Job summary
Employer heading
Clinical Psychologist Principal
Band 8b
Our Vision is to provide the best mental health, learning disability, autism and community based services for the populations we serve.
As an integrated mental health, learning disability and community Trust, Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust provides a range of services including:
• Primary and secondary mental health care for children and adults including specialist inpatient child and adolescent mental health provision, perinatal mental health, forensic services including low and medium secure care.
• Specialist community support for children and adults with learning disabilities and autism, including intensive support.
• Community physical health and well-being services for children and adults.
The Trust was first established in 2002 and employs approximately 7,000 staff who provide care from more than 400 sites. The organisation offers opportunities for medics, mental health and general nurses, allied health professionals, psychology, administration and clerical staff, apprentices and volunteers.
Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust supports flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as; term time, part time, compressed hours, home/remote working, and flexi-time.
For more information visit our website via Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS FT.
Job overview
We are excited to be recruiting a Clinical Psychologist with experience of all aspects of clinical/forensic settings into our Community Sentence Treatment Requirement (CSTR) programme.
The post holder will work in a relatively new team designed to facilitate the use of Mental Health Treatment Requirements (MHTRs) which aim to reduce reoffending among vulnerable individuals through coordinated health and social care intervention, and to offer an alternative to custodial sentences.
The post holder will be the Clinical Lead for the team and provide clinical supervision of 9 Mental Health Practitioners.
Service development will include refining the team’s screening, assessment and formulation processes and model(s) of intervention (in accordance with the existing CSTR Programme Operating Framework) and continuing to engage with and establish relationships with relevant partner agencies.
The post holder will have the ability to work with clients who present with the full range of clinical needs and risk behaviours, and the ability to handle highly complex clinical, professional and ethical challenges, and demands on clinicians and services.
As part of our large Psychological Services Team in secure services, the post holder will be expected to develop expertise in all aspects of forensic/clinical practice across the different services within Guild Park, and to contribute to the wide ranging input psychologists provide to all three Doctorate courses in the North West.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will in a relatively new team that is part of the national Community Sentence Treatment Requirement (CSTR) programme.
This is a partnership between the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Department of Health and Social Care (DOSC), NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE/I), Public Health England (PHE) and His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). The CSTR programme is designed to assist new regions to develop pathways to enable the use of Mental Health Treatment Requirements (MHTRs). It aims to increase the use of MHTRs with a view to reducing reoffending among vulnerable individuals (particularly those with mental health and substance misuse needs) through effective and coordinated health and social care and to offer an alternative to custodial sentences.
As part of the CSTR programme, the team is tasked with the specific aim of delivering primary care MHTRs in Magistrates Courts in the LSCFT footprint which ranges from Blackburn to Carlisle.
The post holder will implement the programme at the test sites and must engage with and establish relationships with relevant partner agencies. They will also need to develop, where necessary, the team’s screening, assessment and formulation processes and model(s) of intervention (in accordance with the existing CSTR Programme Operating Framework). Once implemented, it will be the role of the Clinical Lead to oversee and evaluate the delivery of the programme.
Working for our organisation
Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust provides a range of services including secondary mental health care across this area. Specialist provision comprises inpatient child and adolescent mental health services, perinatal mental health and forensic services including low and medium secure care.
The Trust also provides a range of physical health and well-being services in the community alongside a range of partners in the Lancashire, Cumbria and Sefton area.
Lancashire & South Cumbria Foundation Trust encourages flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as; term time, part time, compressed hours, flexi-time and career breaks. We encourage applicants to state clearly on their application forms this request and discuss these options at interview.
For more information please visit our website via Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS FT
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Doctoral level training in clinical psychology or equivalent for those who trained prior to 1996, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS.
Desirable criteria
- Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.
Experience
Essential criteria
- A minimum of 4 years experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist.
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for client’s psychological care and treatment both as a professionally qualified care co-ordinator and also within the context of multidisciplinary care plan.
- Experience of teaching, training and supervising.
- Demonstrable experience of conducting complex audit/research and service evaluation.
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
- Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
- Formal training in supervision of other psychologists
Skills
Essential criteria
- Ability to sustain intense levels of concentration responding and participating as required.
- Ability to self reflect and use clinical supervision appropriately.
- Ability to cope and deal with highly distressing emotional circumstances.
- Ability to cope with unpleasant working conditions.
Other
Essential criteria
- Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
- Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
- Ability to identify and provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours.
Applicant requirements
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
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Dr Chris Harrop
- Job title
- Lead for Inpatient Psychology
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Additional information
For further information, please contact: Dr Chris Harrop, Lead for Inpatient Psychology at Guild Lodge, at [email protected], and/or Dr Kate Sheehy, outgoing Clinical Lead for MHTR Services at [email protected].
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