Principal Practitioner Psychologist - Autism Services

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnic minorities, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------, Are you an enthusiastic and dedicated Practitioner Psychologist with a passion for delivering high-quality, person centred services? We have an exciting opportunity for you to join our team, where you can make a meaningful impact in the lives of autistic adults accessing mental health services at risk of placement breakdown or hospital admission.
As a vital member of our multi-disciplinary team (MDT), you will provide specialist interventions aimed at achieving positive life outcomes for individuals. Covering the Mersey Care areas of Warrington, Halton, St Helens, Knowsley, Liverpool, and Sefton, you will enhance the support already offered by involved services. Some of your key responsibilities will include:
+ Contributing to the identification and management of risk
+ Engaging in multi-agency planning
+ Liaison and consultation with our partner agencies
+ Conducting highly specialised assessments where appropriate
+ Supporting service development and delivery
+ Collaborate closely with the Consultant Clinical Psychologist
+ liaise and consult with partner agencies, including mental health providers and social care teams, often at senior level
A Relocation Package is available with this post and can be discussed at interview or prior to interview with recruitment., To ensure the systematic provision of a high-quality specialist clinical psychology service to Improving Access to Autism (ASC) service, service users, across a community primary care setting. To advise, supervise and support the assessment and treatment provided by clinical members of the teams who provide psychologically based care and treatment within the ASC service. To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service/team. To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research. To propose and implement policy changes within the area served by the service. To work in an effective
partnership with the clinical service leadership including other IAPT team members and members of other agencies responsible for a client's care., To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation, and integration of complex psychological data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client's care.
To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client's mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client's problems, and employing methods of proven efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals and groups, within and across Mersey Care IAPT teams adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based care.
To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients' formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
To ensure that all members of the treating service have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of psychological research and theory.
To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide general advice to other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.
To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni- disciplinary and multi- disciplinary care.
To provide expertise, advice and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the treatment service.
Will be required to sit in a constrained position for client therapy and extended assessment sessions.
Will be required to tolerate and manage frequent verbal abuse and occasional physical aggression.
Will be required to deal with the intense emotional atmosphere surrounding therapy contacts which may be highly distressing on a daily basis, and to work with frequent intense concentration for much of the clinical sessions of assessment and therapy. This will include writing reports of a potentially distressing nature e.g., safeguarding adults.
For full list of duties and responsibilities please refer to the Job Description Attached.
Why Join Us?
We welcome and encourage enthusiasm and creativity
You will be joining a supportive, forward thinking team, who prides themselves on building positive therapeutic relationships and our strong commitment to the continual improvements in patient care.
You will have links to peer psychology meetings and appropriate training and CPD opportunities and an annual personal development review.
You will have the opportunity to engage in research projects with the support of our dedicated research team, further advancing your career while contributing to meaningful change.
You will have the opportunity to work both at home and in the workplace, however the ability, means and willingness to travel between multiple sites in the course of performing duties is essential. Flexible working requests will be considered.
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Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we offer a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants who consider themselves to be disabled who meet the minimum (essential) criteria for the role in the person specification. If you would like your application to be considered under the Trust's guaranteed interview scheme you can indicate this in the personal information section of your online application form.
Should you require a reasonable adjustment to our recruitment process please email [email protected] to ensure that measures can be put in place to support you.
We reserve the right to close any vacancy earlier than advertised in exceptional circumstances once we have received a high volume of applications.
The Trust expects all post holders who require an enhanced DBS for their role subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £13 per year and maintain registration. Trans applicants who require a DBS check and do not want to reveal details of their previous identity can contact the DBS Sensitive Applications Team or email [email protected]) with their application number once they have completed their DBS application form. The team can prevent any previous identity showing on the DBS Certificate, unless the applicant has a conviction under their previous details in which case this will need to be disclosed.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
Please be advised that the use of Artificial Intelligence on applications is monitored and if you choose to use this, you must declare this on your application form.

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.