20101 - Senior Registered Psychologist – Counter Terrorism Team - National - DoS

Psychology Services Group are recruiting a Senior Psychologist to join the Psychology Counter Terrorism Team to contribute to the provision of psychological services. The Psychology Counter Terrorism (CT) Team work closely with the Joint Extremism Unit (JEXU) and with the CT-ARC (Counter Terrorism Assessment and Rehabilitation Centre).

JEXU has oversight of operational delivery against the Prevent and Pursue strands of CONTEST. Delivery is underpinned by a specialist CT case management process, which is delivered by multi-disciplinary teams and provides end-to-end management of this group. This is the mechanism through which an offender’s risk and rehabilitative pathways are assessed and monitored in relation to the concerns of engagement with an extremist group, cause and or ideology. The HMPPS teams work proactively at a local, regional and national level, across custody and community, with operational partners, including Police and security services, to case manage individuals, share information and intelligence and assist with active investigations. The regional teams include operational and probation colleagues.

The CT-ARC team consists of psychologists, specialist probation staff and quality assurance specialists who are responsible for the assessment and intervention products for the terrorist and terrorist risk cohort.

The Psychology CT Team are recruiting a Senior Psychologist. There are several key elements to this role

• Develop relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders to promote the role of Psychology Services Group within this field. In order to achieve this, there is a requirement to attend key meetings across sites and within London. It is anticipated the travel will vary but would generally be two days per week.
• Provide clinical guidance and support to the management of individuals in this cohort – this can include clinical support/advice to the multi-disciplinary team involved in the case, advice/support for the psychological strand of the Desistance and Disengagement Programme (DDP; that focuses on rehabilitating individuals who have been involved in terrorism or terrorism-related activity and reducing the risk they pose), and direct assessment/ intervention with the individual.

• Implement quality assurance processes for psychological work conducted with this cohort. This will include conducting QA for ERGs completed at significant sentence points (e.g. pre-release or within the community).

• Provide support to wider Psychology Services Group colleagues around the assessment of this group, including advice on sources of information.

• Provide support to National Security Division (NSD) colleagues, who are involved in release planning and ongoing management of TACT and other high risk/high harm cases.

• Hold a clinical case load for either assessment and or intervention.

• As a Senior psychologist, there is also an expectation that the post holder will undertake other core components of a Band 8 role including line management duties and/or supervision of trainee psychologists.

The nature of this role and given the information the post will require access to, the candidates will be required to hold a minimum of SC security clearance.

It is a national post so can be based anywhere however there will be an expectation for some travel to meet the business needs