highly complex thinking and formulation, actively engaging with the emotional impact of the work, processing and integrating these elements to offer consistent and effective clinical supervision to trainees, other psychologists, and other professionals or team. Providing this supervision to meet BPS and HCPC requirements.
• Capacity to implement policy and to proactively contribute to their development in the wider service
• Ability to build effective relationships across teams and promote an interface and pathway that allows for smooth transitions between services.
• Ability to work autonomously, setting appropriate goals, in accordance with professional ethics guidelines and Trust policies
• Ability to work within a multi-disciplinary team.
• IT skills sufficient to write reports and enter data.

Desirable criteria

• Record of publication in peer-reviewed journals, and demonstrated ability to support the development of the profession through participation in professional bodies and activities

Benefits

We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:

• A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long-term/chronic conditions, and LGBT staff.
• A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work-life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our efforts to support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a 'Top 10 Family Friendly Employer' from the Working Families Charity.
• Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations, and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
• Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's a job share, part-time hours, or another flexible pattern.

Supporting our Armed Forces

We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community makes to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Gold Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme. We have supportive policies, guaranteed interview schemes for veterans, reservists, and military spouses, and give additional leave to our Reservists so that they can attend their annual camp.

Equal opportunities employer

We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic.

We are a Disability Confident employer and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with disabilities. If you require this application in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape please contact the recruitment team on 0300 300 1530 or email recruitment@nelft.nhs.uk.

Correspondence with us

You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post.

In the event of a high number of responses to any advert, NELFT reserves the right to close the vacancy early. If you do not hear from us within three weeks of the closing date then please assume you have not been successful on this occasion.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

• Job description- Senior Psychologist Forensics (PDF, 160.6KB)
• Person Specification- Senior Psychologist Forensics (PDF, 224.6KB)
• NELFT Application - Hints and Tips (PDF, 38.4KB)