Job summary
- Main area
- Clinical/Forensic/Counselling Psychologist
- Grade
- Band 7 to 8a
- Contract
- Fixed term: 12 months (maternity cover)
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 267-FS7219095
- Employer
- Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Thames Valley Forensic Mental Health Services | Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
- Town
- Entrance Three | Manzil Resource Centre | Manzil Way, Oxford
- Salary
- £46,148 - £60,504 per annum | pro rata (depending on experience)
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 10/06/2025 23:59
- Interview date
- 20/06/2025
Employer heading
Highly Specialist Clinical / Forensic / Counselling Psychologist
Band 7 to 8a
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has been rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
We are a responsive and innovative Foundation Trust that places our values of Caring, Safe and Excellent at the heart of everything we do. We take great pride in our staff and believe that investing in you is key to us achieving our vision of outstanding care delivered by outstanding people.
We work with a wide range of partner organisations to deliver care and support to people in their own homes and from a number of hospitals and community bases. We focus on delivering care as close to home as possible for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.
We actively support anti-racism, equality, diversity, and inclusion so, if you’re excited about this job opportunity and you meet our Trust values, but feel unsure about applying, then please get in touch and we will be happy to have a conversation with you.
We are also committed to increasing diversity in the workforce, that is why we actively encourage applications from those groups of people who are currently under-represented, which include amongst others: people with disabilities; men from all socio-economic backgrounds; people from diverse ethnic backgrounds; and people from the LGBTQIA+ community.
Good luck and we hope to hear from you.
Job overview
We are recruiting for a Clinical/Forensic/Counselling Psychologist to joint us on a 12 month fixed-term contract across two of our forensic community services.
Do you want to gain a wide breadth of experience across two well-supported and resourced teams? This role provides an opportunity to work 0.5 FTE in each of the following services: Buckinghamshire Specialist Community Forensic Team (SCFT) and Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) Pathway service. We need someone who can engage with a wide range of different professionals and agencies to support either forensic mental health service users or people on probation to resettle and remain in the community after often long periods in prison or hospital.
The OPD team are based in Probation offices with the primary goal of enhancing risk management and sits alongside the Enhanced Intensive Integrated Risk Management Service (EIIRMS) which offers interventions to people on probation.
You'll contribute to needs assessments, developing MDT risk formulations, delivering consultations and offering advice to other agencies/services, designing and delivering training, offering supervision, joint working, and direct therapeutic interventions with service users.
We can offer this opportunity at either a Band 7 or 8a depending on your level of experience and knowledge. If you're ready for a challenging yet rewarding role within forensic services, we would love to hear from you!
Main duties of the job
- Provides direct clinical services to clients, their families and other carers, undertaking highly specialist psychological assessments and providing highly specialist individual and group based psychological therapy and intervention as appropriate and required.
- Facilitates the dissemination of effective evidence informed psychological practice within the team and service by supporting psychologically informed protocols, guidelines and procedures implemented by other members of the MDT.
- Provides teaching/training sessions/programmes in psychological principles and practice for other members of the MDT.
- Providing psychological consultations to Offender Managers/Probation Practitioners (OM/PPs), Approved Premises staff and other professionals working with the person on probation.
- Working closely with the Enhanced Intensive Intervention and Risk Management Service (E-IIRMS) to identify people on probation who are eligible for direct psychosocial interventions and psychological therapy.
- Conducting joint work sessions with people on probation and OM/PPs as pre-engagement/motivational work prior to a referral to E-IIRMS and delivering interventions to demonstrate a technique or approach to OM/PP with a view to deepening an understanding of the risk issue.
- Developing and delivering training and reflective practice for Probation teams and Approved Premises staff, with support from our wider department reflective practice supervision space.
Working for our organisation
Oxford Health is a great place to work and to be able to showcase the best of yourself when making an application please read the “candidate guide to making an application” and ensure your supporting statement is tailored to the role you are applying for and addresses any essential criteria.
As a Trust we provide physical, mental health and social care for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and Northeast Somerset. Our services are delivered at community bases, hospitals, clinics and people’s homes, delivering care as close to home as possible. Our vision is that no matter who you are or where you are, you will tell us that you receive: “Outstanding care delivered by an outstanding team”
Our values are: “Caring, safe and excellent”
We offer a wide range of benefits designed to support your career and wellbeing. These include:
• Excellent opportunities for career progression
• Access to tailored individual and Trust wide learning and development
• 27 days annual leave, plus bank holidays, rising to 33 days with continuous service
• NHS Discount across a wide range of shops, restaurants and retailers
• Competitive pension scheme
• Lease car scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Mental Health First Aiders
• Staff accommodation (please note waiting lists apply)
• Staff networking and support groups hosted by our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion team
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The Specialist Community Forensic Team (SCFT) psychology role is varied and involves a combination of direct work with forensic service users and indirect work with teams/services with the aim of ensuring psychological thinking is integral to SCFT patient care. Our service users are often individuals with complex mental health problems (for example, complex trauma, psychosis and personality disorders) at risk of significant harm to others (including violence and sexual violence) and/or themselves. The role of the newly established SCFT is to support our service users through their transition out of hospital into the community, and ultimately, to stepdown to primary or secondary care services, such as Adult Mental Health Teams.
