We have an exciting opportunity for a Principal Psychologist to join our integrated Mental Health team at HMP Thameside. HMP Thameside is a category B remand prison located in South East London. The prison houses around 1,232 patients with a variety of needs include complex and acute mental health needs.
We are seeking a strong clinical, forensic or counselling psychologist, who has previously worked within a fully integrated mental health service, and understands the needs of the Psychological services required and delivered within a prison healthcare setting. As part of this role you will be managing a Preceptorship Psychologist and Clinical Associate Psychologist as well as developing the psychological services at a busy remand site, where many patients only stay short term.
Hours
Mon to Fri: 9:00-17:00 or 08:00-16:00
4 days per week or 30 hours per week
You'll receive an annual salary of up to £82,000FTE - depending on experience.
How will we support you?
- Bespoke induction, including our Introducing Health in Justice training course
- Competency framework
- Regional and national career development opportunities
- Our bespoke Learning Management System to address your learning needs
Candidates are required to have a Legal right to work in the UK due to the nature of the role, offers of employment will be subject to additional vetting and security checks.
Main duties of the job
As a Principal Psychologist, your responsibilities will vary. You will:
- Support the development and embedding of a trauma-informed mental health service model across sites
- Offer clinical support and oversight to the Integrated Mental Health Team (IMHT)
- Undertake psychological assessments
- Support complex multi-disciplinary formulations
- Deliver psychological interventions to cases of complexity
- Deliver and oversee 1:1 and group intervention as part of the Trauma Informed 'Making Sense' Programme
- Deliver teaching and training to healthcare and prison staff where required
- Contribute to the development of audit, service evaluation and research profile as appropriate
If you are interested in career development, we have a wide range of opportunities for you to develop your skills and experience, which include both internal and external options for development and learning.
It doesnt stop there we also offer:
- Discounts on shopping and leisure activities
- Support to grow in your role and continue your professional development
- 24/7 employee assistance helpline and financial assistance when you need it
About us
The Health in Justice team at Practice Plus Group makes a real difference across over 53 prisons, young offenders and immigration removal centres. Were the UKs leading independent provider of NHS services to over 40,000 patients in secure environments, always putting their needs first, regardless of their background.
Practice Plus Groups purpose is to Unlock your best work life and we stand by our core values:
- We treat patients and each other as they would like to be treated
- We act with integrity
- We strive to do things better together
We are looking for caring, compassionate but also driven professionals who can help us drive our vision for a fair and inclusive healthcare access to all.
Requirements
- Registered with professional or regulatory body i.e.HCPC/BPS
- Experience of highly specialist psychological assessment and individual and group based treatment of clients across the full range of care settings.
- Experience working with psychological trauma
- Assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical / forensic / counselling psychologist at a senior highly specialist level
Secure environments are one of the most challenging, yet rewarding places for healthcare professionals to work. If you're looking for a role where you can develop your existing healthcare skills and learn something new every day in an environment that never stands still, then this could be the right opportunity for you.
Job responsibilities
In this seniorclinician role, the Principal Psychologist will provide clinical leadership tothe mental health team, ensuring the delivery of effective psychologicalservices that support the unique challenges faced by individuals in prison. ThePrincipal Psychologist will work collaboratively with the prison's seniorleadership team and external stakeholders, and will actively contribute toregional quality review processes and service development meetings, ensuringthat mental health services are continuously improved and aligned with bestpractices and meeting agreed targets. This role will work closely with thewider national psychological therapies team and contribute to service modelreview and improvement against new research and in line with best practice andNICE guidelines. Additionally, the role involves contributing to regionalquality review and service development meetings to ensure that mental healthservices are responsive to the needs of individuals in prison and actively workto minimize the cycle of intergenerational trauma. By leading initiatives thatconnect individuals with essential resources and support, the PrincipalPsychologist will play a vital role in promoting the mental well-being of both patientsand staff within a remand prison setting.
MAIN DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES
Clinical -
To provide highly specialist psychological assessment of high complex patientsbased upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex datafrom a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests,self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structuredobservations and semi-structured interviews with patients, family members (whenappropriate) and others involved in the patients care.
