Clinical/Counselling psychologist

Nhs-1; Nottingham; On-site; GBP 49,000 - 57,000; Full time

Job summary

Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in Nottingham is seeking a Clinical/Counselling Psychologist (NHS AfC Band 7) to provide specialist assessment and therapy for adults with complex mental health problems. You will work autonomously within professional guidelines and contribute to service development across AMH and Step 4 County South.

DBS checks apply with costs deducted from salary; DBS Update Service is encouraged.

Qualifications

• HCPC registered Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (or Counselling Psychology)
• Core Doctoral Level Training in Clinical or Counselling Psychology
• Experience working with adults in a multi-disciplinary setting

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist psychological assessments and therapy for adults with complex mental health problems.
• Offer advice and consultation on clients’ psychological care to colleagues.
• Work autonomously within professional guidelines and the service’s policies.
• Contribute to psychological therapies pathway development across AMH and Nottingham County South.
• Utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development.
• Undertake teaching, training and supervision as appropriate.

Skills

Verbal and written communication

Relationship building

IT skills

Consultation and training

Planning workload

Education

HCPC registration

Doctorate in Clinical or Counselling Psychology

BPS accreditation

Job description

Employer Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site St Anns House Town Nottingham Salary £49,387 - £56,515 per annum (pro-rata) Salary period Yearly Closing 22/09/2026 23:59

Clinical/Counselling psychologist

NHS AfC: Band 7

We fully support the use of AI and other tools to assist in writing your application. However, it's essential that the content, especially your supporting statement, is personalised and factually accurate. Your application should reflect your genuine experiences and qualifications to ensure authenticity and credibility

Job overview

To provide a specialist clinical/counselling psychology service to adults with complex mental health problems in step 4 Nottingham County South.

Please note applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment. The cost of the DBS application is £26.40 (standard) or £54.40 (enhanced), this cost will be deducted from your salary over the first 2 months of employment.

You are encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service. An annual fee of £16 per year applies.

Main duties of the job

To provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy.

To offer advice and consultation on clients’ psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues.

To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the Service’s policies and procedures.

To contribute to the psychological therapies pathway development across AMH.

To contribute to the service development in Nottingham County South.

To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the area served by the service where appropriate

To undertake relevant teaching, training and supervision within Step 4 County South, and more broadly in AMH where appropriate.

Working for our organisation

#TeamNottsHC comprises over 11,000 dedicated colleagues who #MakeADifference every day. We deliver intellectual disability, mental health, community health, forensic, and offender healthcare services across Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, and South Yorkshire. Our care is provided from over 200 sites, spanning community locations, acute settings, and secure environments, including prisons.

We are one of the largest mental health and community Trusts in the East Midlands and one of Nottinghamshire's biggest employers. We also host national and regional services, such as the National High Secure Deaf Service and the Nottingham Centre for Transgender Health.

We offer a variety of employee-led staff networks, including Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) groups, the Green Champions network, the Freedom to Speak Up network, the Health and Wellbeing Champions network, and the Menopause Champions network. These networks play a vital role in supporting our diverse workforce and promoting a culture of inclusivity.

The health and wellbeing of our colleagues is a top priority. We invest significantly in this through our in-house occupational health and staff counselling services, supported by a dedicated Health and Wellbeing team.

The Trust is committed to reducing its carbon emissions, with a specialised Energy and Environmental team working to ensure compliance with environmental legislation, enhance our environmental performance, and achieve our net-zero commitment

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the Step 4 Service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observation and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care as necessary.

To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems, and employing methods based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the range of care settings.

To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families, and groups where necessary, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options considering both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment, and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.

To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to client’s formulation diagnosis and treatment plans, ensuring communication with the referral agent and others involved with the care on a regular basis.

To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management

Person specification

Qualifications - Academic / Craft / Professional

• Highly developed specialist knowledge Professional knowledge acquired through degree, postgraduate doctoral degree clinical supervision Registered with HCPC Doctorate level qualification in Clinical Psychology (or equivalent) or Counselling Psychology accredited by the BPS

Training

• Core Doctoral Level Training in either Clinical or Counselling Psychology
• Specialist training in specific therapeutic approaches or clinical specialties

Experience

• Of working psychologically with adults who have a range of mental health difficulties, and of interventions with individuals and care systems. Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary setting Evaluating and auditing professional work
• Supervising other clinicians Publication in peer-reviewed research journals. Teaching mental health professionals about psychological issues.

Knowledge

• Understanding of theories and interventions relevant to adults with Mental Health Difficulties, their families and support systems Risk assessment and risk management Knowledge of a range of therapeutic approaches Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology
• Critical awareness of current themes in Adult Mental Health policy and research Extended knowledge in additional interventions/assessments/ models

Skills

• Effective verbal and written communication skills and relationship building skills. Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, formulation and intervention using a range of psychological models with service users with mental health difficulties Planning skills to organise workload and delivery of client care Effective IT skills
• Skills in providing consultation and training to other professional and non-professional groups

Additional Information

• We reserve the right to close the post early once we have received a sufficient number of applicants.
• The Trust believes in treating everyone with dignity and respect and encourages applications from all sectors of the community. We guarantee an interview to candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum essential criteria.
• In submitting an application form, you authorise Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to confirm from your previous or current NHS employer and other prior employers; previous NHS service details and personal data held about you. This data will be transferred using NHS Electronic Staff Record and third party systems via an automated process and only used for the purposes of obtaining and maintaining accurate employment records, should you be appointed to the post. Should you require any further information please refer our Privacy Policy shown on the Trust website.
• For eligible posts, DBS disclosures are mandatory before commencement of employment. If you are in a position that is deemed a regulated adult and/or child care role, you will not be able to start your employment until we have received a satisfactory DBS Disclosure. The Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Convictions which would otherwise be considered as 'spent' will also be checked as part of an Enhanced DBS Disclosure.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.