Emma Palethorpe

Proving psychologically informed consultation and leadership within a Forensic Outreach and Liaison Service (FOLS) covering all of Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield. The service supports individuals with Learning Disability and / or Autism who have been in contact with the criminal justice system to support their transition back into the community and to prevent re-admission to hospital and / or custody. My role involves providing clinical supervision, consultation, service development, assessment and interventions with service users and workforce development initiatives. My role includes working with individuals to develop case formulations and to support teams and the wider organisation to think reflectively about the relational dynamics and from both a neurodiverse and trauma informed perspective to aid understanding and risk management.

I worked as a Senior Psychologist (promoted in 2019) for the Yorkshire and Humberside Personality Disorder Pathway providing psychological consultation to Probation Services over a wide geographical area. In 2021 I also took up the role of Clinical Lead for the services Intensive Integrated Risk Management Service (IIRMS) supporting men and women in the community who have presentations consistent with a diagnosis of personality disorder. Both of these roles involved working in partnership with Probation and other services using psychologically informed thinking to understand complex service users and systemic challenges. My role included supervision, consultancy and completion psychological formulations. During this role I was also a trainer for the 2 day Knowledge and Understanding Framework Personality Disorder training for criminal justice staff.

This role was supporting students who were enrolled on the Diploma in Forensic Psychologist to become a qualified Forensic Psychologist. My duties and experience included supporting students (who were mainly employed as Trainee Forensic Psychologists in various settings) to develop and structure their evidence and portfolio towards demonstrating competency for the qualification. This included supporting students to devise training plans, portfolio of evidence and liaising with the students clinical supervisors to ensure placements, work duties and well being needs of the students are being met.

This was a split post role working within the consultation and intervention workstreams of the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway. My role and experience included providing psychologically informed consultancy and formulation with Probation Practitioners supporting them relationally in their supervision of client with presentations which could attract a diagnosis of personality disorder. The other part of my role included working directing with men and women in the community whose presentations were consistent with a diagnosis of personality disorder, supporting them to lead a life worth living within the community. Key skills and experience in this role included drawing on a range of psychological models and theoretical approaches to inform formulations and risk management approaches, having well developed skills in oral and written communications and adopting a caring, compassionate and authentic approach to understanding the needs of both service users and the professionals supporting them.

My duties and experiences as a Forensic Psychologist for the prison service were to complete risk assessments, psychological assessments and formulations for a variety of stakeholders including the Parole, Probation and Category A boards. Consultancy to various stakeholders and professionals. Managing resources and allocation of work to other Psychologists. Delivering, supervising and managing both individual and group based interventions to prisoners ensuring a high quality of intervention was being delivered and key performance indicators were met.

As a Trainee Forensic Psychologist my experience and duties included completing risk and psychological assessments for various stakeholders under supervision. Consultancy to various boards including MAPPA, re-categorisation boards and Probation services. Delivering, supervising and managing both individual and group based interventions to prisoners with a variety of offences including violent and sexual offences. I was also part of the pilot for a Healthy Sex Programme and a study researching the feasibility of a Randomised Controlled Trial into medication to manage sexual arousal. I also developed and trained Prison Officers in motivational interviewing designed to support relational working between Prison Officers and Prisoners. I also conducted research investigating factors which may negatively impact staff well being.