Band 8B Principal Clinical Psychologist
Job Description
Job summary
We would like you to join us and apply your psychological knowledge and skills to an unique military environment. Did you know that you can support serving members of the Armed Forces as a civilian clinician but maintain your NHS pension, AfC pay and leave benefits?
You will belong to a network of psychologists providing mental healthcare to serving military personnel within the South-West region.You will be based at DCMH Plymouth, with the option for some hybrid working to support a good work-life balance.If you are seeking to broaden your professional experience, this post offers a rare opportunity to maintain and develop your clinical practice whilst contributing to the field of survival psychology.
In your core clinical role you will work with multi-disciplinary teams of military and civilian mental healthcare colleagues. Youll assess and treat (mainly) complex CMD presentations. We'll encourage you to pursue your own areas of clinical interest, deliver supervision, audit, research, service development & training activities. Discover how rewarding it is to apply your skills with a new client group!
The post is full time offering 37.5 hours per week. Part time candidates will be considered but due to the nature of the role it needs to be on a job share basis.
Please note that you will be expected to travel to RAF St Mawgan, Newquay, TR8 4HP to deliver the specialist responsibilities of this role.
Main duties of the job
20% of your time will be spent working with the MOD Defence Survival Training Organisation (DSTO) at RAF St Mawgan, Cornwall. This involves training instructors in relevant psychological theories and research, coordinating with DSTO Command on clinical psychological matters, acquiring knowledge on the psychology of survival and capture, applying that knowledge to support the reintegration of isolated service personnel (RISP) and engaging in international liaison with partner nations.
As our chosen candidate you will be providing a specialised 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 line management and carers, working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the teams policies and procedures.
The specialist responsibilities of this role involve the provision of psychological support to the Defence SERE Training Organisation (DSTO). This will include providing training to instructors, advice to the chain of command and support of wellbeing initiatives, as part of a holistic risk management approach. The role will also provide psychological expertise to reintegration activity, including policy development, consultation and training.
About us
Our success depends on our people, our Whole Force regular and reservist military, civil servants and contractors, all working as one, working together seamlessly to deliver for us.
Our civil servants are a central part of this Whole Force, developing strategy, making policy, supporting ministerial decision-making and Parliamentary processes. In fact, with over 2,000 different roles working across 650 sites around the world, now really is an excellent time to join one of the largest, most exciting departments in government.
The Ministry of Defence is committed to attracting and retaining people from across the full range of backgrounds and enabling flexible ways of working as the norm. We offer maternity, adoption or shared parental leave of up to 26 weeks full pay followed by 13 weeks of statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid, and paternity leave of 2 weeks full pay.
In return, you can expect a department that helps you learn and develop that recognises your expertise and contribution, both as an individual and part of a team.
If you've ever wanted to do more, see more, go further or be better, we have roles in more professions and vocations than ever before. Let's see where your future will take you, together.
Job responsibilities
Benefits
- Learning and development tailored to your role
- An NHS pension
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
- Opportunities for continuing professional development
- Free parking
- Access to gym and swimming pool
- Onsite Costa, Greggs and small convenience shop
Essential Criteria
- Doctoral level training in clinical, counselling or forensic psychology (or equivalent as accredited by British Psychological Society (BPS) conferring eligibility for Chartership & full membership of Division of Clinical, Counselling or Forensic Psychology). Training must have included models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.
- Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC) Registered as a Practitioner Psychologist under protected title.
- Demonstrable post-qualification experience working as a clinical, counselling or forensic psychologist (at Band 8 or above) and ability to evidence completion of relevant training/preceptorship in order to be able to carry out the full range of supervisory activities as appropriate to an NHS Band 8b grade post.
Selection Process
The selection at sift stage will be based on your CV and application. At interview, you will be tested against the following Behaviours:
- Changing and Improving
- Communicating and Influencing
- Delivering at Pace
- Leadership
- Making Effective Decisions
- Working Together
To be eligible to be considered for this role, qualifications and memberships detailed must be held in full, prior to submission.
Additional Information
We have a proven track record for providing on going training in psychological therapies and host specialist third year Doctoral Clinical Psychology training placements.
Requests to work flexibly and/or part time will be considered, taking into account business needs.
Please note the salary will be pro-rata where part time hours are undertaken.
The sift will be completed within 5 working days of the vacancy closing date. Interviews will be held on a date to be confirmed.
Please ensure you demonstrate that you have the required skills, knowledge, experience, qualifications and memberships in your CV/application form and that you have saved it, making sure that any reference to your personal details have been removed from your CV prior to submitting your application.
There is no requirement to deploy as this is met by our uniformed personnel, but you will form the continuity of care required by our patients when based at home.
Travel to interview costs will not be reimbursed.
There is no requirement to deploy as this is met by our uniformed personnel, but you will form the continuity of care required by our patients when based at home.
If found successful for this position, you will be required to provide evidence of your immunity to Hepatitis B. Failure to provide evidence of your immunity may result in the offer of employment being withdrawn.
This vacancy is part of the A Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative. For more information copy and paste the following in to your browser or search gov.uk: Making-the-civil-service-a-great-place-to-work-for-veterans.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check.
All employees joining Ministry of Defence who are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a 6-month probation period (unless otherwise advised) effective from the employment start date.
Please see the link to our Youtube channel for advice preparing your best responses with some hints and tips on answering behaviour based questions. Hints and tips such as: Your behaviours can be based on situations from work, volunteering or home; match your situation to the behaviour requested and how to use your 250-word limit.
https://www.youtube.com/@DMS_MilMed
Please be advise that you will need to copy and paste the link into your browser.
As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came in to effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.
The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.
There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please ...
