Principal Psychologist

As a PrincipalPsychologist,your responsibilities will vary. You will:

If you are interested incareer development,we have a wide range of opportunities for you to develop your skills and experience, which include bothinternal and external optionsfor development and learning.

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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 suicidal;

To work jointly with other psychologists/therapists, to plan and hand

over the psychological assessment and treatments of patients that may continue

after either transfer to other prisons or released in the community or other

recovery-based settings.

In liaison with Mental Leads and/or Heads of Healthcare and the

National Head of Psychological Therapies, identify opportunities for and

conduct service development projects in collaboration with other members of the

multidisciplinary team;

Participate in and contribute to CPD and peer supervision within the

wider healthcare team;

Active engagement in appropriate practice supervision.

Teaching, training and supervision

To receive

regular clinical supervision from an appropriately qualified and experienced

supervisor, in accordance with the BPS and the HCPC guidelines and, where appropriate,

from other senior professional colleagues and, to supervise junior psychology

colleagues and other therapists and MDT colleagues as appropriate;

To provide

training and supervision for members of the service (healthcare and prison) in

the delivery of psychologically, trauma informed care and treatment;

Practice Plus Groups purpose is to Unlock your best work life and we stand by our core values:

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

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.

Qualifications

Experience

Additional Criteria