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Job overview

8A Practitioner Psychologist - Enhanced Support Service (ESS) at HMP Foston Hall

We are recruiting to 1xWTE Band 8A Practitioner Psychologist for ACCESS, the Enhanced Support Service at HMP Foston Hall, Derby. We are looking for enthusiastic, robust, resilient, creative, and innovative candidates interested in working with people who have complex presentations, encompassing risk, personality difficulties and mental health.

ACCESS is part of the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway and is a partnership between HMP Foston Hall, Practice Plus Group, and HMPPS Psychology Services. The service aims to support prisoners at HMP Foston Hall presenting with highly complex needs which are causing them significant distress and preventing them from progressing in their sentence in some way. More specifically, it is for service users who cannot access or are not responding to existing strategies and interventions to manage their behaviour, indicating the need for a higher level of support. ACCESS aims to work collaboratively with service users and/or the professionals involved in their care, to promote stability, psychological wellbeing and positive coping through the provision of intervention and support. 

Main duties of the job

As a result, ACCESS aims to support individuals to engage meaningfully with the regime as well as mainstream services, activities and support as required. Through the provision of staff support, ACCESS also aims to improve the competence, confidence and attitudes of professionals working with complex prisoners, some of whom may present with Personality Disorder and/or mental health needs. We welcome applications from motivated people with leadership skills and experience, who are interested in working with complex presentations, balancing clinical need with risk management.  A core part of these roles will be to work alongside colleagues from a range of disciplines sharing psychological knowledge and consistently improving the psychological mindedness of the service.  We are looking for people from a range of diverse backgrounds with an interest in working with, supporting and enhancing the lives of people who have experienced adverse life experiences, including trauma and neglect, and have a history of offending behaviour.

Working with this client group can be emotionally taxing requiring a robustness to manage the complex emotions and processes that occur. You will have appropriate access to clinical supervision and support. You will be line managed by a Consultant Psychologist/Strategic Clinical Lead in the Secure Care and Offender Health (SCOH) directorate within Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (BSMHFT).

Working for our organisation

Our Trust is committed to treating individuals fairly and ensuring they have the same opportunities to fulfil their potential, even if this means doing things differently for different people sometimes. We are working hard to ensure our workforce reflects the diversity within Birmingham and Solihull and that our services meet the needs of all diverse service users and carers.

The Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. As part of our safe recruitment practice pre-employment checks will be undertaken before any appointment is confirmed. As part of the selection process you may be required to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, however all cases of criminal record history are dealt with on a case by case basis.

Please note, if applicable for your role you will be required to cover the cost of your DBS certificate. This will be deducted from your salary over 3 months. You will also be required to sign up to the DBS Update Service before commencement with the Trust.

All successful applicants will be required to complete the Trust’s induction programme. The Fundamental (Statutory and Mandatory) training will be in an e-learning format. You will be required to complete training modules online (approx. 9-14 hours depending on post) by the end of your first week with us.

If you are successful at the shortlisting stage of the recruitment process we may contact you via email to advise you of the interview details. Please ensure you access your email account from which you applied regularly once the position has closed.

If applicable to your role, the Trust will require you to sign up for the DBS Update Service. The subscription will cost you £13 a year but the Trust will reimburse this. You will be contractually obliged to maintain your subscription.

Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the United Kingdom (UK) are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Please note that from January 2021, to work in the UK all candidates who are not UK or Republic of Ireland (RoI) nationals require sponsorship unless you have permission to work via another route. Non UK / RoI candidates wishing to apply can self-assess the likelihood of obtaining a Certificate of Sponsorship here Browse: Work in the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 1. It is vital that you provide full and accurate details of your current immigration status on the application form. Overseas applicants applying for entry clearance into the UK must present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided in continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Not everyone needs a ‘Skilled Worker’ visa. If you are applying for a vacancy in health or adult social care, check if you’re eligible to apply for the Health and Care Worker visa instead. It’s cheaper to apply for and you do not need to pay the annual immigration health surcharge.