Highly Specialist Psychological Therapist

We are seeking to recruit an enthusiastic, compassionate and motivated Psychological Therapist for a whole-time (1.0 WTE) fixed term post (12 months) in our Forensic Community Service (FCS).

The role will be community-based, improving the lives of adult forensic mental health service users as they move from secure hospital care into the community, including the Tilt service, a hostel for men with significant mental health needs and forensic risks.

You will play a crucial role in the multi–professional approach to working with service users who have severe mental health and interpersonal issues, often co-occurring with substance dependency or neurodevelopmental disorders, all of whom present a risk that warrants support from forensic services.

This post is primarily based within Bracton Centre but travel across Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich is essential.

Oxleas Forensic Psychological Therapies department is an unusually large, long established and nationally well-regarded specialty. Psychological therapists are highly valued within the wider directorate and trust and occupy a variety of service-wide leadership roles, including as Responsible Clinicians. Staff in the Forensic Directorate report the highest levels of job satisfaction in a Trust recognised for positive employee feedback. The Psychological Therapies team is warm and friendly, whilst also being dynamic and innovative.

Within the FCS, there is emphasis on improving quality of life and reducing inequalities for service users. This is a clinically focused role. You will offer direct clinical assessment and interventions in complex cases, including individual, group, and family work. In addition, you will provide support to the system around the service user, offering consultation and reflective practice to other professionals, and delivering staff training to clinical and non-clinical staff. There may also be opportunities to supervise trainees, to undertake research, and lead initiatives including how we collaborate with families and carers.

You will be the only psychological therapist in the FCS team but will have links to other forensic psychological therapies services. You will also join monthly Forensic Psychological Therapies department meetings, providing a breadth of professional opportunities across community, prison and hospital settings and opportunities for research and career progression through ongoing professional development. There is access to a network of specialist psychological supervision groups across the forensic directorate.

Candidates are expected to be psychological therapist with a minimum of 12 months post-qualification experience in relevant clinical services.

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

For further details / informal visits contact: Name: Hazell Bale Job title: Principal Psychologist Email address: Sign in to view email