Assistant Psychologist

Weare looking for an assistant psychologist to join the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway services across Devon. The pathway is based in Prison& Probation, with NHS and HMPPS staff working to increase the wellbeing & reduce the risk of those screened into the pathway, whilst improving the knowledge and attitudes of wider workforce.

Teamswithin the service:

Supportto Succeed (STS) community-based service offering support to probation staff through consultation, formulation & training; and psychologically-informedintervention & risk management (IIRMS) for those leaving prison.

Outside the Box(OTB) intervention service in HMP Channings Wood supporting those who arestuck & would benefit from relational ways of working.

Thisrole is available within OTB service.

The role will include developing and facilitating psycho-educational and/or skills-basedgroups, providing psychologically-informed and relational support to people oncaseload, consultation and training for probation/prison staff, and discretepieces of psychological intervention.

There may be opportunity in the future for staff to rotate between the services and in exceptional circumstances, staff may be asked to provide support into the other service to help meet service need.

Theseare cohesive and enthusiastic teams with staff from a range of professions andwith well-embedded partnership working. Space is consistently protected forsupervision, reflective practice and training.

The roles will include working on an individual and group basis with those on caseload to support them to achieve shared goals based on a collaborative psychological formulation.

In both services, the post holders will have the chance to develop and facilitate psycho-educational and skills based groups such as DBT skills, emotional regulation etc. There is also scope to be involved in co-facilitating pro-social groups such as cooking, bee keeping (OTB), social group, and gardening (OTB).

Additionally, in OTB, the post holder will hold a caseload jointly with prison staff, and for those individuals will develop a shared formulation and intervention plan/goals, and then work towards these, with supervision from the psychologist/clinical lead. There will be opportunity to offer support and consultation to operational staff within OTB, as well as to the wider prison workforce.

In STS, the post holder will provide consultation and practice support to probation staff, as well as undertaking joint work alongside them with those on their caseloads. The post holder will also hold a caseload of individuals working with IIRMS, where the primary identified needs relate to psychological work.

The services work closely together with the aim of creating a supportive pathway for those leaving prison.

There is also opportunity for involvement with a research project and service evaluation.

• Honours degree at 2:1 or above in psychology and the qualification renders the applicant eligible for graduate membership of the BPS or a BA or BSc (Hons) in modular studies incl. psychology & related fields.
• Further post graduate training in relevant area of professional psychology, health and social care practice, and / or research design and analysis.

• Significant experience as an assistant psychologist in a related setting.
• Experience of working as part of a team.
• Experience of group work and individual therapeutic contact.
• Experience of working with people with complex needs.
• Experience of working with people with personality problems, preferably in a mental health or forensic setting.
• Experience of the use of psychometric tests.
• Experience working within the Criminal Justice System e.g. prison or probation.
• Experience of teaching health, prison or probation professionals.
• Lived experience of mental health issues.

• To be able to communicate effectively under pressure and maintain a high degree of professionalism at all times.
• To be able to provide and receive complex sensitive or contentious information in a potentially highly emotive atmosphere.
• High standard of report writing.
• Ability to integrate complex data; make evaluations; produce psychological formulations and contribute to decisions.
• To assimilate complex information and use reflective/analytic thinking, to apply psychological perspectives in work in a criminal justice setting
• Relevant clinical and research skills.
• Basic knowledge of databases, research skills and methodology.
• Ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to a health, mental health and offence context.
• Organisation and time management skills:
• Ability to be flexible and cope with multiple demands.
• Capable of using initiative and organise work to agreed goals.
• Ability to work independently and know when to ask for and use supervision, identifying when there is need for advice and using supervision at agreed intervals.
• Small-scale project management skills.
• Information technology skills:
• To have highly developed IT skills and…