Practitioner Psychologist
National Crime Agency
Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 27th October 2024
Details
Reference number
Salary
Job grade
Contract type
Fixed term
Loan
Secondment
Returner
Length of employment
Business area
Type of role
Human Resources
Psychology
Working pattern
Number of jobs available
Contents
Location
About the job
Job summary
Job description
The role of the Practitioner Psychologist would suit a newly qualified psychologist. They will provide practical and clinical support to National Crime Agency (NCA) Officers on wellbeing, occupational and mental health matters via a range of mediums such as biopsychosocial assessments, interventions, psycho-educational workshops, articles, and organisational support where appropriate. The role reports to a Senior Practitioner Psychologist, who will provide clinical supervision and continual professional development is reviewed regularly. The department is overseen by a Consultant Psychologist, Head of Clinical Services and Wellbeing.
Applicants will be able to competently offer treatment in two or more types of evidence based psychological therapies, preferably one or both of which may be:
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
- Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) - or trauma focused CBT
- Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT); Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Trauma Focused Psychotherapy; Humanistic therapy e.g. person centred
***To be considered, you will need to successfully complete SC Enhanced clearance before commencing the role.***
Person specification
Main Responsibilities:
- To be responsible for the assessment, formulation, and management of officers fitness/suitability for role, ensuring any reasonable adjustments or recommendations for support are made and monitored. Manage difficult emotional and operational situations with sensitivity and skill.
- To provide psychological assessments of officers, based on appropriate use, interpretation and integration of psychological data from a variety of sources, including psychometric tests, self-report measures, rating scales, structured observations and semi-structured interviews.
- To provide appropriate biopsychosocial formulations, consultation and advice based upon analyses of a range of available psychological information concerning officers and their role, disabilities and any psychosocial hazards in Law Enforcement work and related to the Health and Safety Management Standards.
- To exercise responsibility for designing and implementing psychological interventions (including psychoeducation sessions and post incident support) and, with supervision, adjusting, interpreting, and reformulating the psychological models as appropriate based on feedback, monitoring and follow up.
- Support and advise managers and officers regarding matters impacting on employee welfare and their ability to fulfil role requirements within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service's policies and procedures, ensuring best practice. To actively support reduced waiting for psychology appointments.
In addition you would be expected to:
- Provide written articles for dissemination in the agency, including those with a self-help focus.
- Contribute to clinical audits, reviews, development of policies/procedures and data systems across business areas as appropriate.
- Ensure the quality, secure handling and dissemination of data/information, maintaining confidentiality, sensitivity and a duty of care in line with NCA policy and GDPR.
- To manage self-care and be an active participant in professional development.
Qualifications
Doctorate degree (or equivalent) in Clinical or Counselling Psychology (or working towards).
Please ensure the dates of any accreditations you are relying on, are entered on to the CV.
Should you progress to the assessment stage of the process, you will be required to provide a copy of the original certificate.
Failure to provide evidence at interview may result in your application not progressing to the next stage.
Memberships
*To note that subject to a successful application, this needs to be secured and evidenced ahead of an employment start date, no later than April 2025.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Making Effective Decisions
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Experience of psychological assessment, formulation and risk mitigation management in accordance to the clinical governance and best practice.
- Experience of managing issues relating to consent and confidentiality in line with professional guidance and legislation.
- Experience in a range of clinical skills and delivery in a variety of adult settings, including working with a range of stake holders who are not psychologists
Benefits
Whatever your role, we take your career and development seriously, and want to enable you to build a really successful career with the Agency and wider Civil Service.
If you are an active police pension member immediately prior to joining the NCA, you can continue your membership throughout your employment with us as if you were a serving police officer. If you do remain an active member and subsequently return to a police force, you should be able to continue your membership there too.
All officers in the NCA are members of the UK Civil Service. You will be eligible for:
- Civil Service pension scheme
- 26 days annual leave rising to 31 on completion of 5 years continuous service
- Training and development opportunities
- Cycle2work scheme
We take the welfare of NCA officers very seriously. All staff have access to Occupational Health services and there are a number of staff representative groups. We also have a range of sporting and other activities on offer.
We can provide flexible working arrangements if the role in question is suitable. These include flexi-time, job sharing and compressed hours (working contracted hours over a shorter period).
Things you need to know
Selection process details
If you wish to apply for this vacancy, you must submit your application by 23:55 on Sunday 27th October 2024.
You will be asked to complete a CV as part of the application process. Please see the candidate information pack for more information.
During your application process your CV will assess the following criteria:
- Experience in a range of clinical skills and delivery in a variety of adult settings.
- Able to competently offer treatment in two or more types of evidence based psychological therapies, preferably one or both of which may be;
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
- Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) - or trauma focused CBT
- Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Trauma Focused Psychotherapy
- Humanistic therapy e.g. person centred
Once submitted your application will be acknowledged by the Government Recruitment Service.
Please note depending on the volume of applications a Longlist at sift may be conducted on following criteria:
- Experience in a range of clinical skills and delivery in a variety of adult settings.
