Trainee Forensic Psychologist

Transformation Unit; Liverpool; Hybrid; GBP 44,000 - 54,000; Full time

Job summary

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust invites applications for a Doctorate-in-Forensic-Psychology trainee post within the Resettle & Reintegrate service. The role supports development and delivery of intervention initiatives for high-risk individuals with complex needs, working in a multi-disciplinary setting.

Applicants must be enrolled on the Doctorate in Forensic Psychology, with experience in clinical assessment and risk management.

Qualifications

• 2:1 degree in psychology (or equivalent) and GBR
• BPS Accredited MSc in Forensic Psychology with merit or higher
• Enrolment on Doctorate in Forensic Psychology Training Course with plan

Responsibilities

• Assist intervention lead with development and delivery of evidence-based offending interventions for high-risk individuals.
• Provide complex information to service users with offence-related risks, maintaining therapeutic boundaries.
• Conduct highly specialist psychological assessments using tests, interviews, and structured observations.

Skills

Psychology

Research

Teaching/Training

CPD/Continued Learning

Education

2:1 degree in psychology

BPS Accredited M.Sc. in Forensic Psychology

Enrolment on Doctorate in Forensic Psychology

Job description

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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.

Using AI to support your application

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be a helpful tool when preparing your application, supporting you to organise and structure your application and present your experiences clearly. However, we want to hear about your experiences and achievements.Please ensure everything you submit is truthful, accurate, and reflects your own work and experience. Your authentic story is the best way to help us understand who you are and what you can bring to the role.If content appears to be copied or misrepresented, it may impact the outcome of your application. We encourage you to use AI responsibly as a support tool, not a substitute for your own voice.

For tips and guidance, please refer to our applicant guidance.

Your experiences matter, let them shine.

Applications that appear mostly or fully generated by AI, without clear personal examples linked to the person specification, may be rejected.

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Job overview

Resettle & Reintegrate (Intensive Intervention & Risk Management Services) are innovative community services, providing an alternative approach to enhancing the lives of service users who have complex needs due to their personality related needs and offending histories. We are a true partnership model between Merseycare NHS Trust, the Probation Service and Merseyside Police and are part of the Offender Personality Pathway.

This post is only open to individuals enrolled on the Doctorate in Forensic Psychology, due to the short term contract and role.

Applications are welcomed from individuals with an optimistic, realistic attitude to working with individuals who have committed sexual and/or violent offences who also have significant personality difficulties. If you are flexible in outlook, able to work as part of a multi-agency, MDT to manage risk and address psychological needs and are resilient and empathic, you could become part of a welcoming and effective team, committed to helping people make changes.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will assist the service lead in conducting offending related therapies and assessments in the systematic provision of a high-quality specialist intervention service for service users, across the service. To assist the team in the development, delivery and maintenance of evidence-based offence related interventions for a high risk and complex group of individuals, including the on-going development and evaluation of the effectiveness of such treatment via the conductance of systematic empirical research.

Working for our organisation

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 are 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’re 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.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To assist the nominated intervention lead with the development, delivery and maintenance of evidence based offending intervention initiatives for a high risk and complex group of individuals, with such initiatives to include individual and group therapy and to account for the development and refinement of psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
• To provide complex, sensitive and contentious information to service users presenting with a range of offence related risks, medium to high risk for aggression, attending to the principles of motivational interviewing and feedback, and managing personal exposure to highly distressing or emotional circumstances /material.
• To provide highly specialist psychological assessments for clients referred to the team for offence related difficulties, based on the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex psychological data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological intervention and/or management of a service user’s offending difficulties, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of their complex problems, and employing methods of proven efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
• To deliver psychological intervention to service users, as required and directed by the violence treatment lead. Such intervention to relate to needs identified through the process of assessment and formulation as part of secure forensic services.
• Provision of specialised consultation (including advice and guidance) to multi-disciplinary teams and other professionals with regards to the effective psychological management, intervention and enhanced understanding of service user’s offending needs, that includes provision of hypotheses and formulations that account for psychological models of understanding.
• To provide teaching and training to staff under guidance of the nominated psychology lead on the effective psychological management of violent offending concerning service users. To assist with on-going post-qualification training (CPD) of facilitators on areas falling within the postholder’s area of developing expertise.
• To develop and deliver awareness training across the service connected to the secure forensic psychology service.
• To formulate, design and implement research projects to further the knowledge in working with offending behaviours. This will include working with other members of the service but with an expectation that the post holder will lead some research projects. Also, to provide research advice to other staff undertaking research.

Person specification

Qualifications

• At least a 2:1 degree in psychology with Graduate Basis for Registration [GBR] or equivalent
• BPS Accredited M.Sc. in Forensic Psychology to merit level or above and/or with a merit or above in the dissertation
• Enrolment on Doctorate in Forensic Psychology Training Course, with an accepted and agreed training plan

Experience

• At least one-year previous employment as a trainee psychologist (or equivalent) position involving direct clinical contact with individuals with complex mental health and/or offending treatment needs
• Understanding of the Doctorate in Forensic Psychology route and commitment to achieving the competencies and compiling the written evidence required as part of this process
• Evidence of a commitment towards continuing professional development