Principal Clinician, Practice

About this role

• A dynamic opportunity to lead staff professional development, guide clinical practice integrity and influence and contribute to clinical projects and practice change
• Apply your extensive clinical practice experience to engage in direct service delivery with individuals convicted of a range of offences
• Work with teams within the Barwon South West Prison Precinct, Minimum and Maximum Security Prisons, Complex Interventions and Women's Interventions
• Ongoing and fixed term vacancy
• VPS Grade 6: $130,673 - $174,869 plus superannuation.

The Department of Justice and Community Safety (the department) is seeking Principal Clinicians, Practice (fixed and ongoing), passionate about delivery of quality clinical services in a forensic setting to provide a critical role in Forensic Intervention Services.

About the business unit

Corrections Victoria is part of the Department of Justice and Community Safety and is responsible for the direction, management, and operation of Victoria's adult corrections system, including Community Correctional Services, public and privately operated prisons, and a transitional centre.  It ensures prisoners are safely and securely contained and aims to rehabilitate offenders by addressing the underlying causes of offending behaviour.

As a division of Corrections Victoria, Forensic Intervention Services is a specialist program area within the Offender Services Division that provides service users in custody and in the community with offence-specific, evidence-based screening, assessment, and intervention services to support their rehabilitation.  In doing so, Forensic Intervention Services is a critical component of the department's strategy to reduce reoffending and contribute to community safety.

About the role

The Principal Clinician, Practice delivers assessments and therapeutic interventions to service users with a primary focus on those who have perpetrated sexual and violent offences, and/or have criminogenic needs related to alcohol or other drugs. The Principal Clinician, Practice exercises expert clinical acumen, and has the distinctive opportunity to manage a direct case load, lead practice integrity and guide staff professional development, and engage in clinical projects that contribute to our understanding of the evidence base and effectiveness of what we do.

Some of your duties will include:

• Delivery of assessments, offence-specific and offence-related group and/or individual based interventions for a caseload of complex cases.
• Provide expert level consultation to clinical teams on clinical practice issues, drive and embed a strong practice culture, focus and conduct quality audits of clinical practice and interventions.
• Enhance the quality and effectiveness of clinical programs through the provision of individual support and professional development for clinical staff, supervisors and managers.

To learn more about this role before applying, please read the attached position description.

About you

To be successful in this role, you will have:

• Highly developed understanding of and extensive practice experience in clinical work with high risk and complex clients, including assessment of risk, risk management and therapeutic work.
• Expertise in undertaking risk assessment and delivery of offence specific interventions, including facilitation of group programs based on cognitive behavioural therapy.
• Demonstrated understanding of relevant frameworks for offender rehabilitation and ability to apply them to clinical practice.
• Experience in providing high quality clinical supervision and applying practice integrity processes.
• Demonstrated understanding of the legislative and operational considerations impacting delivery of clinical services within a forensic environment.

Qualifications

• Registration as a Psychologist with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.
• Membership of the Australian Association of Social Work; or
• Credentialed as a Mental Health Nurse with the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses; or
• Registration as an Occupational Therapist with the Occupational Therapy Board of Australia.
• AHPRA approved supervisor, or equivalent; or
• A minimum of 2 years of being a practicing supervisor.
• Specialist training and/or postgraduate qualifications in a clinical or forensic field is desirable

How to Apply

Please click the Apply button on this advertisement. Applications should include a resume and covering letter. Attachments can be uploaded in .doc, .docx, .pdf, .txt or .rtf formats.

The successful candidate will be required to undergo pre-employment checks which may include national police checks and misconduct screening.

If you require adjustments to the recruitment and selection process, or require an alternative format to any of the application material, please don't hesitate to get in touch with the contact person listed on this ad.

FOR INTERNAL VPS EMPLOYEES:

• For this particular vacancy, priority consideration applies to Victorian Public Service (VPS) and select employees of the Victorian Public Sector who apply through the Jobs Skills Exchange (JSE) jobs board platform.
• For all VPS employees, due to the new Jobs Skills Exchange (JSE) policy, please apply through the JSE to be eligible to be considered for this position in the first round.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

CHILD SAFE STATEMENT OF COMMITMENT

The Department of Justice and Community Safety is committed to the safety and wellbeing of children and young people. We seek to prevent harm of any kind impacting children and young people and have zero tolerance for racism, child abuse and inequality. Children and young people's rights, relationships, identity, and culture must be recognised and respected, their voices heard, and their concerns acted upon. We aim to foster a culturally safe, child safe and child friendly environment for all children and young people we have contact with, deliver services to, or are impacted by our work.