As a clinical, forensic or counselling psychologist holding doctoral level professional qualifications, the postholder will provide a highly specialist, multilevel clinical service that is cost-effective, culturally appropriate and based on best clinical and professional practice and that meets Trust and Divisional objectives, national strategic, and policy guidelines, commissioner requirements and user and carer needs and expectations. The aims are therefore to help understand, prevent and ameliorate psychological distress and disorder and improve the mental health and well-being of users of the forensic service. The role involves identifying service users who might benefit from further psychological work, conducting comprehensive assessments of personality, emotional well-being and risk, develop and share case formulations (including risk formulations), and delivering psychological interventions to enhance psychological well-being and reduce risk. The role will also involve a significant amount of indirect work, including providing supervision, training, consultancy and joint working opportunities for MDT colleagues and other agencies, in order to develop the skills and competencies of MDT colleagues and ensure interventions and plans are formulation driven and effective. We are committed to becoming a trauma-informed service which focuses on being needs-led and service user centred, with an acknowledgement that transitions are an incredibly challenging time for many service users. The postholder will play an integral part in ensuring trauma-informed care is at the heart of the SCFT’s work.
The Thames Valley Integrated OPD Pathway Service incorporates the Core Offender Personality Disorder Pathway Service (OPDPS) and the Enhanced Intensive Intervention & Risk Management Service (EIIRMS). EIIRMS is an integrated collaboration between a Justice and an NHS forensic mental health service. The service aims to have a focus on (1) improving the psychological well-being of those subject to probation service involvement; (2) addressing psychological difficulties that are seen as barriers to engagement in psychological / psychosocial support services; (3) addressing the psychological difficulties functionally linked to risk or offending; and (4) aim to reduce the risk of serious harm. EIIRMS provides a psychological service to individuals with complex psychological, interpersonal and emotion regulation difficulties, often with developmental trauma who are at risk of significant harm to others (including violence and sexual violence).
As an HCPC registered practitioner Psychologist holding doctoral level professional qualifications, provide a highly specialist, multilevel clinical/ forensic/counselling psychology service that is cost-effective, culturally appropriate and based on best clinical and professional practice and that meets Trust and Divisional objectives, national strategic, and policy guidelines, commissioner requirements and user and carer needs and expectations. To thereby help understand, prevent and ameliorate psychological distress and disorder and improve the mental health and well being of users of the Forensic Service.
The key purpose of the role includes identifying those individuals who might benefit from the service, conducting comprehensive assessments of psychological need, emotional well-being and risk, provide case formulations (including risk) and psychological treatment to enhance psychological well-being and reduce risk to the public.
Please note if you are based outside of the UK you will need to hold HCPC registration in order to be considered for this role.
Person specification
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Well developed theoretical and practical knowledge of the field of clinical, counselling or forensic psychology, consistent with doctoral level professional training. Further post qualification study, training and supervised experience during a minimum of 18 to 24 months as a Specialist Clinical, Counselling or Forensic Psychologist.
- Evidence of continuing professional development consistent with expected standards of the British Psychological Society and relevant subdivisions (Division of Clinical Psychology, Division of Counselling Psychology, Division of Forensic Psychology).
Desirable criteria
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific ’difficult to treat’ groups (e.g. personality disorder, challenging behaviour, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).
- High-level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Satisfactory completion of a British Psychological Society accredited Doctoral Level postgraduate professional training course in Clinical, Counselling or Forensic psychology.
- Registered Practitioner Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
Skills
Essential criteria
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment commensurate with doctoral level training, including specialist clinical interviewing, behavioural observation, complex psychometric testing and specialist neuropsychological testing.
- Skills commensurate with doctoral level training in the formulation of problems from a psychological perspective and in the implementation of highly specialist psychological therapies, interventions and management techniques that are appropriate for use with complex presenting problems. Able to deliver established/evidenced based psychological therapy to fidelity.
- Skills in providing consultation and advice from a psychological perspective to members of other professional and non-professional groups.
- Awareness and understanding of the differential needs of people from black and minority ethnic groups and of the service issues arising within a multicultural urban area.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment and individual and group-based treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including primary and secondary/ specialist care and inpatient/residential, outpatient and community team settings.
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, with clients of all ages across the lifespan and of wide-ranging presenting problems that reflect the full spectrum of clinical complexity and severity.
- Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of working therapeutically with ‘difficult to treat’ clients.
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
- John Cordwell
- Job title
- Clinical Lead Thames Valley OPD Service
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07801284513
- Additional information
We hope that the advert has given you a clear understanding of the skills we are seeking and the opportunity at hand. You will need to use the “supporting statement” element of your application form to demonstrate your suitability for this role and you should refer to the job description, person specification and the guidance notes attached to this role to help you tailor your application.
The essential and desirable criteria will be used to shortlist for interview and you should ensure that you refer to these within your application to increase your chances of being selected for interview.
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