Job summary
- Main area
- Adult Community Mental Health Services
- Grade
- Band 7/8a
- Contract
- Permanent: Preceptorship post Band 7-8a
- Hours
- Part time - 30 hours per week
- Job ref
- 277-7301274-PORT-B
- Employer
- Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- HMP Portland
- Town
- Portland
- Salary
- £47,810 - £62,682 pro rata pa
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 12/08/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Clinical/Forensic/Counselling Psychologist/Psychological Therapist
Band 7/8a
Job overview
This is an excellent opportunity for a Psychologist or Specialist Psychological Therapist to join our team of diverse, talented healthcare professionals to deliver care that is not only efficient but deeply centred on the patient.
Our healthcare teams have a real impact on promoting health and well-being to those in prison and we pride ourselves on using skills and strategies that instil hope for patient’s future resettlement back into the community. Our Psychological Therapies department is an unusually large, long established and nationally well regarded specialty. Psychologists are highly valued within the trust and occupy a variety of service-wide leadership roles. The Psychological Therapies team is warm and friendly, whilst also being dynamic and innovative.
Join us in a stimulating role where we are seeking a dynamic and passionate psychologist who has the skills required to work within a trauma-informed care service
We welcome applications from newly qualified; Clinical, Counselling or Forensic Psychologists, CBT Therapists, Systemic, Arts or Psychoanalytical Psychotherapists or those close to obtaining qualified status
Important Sponsorship Information for this post: Due to service budget restrictions we are currently unable to offer a certificate of sponsorship for this post.
Main duties of the job
An exciting and unique opportunity has arisen in our Dorset Prisons cluster for a Band 7 preceptorship to 8a.
The post holder will also be funded to complete formal training in: EMDR, DBT or MBT within their first two years in post and access to specialist supervision in the approach.
The successful candidate will hold their own clinical caseload and be responsible for supervising pre-qualified psychological therapists. Supervision skills training will be provided if required. Your progression is key, and you will be offered development sessions to support your career planning and professional development into the 8a role.
Key responsibilities include:
· To provide direct psychological care (assessment and intervention) and support the delivery of psychologically informed care by all disciplines within the service.
· To provide highly specialist psychological therapy assessments, formulations and interventions.
· To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of community clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans, including taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans with input from clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.
· To provide line management to designated assistant psychologists.
Working for our organisation
Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.
We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.
Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:
- We’re Kind
- We’re Fair
- We Listen
- We Care
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Management responsibilities
· To provide line management to designated assistant psychologists.
· Provide supervision to students and trainees and to multi-disciplinary colleagues delivering psychological interventions.
· To support recruitment of assistant psychologists to the service.
· To provide highly specialist advice, consultation and training of staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate. This may include work with the Criminal Justice System and Children’s Services.
Leadership
· To provide and support specialist clinical placements for students and trainees in applied psychological practice.
· To contribute to the delivery of teaching and training to junior psychological practitioners and specialist training to other professions.
Clinical
· To provide direct psychological care (assessment and intervention) and support the delivery of psychologically informed care by all disciplines within the service.
· To provide highly specialist psychological therapy assessments, formulations and interventions.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION, PLEASE READ:
All applicants must be willing to undertake National Security Vetting in order to work in a Prison Setting. This will be completed as part of the pre-employment checks through Oxleas and the prison vetting team.
You will need to provide:
Proof of right to work documentation
Proof of ID, needs to include 1 photographic ID
Proof of address documentation
Non-UK passport holders will need to have correct documentation (right to work in the UK) and a Home office Share code.
Address History:
5 years address history will be needed.
Applicants that are not UK Passport holders who provide less than 5 years UK address history will need to provide a Police Certificate which must be in English from where they resided previously.
Applicants who are UK Passport holders who have lived abroad for a period of more than six months during the last three years will need to provide a certificate of good conduct or an overseas police check in English from the countries resided in or visited.
In order to assist you in obtaining a Police Certificate, guidance can be sought from:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants
If the country you have resided in is not listed here, you can obtain the necessary information by contacting the relevant Embassy or High Commission for that Country. Their contact details can be found on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office website (http://www.fco.gov.uk/en).
Person specification
Education & Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Entry-level qualification in applied psychological therapy/mental health/social welfare profession or equivalent and demonstrable practice in this field (ie professional Doctorate, or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level/supervised practice/additional training)
- Additional training beyond entry-level qualification in a specialised area of psychological practice (through formal post-qualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent), OR a combination of specialist short courses and/an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice–based learning in a specialist area of clinical psychological therapy practice, assessed by a registered body and/or an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma or higher
- Registered with professional body or regulatory body as appropriate to psychological therapy discipline ie HCPC/UKCP/BACP/BABCP.
Desirable criteria
- Completed training course in clinical supervision
- Training or qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of adult clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature under supervision
- Experience working with and addressing issues of diversity, including experience of working within a multicultural framework.
- Experience of maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
Desirable criteria
- Experience in forensic / secure settings
- Experience of providing teaching and training
Skills
Essential criteria
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
- Ability to administer, score and interpret psychometric and neuropsychological tests with appropriate training and supervision
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Kelly Southgate
- Job title
- Psychological Therapies Lead
- Email address
- [email protected]
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