Female Senior Assistant Psychologist

Female* Senior Assistant Psychologist

Too many people pass through the criminal justice system without their mental health needs being recognised. With more than 70% of the prison population experiencing some level of mental distress, it’s crucial that specialist services exist to ensure that people get the care and support they need to break the cycle of offending. This is where you come in.

We are seeking an experienced Senior Assistant Psychologist to provide assessments and psychological interventions as part of a newly commissioned pan-London Women’s Mental Health Treatment Requirement service to reduce custodial sentences and improve the wellbeing of women in the criminal justice system with mental health needs. This is a London Pathways Partnership (LPP) service, jointly provided by Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, Central and North West London (CNWL) NHS Foundation Trust and Together for Mental Wellbeing.

The Women’s Mental Health Treatment Requirement (MHTR) Service is funded via a partnership between the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE/I), Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and Office of Health Improvement and Disparities. MHTRs were introduced by the Criminal Justice Act in 2003, recognising that for many individuals who offend, mental health and substance misuse issues underpin their offending behaviour. Treatment requirements offer courts an alternative to short custodial sentences and aim to prevent reoffending by addressing underlying vulnerabilities and improving quality of life. This service aims to increase the use of primary care treatment requirements as part of a community sentence, offering psychologically informed interventions and advice. The MHTR Service provides the courts with the information and confidence to sentence to robust and effective treatment requirements.

As a successful candidate you will have good report writing skills, be able to deliver bespoke psychological interventions tailored to the women’s needs and have the capacity to work in a busy court environment. Working hours will mainly be 9-5, Monday to Friday, but we will require some flexibility over working hours between 9am to 8pm during weekdays to ensure the service is responsive to service user and stakeholder need. Your weekly hours will not exceed 37.5hrs.

We strive to recruit a staff team reflective of the population we serve and welcome applications from those with protected characteristics, including women and minoritised ethnic groups. For this post some of the intervention work will be delivered in Women’s centres across London and due to access requirements this post will only be open to female applicants.

• there is an Operational Requirement for this role to be fulfilled by a female (determined compliant under ACAS guidelines for recruiting applicants with a protected characteristic to do a certain job)

We reserve the right to close this post early once we receive sufficient applications so please apply early if you wish your application to be considered.

The benefits of working for Together

At Together we value and encourage diversity and inclusion within our workforce. We are committed to creating a workplace where you can be your authentic self, welcoming applications from people from diverse communities and backgrounds who share our values. As an employer, we are committed to making any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process.

Successful candidates will require an enhanced DBS check.