Specialist Psychological Therapist (preceptorship) | Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

Posting date:	30 June 2025
Salary:	Not specified
Additional salary information:	£46,148 - £60,504 pro rata pa
Hours:	Part time
Closing date:	30 July 2025
Location:	Portland, DT5 1DL
Company:	Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
Job type:	Permanent
Job reference:	7301274/277-7301274-PORT

Summary

This is an excellent opportunity for a Specialist Psychological Therapist to join our team of diverse, talented healthcare professionals to deliver care that is not only efficient but deeply centred on the patient.

Our healthcare teams have a real impact on promoting health and well-being to those in prison and we pride ourselves on using skills and strategies that instil hope for patient’s future resettlement back into the community. Our Psychological Therapies department is an unusually large, long established and nationally well regarded specialty. Psychologists are highly valued within the trust and occupy a variety of service-wide leadership roles. The Psychological Therapies team is warm and friendly, whilst also being dynamic and innovative.

Join us in a stimulating role where we are seeking a dynamic and passionate psychologist who has the skills required to work within a trauma-informed care service

We welcome applications from newly qualified; Clinical, Counselling or Forensic Psychologists, CBT Therapists, Systemic, Arts or Psychoanalytical Psychotherapists or those close to obtaining qualified status

Important Sponsorship Information for this post: Due to service budget restrictions we are currently unable to offer a certificate of sponsorship for this post.

An exciting and unique opportunity has arisen in our Dorset Prisons cluster for a Band 7 preceptorship to 8a.

The post holder will also be funded to complete formal training in: EMDR, DBT or MBT within their first two years in post and access to specialist supervision in the approach.

The successful candidate will hold their own clinical caseload and be responsible for supervising pre-qualified psychological therapists. Supervision skills training will be provided if required. Your progression is key, and you will be offered development sessions to support your career planning and professional development into the 8a role.

Key responsibilities include:

· To provide direct psychological care (assessment and intervention) and support the delivery of psychologically informed care by all disciplines within the service.

· To provide highly specialist psychological therapy assessments, formulations and interventions.

· To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of community clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans, including taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans with input from clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.

· To provide line management to designated assistant psychologists.

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.

We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:
• We’re Kind
• We’re Fair
• We Listen
• We Care

Management responsibilities

· To provide line management to designated assistant psychologists.

· Provide supervision to students and trainees and to multi-disciplinary colleagues delivering psychological interventions.

· To support recruitment of assistant psychologists to the service.

· For those line managing, to ensure local standards are implemented for the allocation and review of work, job planning, review of performance, sickness management and initial stages of grievance or disciplinary action.

· To oversee quality line management and supervision within the team structure, ensuring that staff and trainees acquire the necessary skills, competencies and experience to contribute effectively to health care, and to contribute to the assessment and evaluation of such competencies.

· To provide highly specialist advice, consultation and training of staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate. This may include work with the Criminal Justice System and Children’s Services.


Leadership
· To provide and support specialist clinical placements for students and trainees in applied psychological practice.

· To contribute to the delivery of teaching and training to junior psychological practitioners and specialist training to other professions.

· To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the service by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychological therapy and risk assessment / management and to implement knowledge gained in practice.

· To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.

· To continue to gain wider post-qualification experience of psychological therapies and risk assessment / management, over and above that provided within the principal service area where the post-holder is employed.


Clinical
· To provide direct psychological care (assessment and intervention) and support the delivery of psychologically informed care by all disciplines within the service.

· To provide highly specialist psychological therapy assessments, formulations and interventions.

· To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of community clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans, including taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans with input from clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.

· To provide culturally appropriate psychological therapy interventions with service suers, carers or families of referred clients when required.

· To communicate, in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, to clients, family carers and others as appropriate, information that may be contentious or highly distressing concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care.

· To produce reports on clients, in a timely manner, that convey the key findings of psychological assessment and formulation and treatment outcome in a way that does justice to the complexity of the problems described, but that are understandable to the recipients of the reports, including clients and referrers.

· To undertake psychometric and neuropsychological testing as appropriate, including selecting the appropriate tests, administering and scoring the tests in accordance with the manual, and interpreting the findings in the context of all relevant information.

· To undertake risk assessment, risk monitoring and risk management for individual clients in line with Trust and inter-agency policies and procedures, and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.

· To work in partnership with other disciplines and to maintain links with statutory and non-statutory agencies as appropriate.

· Attend and contribute to directorate level meetings and forums, as directed.

· Contribute to the delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse communities.

· To be proactive in challenging discrimination.

· To advise other colleagues on specialist psychological care of clients.

· To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.

· To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

· To liaise with the service/s MDT and other professionals.

· Implement relevant policies and procedures for the safe running of the service.

· To engage in service improvements through audits and quality improvement initiatives.

· To ensure the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.

· Advise professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.

· To participate in Trust and Directorate strategic development and implementation of new initiatives (e.g. national guidelines), including through membership of committees and/or working parties.

· Apply clinical governance standards within the service and ensure that these are maintained and improved.

· Provide high quality services that are managed efficiently, according to the overall requirements of the Trust, NHS and government guidance and standards.

· Participate in service outcome monitoring.




Research
· To undertake the planning, initiation and completion of research, service evaluation and audits, and quality improvement projects relevant to the service and the directorate research agenda.

· To oversee the planning, initiation and completion of research, service evaluation and audits by students and trainees.

· To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.


Record-Keeping and Information Governance
· To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.

· To ensure the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry, in those parts of the service for which the post-holder has management or leadership responsibility.



Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

· To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a seniorpsychological practitioneraccording to professional and Trust guidelinesand, where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues.

· To attend Reflective Practice reliably.

· To maintain own Continuing Professional Development in line with registered body and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements.

· To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.

· To comply with the registered body Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics/Standards of Proficiency.

· To ensure that allpsychological practitionersfor whom the post-holder has leadership or management responsibility maintain professional standards,adhere to all organisational HR policies and procedures.

· To ensure that allpsychological practitionersfor whom the post-holder has management responsibilitycontinue professional development, assessing and evaluating to ensure theyacquire the necessary skills, competencies and experience to contribute effectively to health care.

· Maintaining registration and standards of practice according to the employer and any regulating bodies eg the UKCP, BABCP & HCPC etc.

· Ensuring all aspects of confidentiality relating to both the service and individuals are maintained at all times.



General

· To travel to clinical venues, training activities and meetings as appropriate and across the Trust when required.

· To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group, and follow Trust policies relating to its management.

· To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations of people in distress or in crisis and who may be abusive and to support others involved in such situations.

· To work flexibly which may include offering some regular commitment to late clinics or weekend working, within the overall Job Plan.

· To be proficient in the use of IT for purposes such as email, electronic calendar, intranet, video calls and electronic clinical records.

· To be familiar with word processing, database and statistical packages, and to use such packages appropriately as necessary.

· To maintain high standards of clinical record keeping, including electronic clinical records and report writing, in accordance with professional codes of practice and Trust policies and procedures.

· To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues pertaining to the client group.




This advert closes on Monday 14 Jul 2025

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