Job summary
An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced Band 8a Clinical, Forensic or Counselling Psychologist to join AWP Secure Services on a fixed-term basis to provide maternity leave cover.

This role will be primarily based within Wickham Low Secure Service, with opportunities to work across our medium and low secure hospitals.

You will also join a diverse and highly skilled Psychological Therapies Service (PTS) which includes Clinical, Forensic and Counselling Psychologists, Art, Drama and Music Psychotherapists, alongside trainee psychologists, assistant psychologists and psychology students.

You will work as part of a multidisciplinary team comprising medical, nursing, occupational therapy, social work and speech and language therapy colleagues, providing senior psychological leadership and contributing to formulation-driven assessment, intervention and care planning.

Secure Inpatient Services consists of Fromeside, an 81-bed medium secure unit, and Wickham, a 30-bed low secure unit, both located on the Blackberry Hill Hospital site in North Bristol. The service includes a specialist women's ward and a ward for men with learning disabilities and/or autism. Our large and friendly psychology team has expertise in violence, sexual offending, firesetting, learning disabilities, autism, personality disorder and psychosis.

Main duties of the job
The role will involve providing direct clinical work, consultation, teaching, staff support, and supervision for assistant psychologists and Band 7 psychologists, as well as working collaboratively with other members of the MDT, including psychiatry, nursing, arts psychotherapists, occupational therapists, and speech and language therapists. The role will also involve completing specialist assessments, developing complex formulations, and designing and delivering individualised therapeutic interventions, as well as facilitating therapeutic groups and engaging in complex systemic work. There will also be opportunities to engage in service development projects.

The successful post-holder will need to be adaptable and creative, have good communication and team-working skills, and have experience and/or an interest in working with people with significant mental health difficulties, such as psychosis, who present a significant risk to others. There will be regular supervision and support for the role.

Please see the attached Job Description for a full list of duties and responsibilities

About us
We are the lead provider of healthcare for people with serious mental illness, learning disabilities and autism across Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES), Swindon and Wiltshire, and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

We aim to provide High Quality, Compassionate Care everywhere, every day. This means our services will be safe, clinically effective and provide a positive all round experience for our patients, families and carers. And we believe passionately in treating everyone with kindness, respect and empathy.

Key to this is providing a supportive and safe environment for our 4,000 staff where we all feel welcome and able to do the best we can for those we support. Our staff and teams work incredibly hard delivering services across more than 90 locations, covering 2,200miles, to more than 1.8million people.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

Job responsibilities

• To provide a highquality and largely autonomous and systematic clinical/counselling psychology service.
• To undertake highly specialist assessments, including neuropsychological assessment, risk assessment, and assessment for suitability for specialist psychological therapies with clients and their carers (as appropriate to the role).
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of clients mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients difficulties, and employing methods based on evidence of efficacy across the full range of care settings.
• To be responsible for providing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, and groups, within and across teams, employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations, drawing upon different explanatory models, and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
• To provide at least one specialist evidencebased psychological intervention as dictated by the needs of the service.
• To provide highly specialist consultation to members of the various teams in the area and beyond regarding formulation and psychological management of clients of those teams.
• To use highly specialist psychological knowledge and skills to contribute to the more effective management of patients by teams.
• To be involved in the development and delivery of training within the Trust.
• To participate in clinical and caseload supervision arrangements provided by the Service.
• To maintain accurate records and to monitor clinical workload using agreed systems.
• To support the full implementation of CPA or equivalent, including acting as care coordinator as appropriate to the needs of the service.
• To enter data as requested by the Trust in a timely manner.
• Because of the seniority of this post, the postholder may be required to participate in oncall arrangements after suitable training.

Please see the attached Job Description for a full list of duties and responsibilities

Qualifications/Registration
Essential

• Doctoral Clinical Psychology/ Counselling/ Forensic Psychology qualification or equivalent
• Eligible for Chartered Psychologist status
• HPCP Registered
• Post qualification and further specialist training in specified specialist intervention

Experience, Knowledge and Skills
Essential

• Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge in the specialism. Ability to use this knowledge to think systemically/organizationally
• Psychological assessment skills and knowledge
• Evidence based therapeutic interventions with client group
• Empathy/engagement skills with the client group
• Experience of risk assessment and management
• Clinical supervision/consultation with other professionals
• Ability to work effectively and flexibly as an integral member of a team
• Ability to work independently
• Self-awareness and emotional resilience

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).

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.

Applicants must have current UK professional registration.