Job summary
An exciting opportunity has arisen within Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust to join a well established, supportive team of Learning Disability practitioners meeting the psychological assessment, treatment and care needs of service users within the Low secure unit.
The LSU service will be moving from Whalley, Lancashire in March 2024 to Aspen Wood - the new purpose-built 40 bed unit (20 male & 20 female beds) state of the art LSU building at Maghull Health park, Liverpool. The Low secure services are for people who are presenting with behaviours that challenge in the community and/or have come into contact with the criminal justice services.
The post available is 1.0 wte Inpatient (Learning Disability Low secure) Practitioner Psychologist to be based at Maghull Health Park, Liverpool (Permanent Band 7/8a dependent on experience and subject to preceptorship). The post is primarily linked to the woman's part of the LSU.
There is an agreed training budget attached to this post to facilitate skill development in a specific therapy intervention once the candidate is established in post.
You will be responsible for a clinical caseload and will receive regular clinical and management supervision. In addition to clinical work you will have management responsibilities to maintain a safe and well led team, and be involved in service development to increase service provision.
Main duties of the job
The successful candidate will have the opportunity to be part of a full MDT & provide both group and individual adapted interventions utilising a range of models including Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT).
We are looking for a qualified psychological practitioner with the experience, skills and enthusiasm to provide quality services to service users within our Learning Disability LSU service.
Watch our video about the role: https://youtu.be/uHWKg3JbAYI
About us
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.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Successful applicants would be working within the LSU MDT to provide specialist psychological assessment, therapy and interventions to service users and carers, making use of a range of models where appropriate.
Successful applicants would also offer specialist advice, leadership and consultation to non-psychologist colleagues and support the development of psychological skills across the whole workforce through specialist training, supervision, mentorship and reflective practice. Psychological input is highly valued by staff within the service.
We would also expect potential candidates to have experience of working with other services, championing psychological interventions and developing working partnerships.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Successful applicants would be working within the LSU MDT to provide specialist psychological assessment, therapy and interventions to service users and carers, making use of a range of models where appropriate.
Successful applicants would also offer specialist advice, leadership and consultation to non-psychologist colleagues and support the development of psychological skills across the whole workforce through specialist training, supervision, mentorship and reflective practice. Psychological input is highly valued by staff within the service.
We would also expect potential candidates to have experience of working with other services, championing psychological interventions and developing working partnerships.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Doctoral level training in clinical psychology accredited by the BPS or its approved equivalent
- Current HCPC registration
Desirable
- Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice
- Chartered registration with the BPS
Knowlege/Experience
Essential
- Knowledge and skills development to meet factor 2 level 8 requirements.
- Demonstrated clinical experience of working as a registered psychologist with the service user group accessing the service in which this post is based
- Demonstrated experience working as part of a multidisciplinary team and/or liaison with multidisciplinary clinicians and/or stakeholders.
- Demonstrated experience in undertaking specialist assessment, formulation, care planning and interventions
- Experience of working with a wide variety of service user groups, experiencing complex needs, and presenting problems.
- Experience of working with presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity
- Experience of maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, v e r b a l abuse and the threats of physical abuse
- Demonstrated ability to work independently on own initiative. While utilizing clinical supervision systems to maintain safe and effective practice.
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for service users psychological care and treatment, within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan.
- Formal training in clinical supervision and experience of supervision of junior psychological staff and/or other disciplines
- Experience of teaching, training.
- Experience of engagement with leadership and/or management in service development.
Desirable
- Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
- Knowledge of organisational dynamics and institutional factors
Values
Essential
- Continuous Improvement
- Accountability
- Respectfulness
- Enthusiasm
- Support
- High professional standards
- Responsive to service users
- Engaging leadership style
- Strong customer service belief
- Transparency and honesty
- Discreet
- Change Oriented
Skills
Essential
- Well-developed skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment
- Well-developed clinical intervention skills.
- Ability to assimilate complex information from a range of sources to complete psychological formulation and clinical risk assessment
- Experience of delivering psychological intervention in a range of formats to service users with complex needs.
- Demonstrated ability to effectively engage service users
- Demonstrated Ability to maintain clear and appropriate personal and professional boundaries and to recognise own limitations.
- Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing,
- Demonstrated Skills in providing consultation to other professional and nonprofessional groups.
- Knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to the service user group and area of service delivery.
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the HCPC/BPS
- Evidence of recognised Formal training in supervision of other psychologists
- Well developed ability to utilise IT systems such as MS Office
Desirable
- Completion of training in specialist clinical and risk assessment tools in the area of specialism e.g. HCR-20, START, SCID, IPDE, PCL-R, WAIS, AIDOS.
- Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of assessment and specialised psychological therapies
- Previous training and experience of delivering a range of recognised specialised therapies e.g. CBT, DBT, Schema therapy
- Evidence of training and experience with regard to the development of Management and leadership skills.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Doctoral level training in clinical psychology accredited by the BPS or its approved equivalent
- Current HCPC registration
Desirable
- Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice
- Chartered registration with the BPS
Knowlege/Experience
Essential
- Knowledge and skills development to meet factor 2 level 8 requirements.
- Demonstrated clinical experience of working as a registered psychologist with the service user group accessing the service in which this post is based
- Demonstrated experience working as part of a multidisciplinary team and/or liaison with multidisciplinary clinicians and/or stakeholders.
- Demonstrated experience in undertaking specialist assessment, formulation, care planning and interventions
- Experience of working with a wide variety of service user groups, experiencing complex needs, and presenting problems.
- Experience of working with presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity
- Experience of maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, v e r b a l abuse and the threats of physical abuse
- Demonstrated ability to work independently on own initiative. While utilizing clinical supervision systems to maintain safe and effective practice.
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for service users psychological care and treatment, within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan.
- Formal training in clinical supervision and experience of supervision of junior psychological staff and/or other disciplines
- Experience of teaching, training.
- Experience of engagement with leadership and/or management in service development.
Desirable
- Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
- Knowledge of organisational dynamics and institutional factors
Values
Essential
- Continuous Improvement
- Accountability
- Respectfulness
- Enthusiasm
- Support
- High professional standards
- Responsive to service users
- Engaging leadership style
- Strong customer service belief
- Transparency and honesty
- Discreet
- Change Oriented
Skills
Essential
- Well-developed skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment
- Well-developed clinical intervention skills.
- Ability to assimilate complex information from a range of sources to complete psychological formulation and clinical risk assessment
- Experience of delivering psychological intervention in a range of formats to service users with complex needs.
- Demonstrated ability to effectively engage service users
- Demonstrated Ability to maintain clear and appropriate personal and professional boundaries and to recognise own limitations.
- Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing,
- Demonstrated Skills in providing consultation to other professional and nonprofessional groups.
- Knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to the service user group and area of service delivery.
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the HCPC/BPS
- Evidence of recognised Formal training in supervision of other psychologists
- Well developed ability to utilise IT systems such as MS Office
Desirable
- Completion of training in specialist clinical and risk assessment tools in the area of specialism e.g. HCR-20, START, SCID, IPDE, PCL-R, WAIS, AIDOS.
- Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of assessment and specialised psychological therapies
- Previous training and experience of delivering a range of recognised specialised therapies e.g. CBT, DBT, Schema therapy
- Evidence of training and experience with regard to the development of Management 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).