To make highly specialist clinical decisions and clinical judgementsabout patient care, processes and service developments;
To provide specialist trauma informed, psychological insight, guidanceand consultation to other professionals contributing directly to patientsformulation, diagnosis and treatment plan;
To lead and evaluate the implementation of a range of psychologicalinterventions for individuals and groups, adjusting and refining psychologicalformulations drawing upon different explanatory models, and maintaining anumber of provisional hypotheses; engage in structured and dynamic risk assessments;
To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking in toaccount both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factorsincluding historical and developmental processes that have shaped theindividual, family or group;
To contribute directly and indirectly to a trauma informed,psychologically-based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of allclients of the service, promoting the psychological mindedness of staff;
To contribute a psychosocial, trauma informed perspective within themultidisciplinary team including for those patients not directly on thepsychologists caseload and attend individual patient reviews and riskmanagement meetings where appropriate;
To attend ACCT reviews and segregation reviews in the prisonas appropriate and to offer psychological opinion about management and appropriatereferrals in that context and, offer psychological understanding into CSIPplans to support management of patients within the wing by prison staff;
Foster good working relationships with Offender Management,Probation to Reconnect services to a psychologically informed understanding ofpatients needs during transition into open conditions or release into thecommunity;
To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, highlycomplex/sensitive information concerning the assessment, formulation andtreatment plans to the patient, appropriate professional colleagues and tofamily members, as appropriate, and to monitor and evaluate progress during thecourse of multi-disciplinary discussions;
To be able to complete and interpret formal psychometric assessments;
To maintain accurate clinical records and keep the PTS dashboard up todate with outcomes data for patient/service and staff outcomes;
To contribute to the development of specialized individual treatmentplans or packages of care for patients with complex psychological problems andwho may present a risk of harm to themselves or others;
To be able to manage the emotional impact of working, oftenone-to-one, with people who can be in crisis, who can show high levels ofarousal and can be actively self-harming or suicidal;
To work jointly with other psychologists/therapists, to plan and handover the psychological assessment and treatments of patients that may continueafter either transfer to other prisons or released in the community or otherrecovery-based settings.
In liaison with Mental Leads and/or Heads of Healthcare and theNational Head of Psychological Therapies, identify opportunities for andconduct service development projects in collaboration with other members of themultidisciplinary team;
Participate in and contribute to CPD and peer supervision within thewider healthcare team;
Active engagement in appropriate practice supervision.
Teaching, training and supervision
To receiveregular clinical supervision from an appropriately qualified and experiencedsupervisor, in accordance with the BPS and the HCPC guidelines and, whereappropriate, from other senior professional colleagues and, to supervise juniorpsychology colleagues and other therapists and MDT colleagues as appropriate;
To providetraining and supervision for members of the service (healthcare and prison) inthe delivery of psychologically, trauma informed care and treatment;
To providespecialist advice and consultation and training to members of other disciplineswithin the teams and to non-psychology manager of the teams on psychologicalunderstanding, interventions and evaluations;
To develop anddeliver teaching as appropriate for members of staff from other disciplines;
Responsiblefor planning, delivery and clinical supervision of a specialist psychologytraining placement for trainees on the postgraduate doctoral courses inclinical/counselling and/ or forensic psychology;
To developfurther post-qualification experience in psychology over and above thatprovided through training by engaging in a clearly planned CPD programme inaccordance with British Psychological Society guidance and in line with servicemodel and needs;
To contributeto peer psychology supervision sessions.
Management, recruitment, policy andservice development
To plan andsupervise the work of undergraduate psychology students, and traineepsychologists and be responsible for their support in their placements;
To contribute to proposals andimplementation of policy and service development changes in relation topsychology and psychological therapies;
To advise the MentalHealth lead and/or Heads of Healthcare on those aspects of the service wherepsychological matters need addressing in line with best practice and serviceobjectives;
Responsible for contributing tothe planning, organizing, auditing and developing of policy strategies for thedelivery of the psychological therapies service;
To contribute to proposalsfor and implementation of policy and service development changes in relation topsychology and psychological therapies within the service;
To take responsibility forrepresentation of the profession at appropriate service development andgovernance meetings as agreed with their Line Manager and in line with Personaland Professional Development Plans (PDPs);
To contribute to recruitmentshortlisting and interviewing as appropriate across the service;
To utilise theory, evidence based literature and research to supportevidence based practice in individual/ group work and work with other teammembers;
To undertake project management, including complex audit, research andservice evaluation projects, with colleagues within the service, to helpdevelop service provision;
To prepare andpresent information from audits, evaluations and research to professionalaudiences within and outside the Organisation
To preparepapers for publication based on audit, evaluation, research and developmentwork
To utilise theory, evidence basedliterature and research to support evidence based practice in individual workand work with other team members.
Professional -
To attend regional and national Psychological Therapies meetings,service development and other relevant meetings regularly;
To adhere to professional/accrediting body codes of conduct, policiesand procedures (e.g. HCPC, BABCP, BPS);
To be aware of, adhere to, and where appropriate, contribute to theformulation and review of Practice Plus Group policies and procedures;
To maintain and develop high standards of psychology/psychologicaltherapy practice by engaging in continuing professional development andco-operative working/networking with therapists, clinical, counselling andforensic psychologist colleagues;
To receive regular line management supervision by the Head ofHealthcare
To participate in the organisations annual performance review andpersonal development planning process with the clinical supervisor and linemanager;
To keep up to date withlegislation, national directives, policies and NICE guidelines in relation tothe work delivered.
Other
This Job Description is not exhaustive and may change as the postdevelops, but such change will not take place without consultation between thepost holder and their manager. Job descriptions should be reviewed at leastannually at the appraisal meeting.
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.
Depending on experienceUp to £82,000 per annum
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