The postholder will work within HMP Altcourse which is a male category B prison in the Liverpool area. The postholder will apply and maintain specialist skills, knowledge and experience to monitor and ensure the systematic provision of highly specialised psychological services. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to provide both group and individual interventions utilising a range of models, and there will be opportunities to support further training. You will be responsible for a clinical caseload and will receive regular clinical/management supervision.
You will contribute to maintain a safe and well led team and be involved in service development to improve quality service provision. This is an exciting time to join the Trust and influence the development of new services for people with mental health issues. The Trust’s services operate within the least restrictive principle and implement Trauma Informed Care.
The post holder will be an experienced and qualified Psychological Therapist with a core training in a recognised qualification, such as Counselling or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. They will provide highly specialised therapy services within a Clinical Psychology and Talking Therapies service based within a prison setting, including the provision of specialist psychological assessment and individual and groupbased therapy. The post holder will be responsible for a clinical caseload and will receive regular clinical/management supervision. They will offer advice and consultation on patient’s psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other, non-professional carers, working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service’s policies and procedures. There will be opportunities to contribute to audit, policy and service development and research within the area in which the post holder works.
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
To accept referrals, support and assist with Clinical Psychology and Talking Therapies (CPTT) based within a prison setting.
To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of patients whose problems are managed by a specialised mental health service.
To provide specialist assessment and suitability for psychological interventions.
To support decision making regarding suitability of referrals and signposting where necessary to relevant services.
To provide interventions within a time limit to the agreed sessional requirements of the CPTT.
To organise own caseload, taking professional responsibility and exercising autonomous judgement with regards to professional practice.
To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s psychological problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy.
To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment and treatment of service users whose problems are managed by psychologically based enhanced care plans.
To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals as appropriate.
To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all service users of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
To undertake ongoing risk assessment of service users on current caseload and utilise Mersey Care and prison processes for reporting and management of risk.
To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, highly complex information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of individuals where there may be conflicting views, high emotion and significant barriers to understanding and change, and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of care.
To receive regular clinical professional supervision from a senior psychological therapist and where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues.
To contribute to peer supervision within the service.
To provide supervision and guidance to assistant psychologists where appropriate.
To provide expertise, advice and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the team.
To maintain CPD through ongoing training in core professional therapeutic model along with training in other relevant therapeutic models and approaches in line with service needs, over and above that provided within the principal service area where the postholder is employed.
To contribute to the development of trainee psychological therapists through a range of methods, such as teaching, placements and supervision.
To develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision and to provide supervision to other MDT staff’s psychological work, as appropriate.
To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of all relevant staff, as appropriate.
To provide advice, consultation, supervision and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.
To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team’s operational policies, procedures and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.
To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.
To be involved, as appropriate, in the shortlisting and interviewing of junior staff.
To support assistant and graduate psychologists, within the framework of the team/service’s policies and procedures.
To support the development of clinical pathways within the service, developing online resources and resources to be used within the service.
The post holder will be expected to make full use of IT packages available within the work area, for example, Microsoft Office, email, internet and statistical packages.
To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
To support the service to undertake research and provide advice to other staff undertaking research.
To undertake project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within the service to help develop service provision.
To undertake a defined role in Secure Division Service Governance structures as agreed.
To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the postholder’s professional and service manager(s) in line with the priorities of the service and PDP objectives and to provide evidence of CPD undertaken, e.g. in the form of a CPD logbook.
To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychotherapy/psychology across the service by continuing to develop the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in relevant therapeutic models and disciplines.
To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice and Secure Care Division and Trust policies and procedures.
To maintain up-to-date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health.
To perform other duties of a similar kind appropriate to the grade, which may be required by their operational manager after consultation.
