Principal Psychologist
Job Description
Job summary
UNLOCK YOUR BEST WORK LIFE + MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO EVERY LIFE We have an exciting opportunity for a Principle Psychologist to join our integrated Mental Healthcare team at Gatwick IRC, based in the heart of Gatwick, providing care to around 440 patients. Within this role you will be working closely with the multidisciplinary to provide high quality care for patients with complex mental health needs. The applicant must be familiar with trauma informed practice and trained in at least one trauma specific intervention. The applicant will be part of the Integrated Mental Health Team and will be an integral part of the clinical leadership team supporting the development of the psychological therapies service
Hours
2.5 days per week 8am-4pm, we can offer some flexibility with hours
Salary
You'll receive an annual salary from £72,000 to £ 79,000 per annumFTE - depending on experience.
You will also receive a golden hello payment of £3,500 which is paid in 4 instalments over 24 months.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
- Support from the wider team
Candidates are required to have a Legal right to work in the UK and 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 qualified, HCPC registered Psychologist, your responsibilities will vary. You will
- Offer clinical support and oversight to the Integrated Mental Health Team (IMHT) in the form of training
- Undertake psychological assessments and support complex multi-disciplinary formulations
- Deliver and oversee the delivery of 1:1 psychological interventions 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
- 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
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 we would like to be treated
- we act with integrity
- we embrace diversity
- 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- Qualified clinical, counselling or forensic psychologist and registered with the HCPC as a practitioner psychologist;
- Postgraduate qualification/training in at least one specific mode of psychological therapy relevant to people with severe and long standing mental health difficulties eg: CBT, Systemic /family therapy, Mindfulness based therapies, CAT, DBT, Mentalisation, Schema Therapy
- Critical awareness of a range of psychological models applicable to delivering psychological approaches in remand prisons .
- A working knowledge of current good practice and recent government policies relating to health services and professional guidelines;
Job responsibilities
In this senior clinician role, the Principal Psychologist will provide clinical leadership to the mental health team, ensuring the delivery of effective psychological services that support the unique challenges faced by individuals in prison. The Principal Psychologist will work collaboratively with the prison's senior leadership team and external stakeholders, and will actively contribute to regional quality review processes and service development meetings, ensuring that mental health services are continuously improved and aligned with best practices and meeting agreed targets. This role will work closely with the wider national psychological therapies team and contribute to service model review and improvement against new research and in line with best practice and NICE guidelines. Additionally, the role involves contributing to regional quality review and service development meetings to ensure that mental health services are responsive to the needs of individuals in prison and actively work to minimize the cycle of intergenerational trauma. By leading initiatives that connect individuals with essential resources and support, the Principal Psychologist will play a vital role in promoting the mental well-being of both patients and staff within a remand prison setting.
MAIN DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES
Clinical -
To provide highly specialist psychological assessment of high complex patients based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with patients, family members (when appropriate) and others involved in the patients care.
To make highly specialist clinical decisions and clinical judgements about patient care, processes and service developments;
To provide specialist trauma informed, psychological insight, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to patients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan;
To lead and evaluate the implementation of a range of psychological interventions for individuals and groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models, and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses; engage in structured and dynamic risk assessments;
To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking in to account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors including historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group;
To contribute directly and indirectly to a trauma informed, psychologically-based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, promoting the psychological mindedness of staff;
To contribute a psychosocial, trauma informed perspective within the multidisciplinary team including for those patients not directly on the psychologists caseload and attend individual patient reviews and risk management meetings where appropriate;
To attend ACCT reviews and segregation reviews in the prison as appropriate and to offer psychological opinion about management and appropriate referrals in that context and, offer psychological understanding into CSIP plans 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 of patients needs during transition into open conditions or release into the community;
To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, highly complex/sensitive information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans to the patient, appropriate professional colleagues and to family members, as appropriate, and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course 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 to date with outcomes data for patient/service and staff outcomes;
To contribute to the development of specialized individual treatment plans or packages of care for patients with complex psychological problems and who may present a risk of harm to themselves or others;
To be able to manage the emotional impact of working, often one-to-one, with people who can be in crisis, who can show high levels of arousal and can be actively self-harming or suicidal;
To work jointly with other psychologists/therapists, to plan and hand over the psychological assessment and treatments of patients that may continue after either transfer to other prisons or released in the community or ...
