Preceptorship Psychologist (12 Month Fixed Term Contract)

NHS Jobs; Lewes; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

NHS Jobs is seeking a Clinical/Applied Psychologist to support remanded prisoners in Lewes. You will conduct comprehensive psychological assessments and deliver evidence-based interventions, embedding trauma-informed care across the MDT to enhance emotional resilience and post-release outcomes.

You will contribute to service development, CPD, and regular supervision while maintaining high standards of practice within HCPC/BABCP/BPS guidelines.

Qualifications

• Identify patients who may benefit from psychological intervention.
• Provide psychological assessment and risk assessment.
• Deliver risk-informed psychological formulations for MDT use.
• Develop and deliver individual and group interventions.
• Monitor and evaluate psychological interventions with appropriate measures.
• Maintain accurate clinical records and outcomes dashboards.
• Communicate complex information to patients, colleagues and external agencies.
• Engage in CPD and peer supervision.

Responsibilities

• Identify patients who may benefit from psychological intervention.
• Provide comprehensive psychological assessment, including risk assessment, and develop formulations for MDT.
• Contribute to Mother & Baby reviews where appropriate.
• Identify and deliver individual and group interventions aligned with PTS pathways.
• Monitor and evaluate interventions using appropriate measures.
• Maintain clinical records and update PTS dashboards with outcomes data.
• Communicate complex information to patients, colleagues and external agencies.
• Attend ACCT and segregation reviews in prison and provide psychological input.
• Support staff learning through reflective practice and supervision.

Job description

This role will include conducting comprehensive psychological assessments, providing therapeutic interventions, developing individualized treatment plans to address the mental health needs of remanded individuals and supporting the embedding of a Trauma Informed approach to patient care. By collaborating with multidisciplinary teams including healthcare and prison colleagues, this role will contribute to the overall wellbeing of men in prison, support their emotional resilience during this transitional period, and facilitate access to necessary resources and support systems to promote better outcomes both during incarceration and post-release.

MAIN DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

• Clinical - Identify patients who may benefit from psychological intervention, following mental health triages and in discussion with the multi-disciplinary team and, where demand exceeds capacity, prioritise according to clinical need, risk presentation and release planning in line with agreed service policy;
• Provide comprehensive psychological assessment, including risk assessment, and develop psychological formulations to support patients and other members of the MDT in making sense of their difficulties;
• contribute, where appropriate, to Mother & Baby board reviews;
• Identify and deliver appropriate individual and group interventions to patients in line with the Psychological Therapies Service (PTS) pathways;
• To monitor and evaluate psychological interventions using appropriate measures;
• To maintain accurate clinical records and keep the PTS dashboard up to date with outcomes data for patient/service and staff outcomes;
• To communicate both verbally and written, highly complex information concerning assessment, formulation and intervention plans to patients, professional colleagues and external agencies, as appropriate;
• Manage resources appropriately.
• Identify and provide opportunities for other members of the multi-disciplinary team to gain understanding of how psychological knowledge can support their work with patients, through developing psychological formulations with team members, participating in multi-disciplinary meetings and decision making or other opportunities for providing consultancy and advice;
• To attend ACCT reviews and segregation reviews in the prison as appropriate and to offer psychological opinion about management and appropriate referrals in that context and, offer psychological understanding into CSIP plans to support management of patients within the wing by prison staff;
• In liaison with the Mental Leads and/or Heads of Healthcare, identify and deliver opportunities for staff learning and reflection, through reflective practice, debrief and training sessions.
• In liaison with Mental Leads and/or Heads of Healthcare and the National head of Psychological Therapies, identify opportunities for and conduct service development projects in collaboration with other members of the multidisciplinary team;
• Participate in and contribute to CPD and peer supervision within the wider healthcare team;
• Active engagement in appropriate practice supervision and keep a log of evidence of core competencies in line with agreed preceptorship plan.

Teaching, training and supervision

• To provide regular reflective practice sessions to the mental health team and other ad-hoc opportunities for reflection on practice, including individual or group debriefing following incidents;
• To provide training to other members of the multidisciplinary team in the delivery of trauma and psychologically informed care and treatment;
• To contribute to CPD and peer supervision sessions within the wider PTS team;
• To receive regular clinical supervision from an appropriately qualified and experienced supervisor, in accordance with the BPS and the HCPC guidelines and, where appropriate, from other senior professional colleagues;

Management, recruitment, policy and service development

• To participate in multi-disciplinary meetings concerned with the delivery and development of clinical services and contribute a psychological perspective as appropriate;
• To advise the Mental Health lead and/or Heads of Healthcare on those aspects of the service where psychological matters need addressing in line with best practice and service objectives;
• To contribute to proposals for and implementation of policy and service development changes in relation to psychology and psychological therapies within the service;

Research, service evaluation & audit

• To utilise theory, evidence based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual/ group work and work with other team members;
• To contribute to project management, including complex audit, research and service evaluation projects, with colleagues within the service, to help develop service provision;

Professional

• To attend regional and national Psychological Therapies meetings, service development and other relevant meetings regularly;
• To adhere to professional/accrediting body codes of conduct, policies and procedures (e.g. HCPC, BABCP, BPS);
• To be aware of, adhere to, and where appropriate, contribute to the formulation and review of Practice Plus Group policies and procedures;
• To maintain and develop high standards of psychology/psychological therapy practice by engaging in continuing professional development and co-operative working/networking with therapists, clinical, counselling and forensic psychologist colleagues;
• To receive regular line management supervision by the Head of Healthcare To participate in the organisations annual performance review and personal development planning process with the clinical supervisor and line manager;
• To keep up to date with legislation, national directives, policies and NICE guidelines in relation to the work delivered.

Other

This Job Description is not exhaustive and may change as the post develops, but such change will not take place without consultation between the post holder and their manager. Job descriptions should be reviewed at least annually at the appraisal meeting.