Principal Psychologist
Job Description
Job summary
UNLOCK YOUR BEST WORK LIFE
+ MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO EVERY LIFE
We have an exciting opportunity for a PrincipalPsychologist to joinour integrated Mental Healthteam at HMP Garth.
HMP Garth, a category BCategory B men's prison, located in the village of Ulnes Walton, in Lancashire. The site houses around 800 patients aged 21+.We are seeking a strong clinical, 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 Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Psychologist as well as developing the psychological services at the site.
Hours
2.5 days per week betweenMonday to Friday 9am-5pm
If you are looking for full time position we can offer additional sessions working at HMP Wymott.
Salary
You'll receive an annual salary of between £64,455 and £74,896 per annum depending on experience FTE, which will be pro rata for the part time hours.
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
Main duties of the job
As a PrincipalPsychologist,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
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.
Qualifications, skills and experience required:
- 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;
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 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 ...
