Principal Clinical / Forensic Psychologist

Principal Clinical / Forensic Psychologist Are you ready to bring your expertise to the heart of mentalhealth care? Were looking for a clinical psychologist who wants to take on thechallenge of a new role.

This is an opportunity to work across three of our communitymental health services, supporting individuals who experience psychosis andneed help to stay well and out of hospital. You'll be part of three dedicatedteams, working in frontline care.

Your role will be vital. You'll work alongside doctors,mental health practitioners, and other professionals to ensure people receivethe best possible support. Many of those you'll meet may be living with complexpsychological needs, struggling with engagement, or feeling anxious about theirrecovery. You'll be the person who helps them make sense of their experiences,develop coping strategies, and find hope in their journey.

This is a chance to shape a new way of working. You'll bringevidence-based interventions, compassion, and creativity to the heart of ourservices building relationships, solving problems, and making a tangibledifference every day.

If you're passionate about improving lives and ready to takeon a role that's as rewarding as it is unique, we'd love to hear from you.

This role may not be eligible for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route.

Please note that we may close the job advertisement earlier than the specified deadline.

All staff are expected to be able and willing to work across a 7 day service.

Main duties of the job This role providespsychological input to the Specialist Outreach Recovery Team (SORT), as well asproviding specialist consultation, supervision and support to wider CommunityMental Health Services and Insight (Early Intervention in Psychosis) inrelation to service users where an assertive approach to intervention isindicated. SORT provides community rehabilitation and assertive communitytreatment to adults in Plymouth who have been identified as having complexpsychosis. Service users have ongoing or recurrent unusual experiences whichimpact on their ability to manage day to day life, and have additionaldifficulties such as substance misuse, neurodevelopmental conditions, physicalhealth problems and high levels of risk to themselves or others. They may alsobe reluctant to engage with mental health services or have unstable lifestylesthat make engagement difficult.

The role includes providingpsychological assessments and interventions, supporting the delivery ofpsychologically informed care and contributing to the development andmaintenance of quality across the service. This is likely to include theprovision of individual and group interventions to service users and theirfamily members, supporting other team members in developing psychologicalformulations to inform care planning, providing consultation, advice andtraining to multidisciplinary teams, facilitating reflective practice,providing debrief and contributing to service development activities.

About us Livewell Southwest is an independent, award-winning socialenterprise delivering integrated health and social care services acrossPlymouth, South Hams, and West Devon, with specialist services in parts ofDevon and Cornwall. Our teams work in community hospitals, GP practices, sportscentres, and health hubs.

As an organisation with a strong social conscience we are guided by our values,kindness, respect, inclusivity, ambition, responsibility, andcollaboration. We focus on transforming services to ensure sustainability, whileempowering staff and those we serve.

We involve the people we care for, along with their families and carers, inshaping the care they receive, striving to deliver the right care at the righttime and place. Centering our work on individual needs helps people leadhealthy, independent lives.

We prioritise employees' development, offering protected CPD time, trainingpathways, leadership programs, and funding for qualifications like the CareCertificate and Nurse Training Scholarships. Our induction and preceptorshipprograms ensure a smooth transition into our organisation.

Livewell Southwest values diversity and encourages applications from allsections of the community, including those with armed forces experience, lived experience of mentalhealth, neuro-diverse conditions and learning disabilities. If you need assistance or reasonable adjustments during theapplication process, contact the Recruiting Manager listed in the job advert.

Job responsibilities

• To possess and practice a high level of communication and relationship skills in situations where emotional distress, and risk of self-harm and of life-threatening behaviour can be expected.
• Responsible for overcoming a variety of barriers to communication when working with clients who are fearful of others, unable to articulate their problems or who think within a very different frame of reference, requiring imaginative and sensitive approaches towards engagement.
• To be able to identify and manage the need for more complex reformulation of the clients difficulties and to promote a realistic treatment plan.
• To identify and be able to complete formal psychometric assessments with ones own clients and those of other team members, where this is appropriate.
• To be able to communicate, by talking and by writing, psychological formulations and treatment plans to the client and to appropriate professional colleagues and to family members and carers, as appropriate.
• To be able to prepare and provide complex medico-legal reports and reports for child protection and vulnerable adults meetings.
• To have knowledge of and skill within several psychological models of understanding and managing clinical problems.
• To be able to add both an understanding of psychosocial factors and an appropriate intervention to the planning of treatment for clients referred to the service but not on psychologists caseload.
• To be able to manage an appropriate caseload whilst also being able to negotiate and manage the need for waiting lists for assessment and treatment so that there is steady movement of clients through the stages of referral, assessment, treatment and discharge.
• To be able to develop highly specialised individual treatment plans or packages of care for clients experiencing psychosis as well as range of other psychological problems where there are significant barriers to them engaging with mental health services and treatments
• To be able to manage the emotional impact of working, often one-to-one, with people who can be in crisis and who can show high levels of arousal and can be actively self-harming or threatening to others.
• To be able to analyse complex situations and think through an appropriate pattern or sequence of strategies to respond therapeutically.
• To ensure receipt of clinical and personal supervision in accordance with good practice guidelines for all clinical psychologists.

Please refer to the attached Job Description and Person Specification for full details.

Person Specification Specific Skills

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management in adults with complex mental health difficulties, especially psychosis
• Skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families and professionals both within and outside the NHS.
• Ability to analyse and interpret highly complex situations involving a range of options to make a decision about an appropriate course of action or solution to a problem.
• Keyboard skills sufficient to enter data/write reports
• Ability to work within teams and motivate others.
• Ability to cope with frequent exposure to highly distressing and emotional situations.
• Warmth, empathy & integrity.
• Ability to work autonomously & as part of a team.
• Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to hold the stress of others.
• Ability to self reflect and use clinical supervision appropriately.
• Ability to deal with patients and carers who may be distressed, angry, confrontational or violent.
• Ability to work under pressure and set priorities.
• Advanced keyboard & IT skills
• Ability to identify, provide appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and unsafe behaviours.

Knowledge

• Postgraduate level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the applied fields of psychology.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies for complex problems (e.g. psychosis, personality disorder, behaviours that challenge).
• Understanding of effective approaches to delivering teaching or training.

Qualifications

• Qualified Clinical or Forensic Psychologist and registered with the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC) as a Practitioner Psychologist
• Fully competent as a practitioner psychologist supplemented by short specialist courses and further specialist training
• Other related academic qualifications to Masters or Doctoral level
• Chartered Status within the BPS
• Furter qualification in a specific therapeutic approach relevant to people with psychosis
• Clinical supervision training for doctoral trainees

Additional Requirements

• Enthusiasm for working with people with psychosis who experience barriers to engaging with mental health services and treatments.
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