Job summary
Mersey Care NHS Trust is the health provider for the delivery of an innovative prison-based assessment and treatment service for residents with personality related needs.
This service is based within HMP Garth which is a category B men's adult prison based in Leyland, Lancashire. The service is part of the National Offender Personality Disorder Strategy and is delivered as a partnership between HMP Garth and Mersey Care NHS Trust.
We believe that this post provides a unique opportunity to be part of a psychologically led service with formulation and integrated team working at its core. The service provides 1:1 and group based interventions based on Professor John Livesley's framework and model of interventions for individuals with personality related needs.
These structured interventions are provided as part of a therapeutic milieu which involves a focus on attachment, trauma and systemic approaches, alongside comprehensive risk assessment and management. Core aims of the service are consistent with those of the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway in improving psychological wellbeing, reducing risk, improving staff skills and competencies and pathway focussed intervention.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will be joining a dedicated team of clinical and prison officer staff from a range of backgrounds and experience. Team members have high levels of skill, passion and enthusiasm (and humour!) and are committed to ensuring the on-going successful development of the service and the opportunities it provides for our population.
The post holder will contribute to the systematic provision of specialised psychological services to residents within the Beacon. Applicants should have doctoral level training in clinical psychology or equivalent or will be a qualified chartered forensic / counselling psychologist. You should have considerable experience of working with individuals with complex clinical and risk presentations including within institutional settings and as part of a multi-disciplinary team. This should include work with clients whose needs may meet criteria for a diagnosis of personality disorder and who may find it difficult to engage with services. Experience of working in complex service and organisational settings is required alongside an ability to constructively manage the personal, professional and ethical opportunities and challenges such work can involve.
The post will involve clinical leadership responsibilities service and applicants will, therefore, also need to have experience of managing and supporting colleagues alongside high levels of emotional resilience and containment at an individual, clinical and service level.
About us
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 11 million people.
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.
At the Beacon service, we prioritise the development of our staff team and have proven that we value and nurture diverse clinical interests. Members of our team have been trained in MBT, CAT, EMDR, Schema Therapy, leadership, psychoanalytic/ psychodynamic models and systemic ways of working. We are committed to creating an empowered staff team. We strive to be reflective and support of each other which is vital given the challenges this work can entail.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Full details of the main responsibilities of the post can be found in the job description and person specification.
For informal enquiries, please contact Simon Crowther (Clinical Lead) on simon.crowther@merseycare.nhs.uk / 01772 443422 or Debbie Brennand (Clinical Services Manager) on debbie.brennand@merseycare.nhs.uk / 01772 443394.
We welcome visits to the service so please get in contact if you would like to arrange this.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Full details of the main responsibilities of the post can be found in the job description and person specification.
For informal enquiries, please contact Simon Crowther (Clinical Lead) on simon.crowther@merseycare.nhs.uk / 01772 443422 or Debbie Brennand (Clinical Services Manager) on debbie.brennand@merseycare.nhs.uk / 01772 443394.
We welcome visits to the service so please get in contact if you would like to arrange this.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- oDoctoral level training in clinical or forensic 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 development psychology as accredited by the BPS
- oPost doctoral specialist training, research or study with evidence of additional theoretical or conceptual knowledge acquisition such as would be acquired through a postgraduate course
Desirable
- oPost-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice
Knowledge & Experience
Essential
- oAssessed experience of working as a qualified psychologist for a number of years including at a highly specialist level
- oExperience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and as presenting within a wide range of care settings
- oExperience of, and ability to, maintain a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems and behaviours including potential verbal abuse, threats and incidents of physical aggression
- oExperience of exercising full clinical responsibility for client psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified treatment coordinator or lead and also within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan
- oExperience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision
- oExperience of leadership, management and supervision of trainees and qualified staff from other disciplines
- oFormal training in supervision of other psychologists
- oAbility to constructively manage and contain own emotional needs and the emotional needs and demands of others in the context of a highly complex clinical and service context
- oAbility to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support and supervision to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours
- oAbility to identify and employ, as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour
Desirable
- oExperience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts
- oAwareness of institutional dynamics
- oResearch/publications on relevant issues
- oWell developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological assessments and interventions in specific complex and difficult to treat groups (eg personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).
- oExperience of utilising and working within multicultural models and approaches.
Skills
Essential
- oSkills in providing consultation to other professional and non professional groups
- oSkills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- oWell developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
- oManagement and leadership skills
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- oDoctoral level training in clinical or forensic 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 development psychology as accredited by the BPS
- oPost doctoral specialist training, research or study with evidence of additional theoretical or conceptual knowledge acquisition such as would be acquired through a postgraduate course
Desirable
- oPost-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice
Knowledge & Experience
Essential
- oAssessed experience of working as a qualified psychologist for a number of years including at a highly specialist level
- oExperience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and as presenting within a wide range of care settings
- oExperience of, and ability to, maintain a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems and behaviours including potential verbal abuse, threats and incidents of physical aggression
- oExperience of exercising full clinical responsibility for client psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified treatment coordinator or lead and also within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan
- oExperience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision
- oExperience of leadership, management and supervision of trainees and qualified staff from other disciplines
- oFormal training in supervision of other psychologists
- oAbility to constructively manage and contain own emotional needs and the emotional needs and demands of others in the context of a highly complex clinical and service context
- oAbility to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support and supervision to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours
- oAbility to identify and employ, as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour
Desirable
- oExperience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts
- oAwareness of institutional dynamics
- oResearch/publications on relevant issues
- oWell developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological assessments and interventions in specific complex and difficult to treat groups (eg personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).
- oExperience of utilising and working within multicultural models and approaches.
Skills
Essential
- oSkills in providing consultation to other professional and non professional groups
- oSkills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- oWell developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
- oManagement and leadership skills
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