Candidates must pass this criteria for their application to be progressed.
A panel will then assess your application to select those demonstrating the best fit for the role by considering the evidence you have provided against the criteria set out in the Entry Criteria section.
Failure to address any or all of these may affect your application.
Sift results are expected to be released w/c Monday 18th November 2024.
Interviews will take place throughout December 2024 - locations to be confirmed. Please be advised that the type of interview (eg. virtual/face-to-face) may be subject to change and successful candidates will be notified of this prior to attending. However the interview is conducted, the interview criteria will remain as shown on page 16 of the candidate information pack.
The above sift and interview dates are an indicative timeline.
Should you be successful at sift but cannot attend on the interview date(s) listed the recruitment team cannot guarantee an alternative date. Please contact the recruitment team.
You will then be asked to attend an interview in order to have a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence. The interview process will include a 10 minute presentation. The topic of the presentation will be disclosed following sift.
Full details of the assessment process will be made available to shortlisted candidates.
Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. Any instances of plagiarism including copying of examples/answers from internet sources will result in a withdrawal of your application. Further action, including disciplinary action, may be considered in such cases involving internal candidates. Providing false or misleading information would be contrary to the core values of honesty and integrity expected of all Civil Servants.
Interview Outcome
Candidates will be alerted of the outcome of their interview via their CS Jobs Portal. We will be retaining a candidate pool of successful applicants to draw from as vacancies arise for up to 12 months.
If your application is successful and we are unable to offer you a post immediately, you will be invited to join our reserve list. If over the next 12 months we are able to offer you a position, we will contact you as soon as possible.
Once we make you an offer you will then go through our vetting and pre-employment checks processes.
All Appointments will be made in location merit order.
Internal Applicants
Successful applicants currently employed by NCA for this post may request to remain in their current contractual location. This should be discussed and agreed prior to proceeding with pre-employment checks. Please note this is dependant on business needs, please commence discussions with the hiring manager at the earliest opportunity.
Multi-Location
Where more than one location is advertised, candidates will be appointed in merit order for each location. You will be asked to state your location preference on your application.
Please be aware that you can be posted to any location that you put in your preferences. If you would only like to be posted to one location, please confirm one location only. If you are posted to a location that you have requested and you do not accept that location, you may not be offered another role.
Please note, only advertised location can be offered. Notes populated in a free text box will not be taken into consideration.
Near Miss
If you are not found appointable at the advertised grade you may be offered the lower grade role if you are considered to meet the skills, experience and behaviours for the lower level. The benchmark for appointing to the lower grade is set at the start of each campaign. All offers will be made in merit.
If you are found appointable at the higher grade but there are no positions available you may be offered an appointment at the lower grade.
Hybrid Working
Here at the NCA we have a hybrid working arrangement in place enabling officers to work a proportion of their role remotely. Eligibility and the degree of home working will vary depending on the requirements of the role. Further details can be discussed at offer stage.
Reasonable Adjustment
We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. As part of our application process you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustment to our recruitment process that you may need. If you have a disability or long-term condition (a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long term effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities protected under the Equality Act 2010) and need us to make any adjustments or do anything differently during the recruitment process, please let us know by emailing ncarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:
Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.
Please contact us by emailing ncarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date if you wish to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying.
Inclusion and Accessibility
The NCA embraces and values diversity in all forms. Being truly reflective of the communities we serve and building a culture where everyone can perform at their best is critical to leading the UK’s fight against serious and organised crime – something which affects us all. We want to recruit and retain the very best and broadest diversity of officers so the NCA welcomes applications from individuals from all backgrounds.
We are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we are committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact ncarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Additional Information
- The NCA is a 24/7 organisation, and working patterns must support business requirements. Some roles may require you to respond at short notice or outside of core hours.
- Individuals will be required to undertake and pass a substance misuse test as part of pre-employment checks.
- Successful candidates may be required to undertake a medical. If required, the medical will take place in either London or Warrington. Unfortunately, travel costs will not be reimbursed.
- If you are an internal candidate who has passed interview but is undergoing an internal investigation or have a written warning in place preventing a post move you may not be able to be posted until this investigation is concluded or restriction lifted. You will remain on the reserve list for a max of 12 months
VETTING REQUIREMENTS SC
All security clearances require you to provide evidence of your UK footprint where you have been physically present in the UK.
The requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years.
Failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected.
If you require SC clearance you will need to provide evidence of the below requirements.
Checks will be made against:
- Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
- UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records.
- Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
- Security Services records
For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting
We encourage all candidates to thoroughly review the candidate pack which explains the role further before submitting an application.
If you have any specific queries about the role that are not covered by the candidate pack, please contact: ncarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Medical
Nationality requirements
Working for the Civil Service
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
Diversity and Inclusion
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : NCA Recruitment Team - GRS
- Email : ncarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : ncarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Further information
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/recruitment-complaints/
