Clinical/Forensic/Counselling Psychologist
The purpose of ABL's Intensive Personalised Support (IPS) Service is to enable individuals who are at risk of going into care to have a fulfilling life in the community and in their homes. By empowering the individuals we work with and their support networks, we seek to reduce the breakdown of families as well as residential and educational placements; particularly reducing the need for residential placements, hospitalisation, criminalisation, and/or overall Social Services input by the time we step back.
Intensive Personalised Support offers a unique and exciting opportunity for professionals to work preventatively and responsively. ABL's innovative model offers a holistic person-centred approach to meeting the needs of the individuals we work with. Dependent on client need, we use formulation and positive behaviour support based on our relationship-building and information-gathering phase with clients, to meet our clients where they are and meet their needs. Most of our clients are children, young people, and their families, but we also work with adults.
Main Duties of the Job
We offer an intensive period of support, often over many months, with sessions multiple times a week. Session times can vary, but tend to be about 3-4 hours each. Our intent is to bring about long-term change and then to step back having equipped clients and/or their families to implement a consistent and sustainable plan across all relevant settings. Our sessions are typically delivered by our support workers and clinical delivery staff (assistant psychologists and PBS practitioners) based on session plans created by our clinical team. This allows our service to provide clinically-informed social support tailored to each client. Sometimes this may be supplemented by more in-depth or complex assessment and/or intervention provided by qualified clinicians or supported by the operational leadership team, which includes our designated safeguarding officer(s).
Job Responsibilities
* Working as part of the Intensive Personalised Support (IPS) management team, the Clinical/Forensic/Counselling Psychologist is responsible for providing effective clinical guidance, support, and oversight across all of IPS operations.
* The appointee will work with management colleagues and delivery teams to ensure that the service is at the cutting edge of excellence and that outcomes for clients are demonstrably better than would otherwise be the case.
* This means involvement with cases from the referral stage through to their completion as summarised in greater detail within the duties and responsibility section below.
* It also includes involvement with creating, updating, and maintaining service policies, procedures, and outcome measures.
* The Clinical/Forensic/Counselling Psychologist will work primarily on a consultancy model, achieving clinical oversight through their supervision of assistant psychologists and our positive behaviour support practitioner and their support of our delivery team.
* In more complex instances, the post holder may be required to carry out assessments and interventions directly with clients, or support their supervisees in meetings.
* In addition to providing robust clinical guidance to the IPS service, there will be opportunities to provide expert advice and support to other ABL services, as well as ample opportunities for career development.
* The Clinical/Forensic/Counselling Psychologist will also assess needs, strive to reduce distress, and work to improve the psychological wellbeing of clients and/or their families who may have a variety of mental or physical health conditions, come from diverse backgrounds, and are often neurodivergent.
* We also welcome work to support team wellbeing and reflectiveness, an area we have been developing more in recognition of the challenging situations our team have to navigate and the importance of looking after our team so that they can provide the best support to our clients.
Duties And Responsibilities
* To support the IPS Service Lead by providing clinical input into what referrals are appropriate and a good match for IPS's model as well as any clinical risk considerations/information that needs to be gathered during the referral process.
* To allocate a clinician to each case IPS takes on and support them as the clinical lead for all cases IPS take on.
* To supervise and continue to develop clinical report writing within the service.
* To supervise and support with assessment and intervention plans for clients, including the implementation of outcome measures.
* To provide clinical supervision to the services allocated clinicians.
* To design and provide training for IPS's clinical team.
* To chair IPS's internal MDTs.
* To attend and contribute to the divisional MDT.
* To have oversight of and promote the CPD and training of allocated clinicians within the team.
* To work collaboratively with internal and external colleagues as well as clients around assessment and intervention.
* To ensure that the service maintains a high standard and procedure around consent and capacity for each of our diverse clients.
* To ensure that routine outcome measures are being collected and reported.
* To work with the operational side of the IPS leadership team to integrate therapeutic language and thinking into ways of working.
* To input into and help to maintain any clinical risk assessments.
* To co-develop psychological formulations and positive behaviour support plans.
* To guide, supervise and/or support teams working with clients with complex behavioural needs.
* To work effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team.
* To contribute to the evaluation and improvement of service provision for clients.
* To maintain records, written and/or digital, enter timely and accurate data, and produce reports.
* To engage with regular professional supervision, CPD, and appraisal.
* To attend, provide evidence for, and contribute to Progress Review Boards and relevant divisional meetings.
* To continue to support the ongoing development and implementation of our updated clinical models and processes.
This is a demanding job, but an exciting opportunity to help a newer, needed service to establish itself. ABL's highly experienced and professional multi-disciplinary team of Health and Social Care professionals are there to support.
Person Specification
Knowledge and Skills
* Essential: Knowledge of and expertise of implementing Positive Behaviour Support strategies
* Essential: Experience of working with clients with complex needs that are relevant to the population in the service area.
* Desirable: Up-to-date knowledge of legislation and its implications for the professions and the client groups we work with.
Experience
* Essential: Able to assess, formulate and deliver appropriate interventions to afford behavioural change
* Essential: Experience of working with and supporting people whose behaviour is described as concerning or challenging
* Desirable: Experience of working cross-organisation to achieve outcomes.
Qualifications
* Essential: Doctorate (or equivalent) in Clinical/Forensic/Counselling Psychology
* Essential: Registered with the HCPC
* Essential: 2 years post qualification experience
Desirable
* BPS Chartered
* Qualification and experience in supervising others
* Family Therapist
* Mental Health Qualification
* Qualifications related to trauma-informed parenting
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Employer Details
Employer name: ABL Health Ltd
Address: 71 Redgate Way, Farnworth, Bolton, BL4 0JL
Employer's website: https://www.ablhealth.co.uk/work-for-us/join-our-team/
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