Cognitive Behavioural Therapist

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust; Sefton; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in the UK is seeking a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist to work in a high secure hospital environment. The role involves delivering psychological assessment and treatment for individuals detained under the Mental Health Act, focusing on managing risks and supporting patients towards lower secure placements. Ideal candidates will have experience working with complex needs and within multidisciplinary teams. This is a full-time position on a 12-month fixed term contract.

Qualifications

• Experience working with individuals detained under the Mental Health Act.
• Experience in psychological assessment and ideally within a cognitive behavioral framework.
• Desirable experience with high secure settings.

Responsibilities

• Deliver psychological assessment and treatment to high secure hospital patients.
• Focus on risk assessment and managing offending behavior risks.
• Work in a multidisciplinary team of psychologists and therapists.
• Support patient progression to lower secure placements.

Skills

Experience working with individuals with complex needs

Psychological assessment and treatment

Experience in high secure or high risk settings

Job description

Equal Opportunities Statement

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.

We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnically diverse, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.

Job Title

Cognitive Behavioural Therapist (Full Time)

Location

High Secure Hospital – Ashworth Hospital High Secure Psychological Services

Contract

12‑month fixed term

Key Responsibilities

• Assist in delivering high quality psychological assessment and treatment to patients detained under the Mental Health Act in a high secure hospital due to the complexity of their presentations and associated risks.
• Provide treatments focusing on risk assessment, personality difficulties and offending behaviour risks to enable patients to progress to lower secure placements in line with a least restrictive approach.
• Work within a multidisciplinary team consisting of clinical and forensic psychologists, a cognitive behavioural therapist and a nurse therapist.
• Support patients in progressing to lower secure placements while maintaining safety and effective therapeutic outcomes.

Qualifications & Experience

• Experience working with individuals with complex needs, including those detained under the Mental Health Act.
• Experience with high secure or high risk settings is desirable.
• Experience in psychological assessment and treatment, ideally within a cognitive behavioural framework.

Other Requirements

• Enhanced DBS required.
• Flexibility with working hours; flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
• Disability Confident Employer offer: applicants who consider themselves disabled and meet the minimum criteria can indicate this in the personal information section of the online application form.
• Reasonable adjustments can be requested via email to [email protected] to ensure support is available during the recruitment process.

Application Process

Applicants must apply via apps.trac.jobs, not NHS Jobs. Ensure you check the email account from which you apply for all correspondence. Only those applicants who clearly demonstrate how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.

The Trust reserves the right to close any vacancies from further applications when a minimum number of suitable applications has been received. The job will be advertised from 16 December to midnight 30 December, and the window may be extended if fewer applicants are received.

Applicants requiring sponsorship should assess their eligibility against the criteria on the gov.uk website – https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa. New entrants to the NHS will commence on the first pay point of the relevant band.

About Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands. We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities. At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We are currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.