Band 8a Psychologist - Bristol

Avon And Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership Nhs Trust; Bristol; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A mental health care provider in the UK is seeking a qualified Psychologist to provide specialist psychological assessments and interventions to service users. The role involves clinical supervision of junior staff and collaboration with various agencies, including the National Probation Service. The ideal candidate should hold a relevant qualification and have experience with complex mental health needs. This position offers an opportunity to impact mental health services positively.

Qualifications

• Experienced in providing specialist psychological assessments and interventions.
• Familiarity with working alongside individuals with personality disorders.
• Experience in a forensic setting is advantageous but not essential.

Responsibilities

• Provide highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy.
• Clinically supervise trainee psychologists and other professionals.
• Develop and deliver training in psychological therapies.
• Contribute to audit, research, and policy development.
• Formulate and implement plans for psychological treatment.

Skills

Psychological assessment

Therapeutic intervention

Clinical supervision

Consultation skills

Risk assessment

Education

Relevant qualification in psychology

Job description

Responsibilities

• To provide highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy to patients and carers, as appropriate to the service.
• To provide highly specialist advice and consultation on clients' formulation and psychological management to non-psychologist colleagues.
• To use highly specialist psychological knowledge and skills to contribute to the effective management of patients by various teams and agencies within the area, and where appropriate, outside the area.
• To clinically supervise trainee clinical psychologists, assistant psychologists, less experienced psychology staff, and other professionals.
• To contribute to audit, research, policy, and service development within the areas served by the Pathfinder Service.
• To develop and deliver training in psychological therapies for multidisciplinary staff.
• To undertake highly specialist assessments, including neuropsychological assessment, risk assessment, and assessment for suitability for specialist psychological therapies with clients and their carers.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of clients' mental health problems, serious mental illness, challenging behaviour, and/or personality disorder, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client's problems 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 service users, 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 evidence‑based psychological intervention as dictated by the needs of the service.
• To provide highly specialist consultation to members of various teams in the area and beyond regarding formulation and psychological management of clients of those teams, including the Criminal Justice System, Social Services, Probation Service, and other mental health teams.
• To use highly specialist psychological knowledge and skills to contribute to the more effective management of complex clients with challenging behaviour, personality disorder, and serious mental illness by teams.
• To be involved in the development and delivery of training within the Trust and to external agencies.
• To participate in clinical and caseload supervision arrangements provided by the Pathfinder Service.
• To maintain accurate records and monitor clinical workload using agreed systems.
• To support the full implementation of the Care Programme Approach as appropriate to the needs of the service.
• To enter data as requested by the Trust in a timely manner.

Role Overview

A vacancy has arisen for a Psychologist to join FPDS. The role involves providing specialist psychological assessments and interventions to service users, as appropriate to the service. There is a strong emphasis on consultation and pathway planning advice for other agencies, including the National Probation Service, and for staff working with these service users, some of whom are in secure hospital placements outside the AWP Trust boundary. The role also includes providing clinical supervision to other registered psychologists, trainee and assistant psychologists, and other professionals. The post‑holder should hold a relevant qualification and have experience working with service users with personality disorder and/or complex needs. Experience within a forensic setting would be advantageous, although not essential.

About the organisation

We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust), a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care. We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset. Our people promote mental health and wellbeing, and the expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person‑centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees.

We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care. 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.