Higher Assistant Psychologist - Community Forensic PsychiatryNHS

Job summary

We have an exciting opportunity for a Band 5 Higher Assistant Psychologist, to join our enhanced and developing Forensic Psychiatry Community Service.

CPFT are one of six providers of specialist mental health and learning disability care in the East of England, working collaboratively to ensure there is a seamless pathway of care , that is closer to home for the communities that we serve. The Provider Collaborative also works closely with independent sector partners to make improvements to our services and the ways we deliver them.

This enhanced specialist service consists of a multi-disciplinary team, based between Cambridge and Peterborough,. The service works with adults diagnosed with a mental health condition and/or learning disability who present with a risk of significant harm to others, to achieve optimal management of risk and minimise re-offending.

Working closely with the individual, we produce tailored care plans together that is focused around their personal needs and risk. The service adopts a compassionate and trauma informed approach to promote relapse prevention and recovery, so enabling individuals to realise their full potential whilst supporting them to continue to build and live meaningful lives in the community.

Main duties of the job

The post-holder will be supervised to support the development of psychological case formulations and interventions (e.g., CFT, CBT, DBT, Trauma focused therapies, Relapse Prevention) and enhanced risk assessment tools (e.g. HCR20-v 3, SAPROF).

In addition, there are a number of clinically related administration and audit tasks attached to the post, and involvement in service evaluation and research. The post-holder will be required to work independently according to a plan agreed with a qualified psychologist and within the overall framework of the team's policies and procedures.

You will be joining an experienced multidisciplinary team of professionals including psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, support workers and administrators who all share a passion and drive for delivering high quality care and treatment to service users with forensic histories.

Job description

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities

To assist the Senior Psychologists with assessments, the development of formulations and the planning and delivery of psychological interventions.

To provide direct psychological interventions to service users under the supervision of the Senior Psychologists.

To review and audit notes, summarising essential information.

To contribute to gathering information, as part of risk assessments undertaken within the service in line with Trust and inter-agency policies/procedures

To attend and contribute to appropriate multi-disciplinary meetings, CPA reviews and ward rounds, including team meetings, team supervisions.

To gain wider experience of professional psychology within the NHS over and above that provided within the principal service area where the post-holder is employed.

To assist and develop research and service evaluations of a continuously developing service.

Please note for this role you will be required to travel independently around the county meeting strict time deadlines. You will need to hold a full UK driving licence* and have use of a vehicle. You cannot use public transport for this role as this is not a reliable form of transport and will not allow you to meet service needs. Please confirm in your application that you meet the specified criteria.

*DVLA have a number of reciprocal arrangements with overseas countries, for further information please visit the DVLA website

About us

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health and social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting and empowering them to lead fulfilling lives.

Our clinical teams deliver a wide range of NHS services across inpatient, primary care and community settings, including children's, adult and older people's mental health, forensic and specialist mental health, learning disabilities, primary care and liaison psychiatry, substance misuse, social care, and research and development.

To achieve our goals, we recruit high calibre candidates who share our vision and values. As an equal opportunities' employer, we welcome applications from all sections of the community, particularly under represented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities.

All appointments are subject to the successful completion of a probationary period.

Please note we reserve the right to close adverts early should we receive sufficient applications.

Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all roles. If you apply for a post that does not attract sponsorship, your application will be withdrawn from the process.

For further information on CPFT, please visit our website at https://www.cpft.nhs.uk