Clinical/Forensic/Counselling Psychologist

North London Nhs Foundation Trust; Greater London; On-site; GBP 58,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

NHS Pension

Flexible working

NHS Discounts

Annual leave

Staff network

Job summary

North London NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Clinical/Forensic/Counselling Psychologist to join the North London Forensic Service in London. The post holder will deliver specialist assessments and therapies within a prison setting, provide supervision, and support service development in line with policy and research.

The role requires Doctoral training in psychology, HCPC registration, and experience in forensic or prison settings.

Qualifications

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology, health psychology or counselling psychology.
• HCPC registration is required.
• Pre-qualification training in research methodology, staff training or related fields.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist psychological assessments using tests, observations and interviews.
• Formulate evidence-based treatment plans for complex needs across care settings.
• Deliver individual, family and group interventions.
• Provide supervision to junior staff and MDT members.
• Offer consultation and teaching across programs and agencies.

Skills

Communication skills

Assessment skills

Consultation skills

Distress management

Aus ADOS/ADI-R

Supervision training

Education

Doctoral training

HCPC registration

Research methodology

Job description

Job summary

The post holder will be required to support the delivery of care currently in the form of New Models of Care, enabling the service to meet the London Wide service specification standards for Prison Healthcare. The post holder will support the therapies team to ensure they work to an agreed operational policy and offer integrated triage, assessment and intervention to individuals within our prison settings who are presenting with mental health problems in line with the New Models of Care. To provide a qualified specialist psychology service to patients under the care of the Mental Health team and Therapies Service within the Prison. The role includes providing specialist psychological assessment and therapy, at the same time as offering advice and consultation on clients' psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues, working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team's policies and procedures. To provide supervision to unqualified psychology staff and to support senior staff to further develop the service. To utilise research skills for audit, policy, service development and research within the area served by the team/service.

Main duties of the job

Provide specialist psychological assessments using psychometric tests, self-reports, observations, and interviews. Formulate evidence-based treatment plans for complex mental health and behavioural needs across care settings. Deliver individual, family, and group interventions, refining formulations using multiple models. Provide expert guidance and consultation to multidisciplinary teams, contributing to shared psychological frameworks and service-wide understanding. Conduct risk assessments, manage risk, and advise other staff on risk factors. Act as care coordinator under CPA when required, leading planning and reviews. Deliver clinical supervision to junior psychologists, trainees, and MDT staff. Provide consultation, training, and teaching across pre/post-qualification programs, internal teams, and external agencies. Receive regular supervision from a senior clinical psychologist while pursuing agreed specialist professional development. Communicate assessment, formulation, and treatment details in a skilled, sensitive manner to clients, families, and multidisciplinary networks, actively monitoring care progress.

About us

North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people.

Our Five-Year Strategy:

• We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home.
• With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all
• We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care.
• We will be more effective as an organisation by pioneering research, quality improvement and technology.

Why NLFT?

• We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities.
• We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
• NHS Discounts, generous annual leave and NHS pension scheme
• Excellent internal staff network

In order to meet the needs of the Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that fall under Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey or Islington. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.

Details

Date posted: 11 September 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 7
Salary: £58,133 to £65,261 a year per annum including HCAS
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Part-time
Reference number: 455-NLFT-8256062
Job locations: HMP Wormwood Scrubs, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0AE, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities
Please see Job Description and Person Specification attachment.

PERSON SPECIFICATION - GENERAL INFORMATION

Job Title: Clinical/Forensic/counselling Psychologist/Psychotherapist
Band: 7
Department: North London Forensic Service

A person specification should comprise of a list of attributes required of the role. Essential criteria are those without which, the post holder would be unable to adequately perform the job. Desirable criteria are those that may enable the candidate to perform better or require a shorter orientation period. You should not include any reference to numbers of years experience unless justified.

Person Specification

EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS

Essential

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology, health psychology or counselling psychology
• HCPC registration
• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.

EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE

Essential

• Experience of working within a forensic setting/service (ideally prison environment) either in a B7 role, or as a trainee. Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across a range of care settings, which can include outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings. Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of emotive and distressing problems and where there is a history of violence. Experience of teaching, training and providing supervision.
• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across a range of care settings, which can include outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings. Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of emotive and distressing problems and where there is a history of violence.
• Experience of teaching, training and providing supervision.
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts. Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.

SKILLS AND ABILITIES

Essential

• Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Able to contain, explore and formulate an understanding of high levels of distress both directly with patients and indirectly via supervision or case reviews with other staff.
• Skill in the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in working with mentally disordered offenders.
• Trained in the ADOS/ADI-R
• Formal training in supervision.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name: North London NHS Foundation Trust
Address: HMP Wormwood Scrubs, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0AE, United Kingdom
Employer's website: https://www.northlondonmentalhealth.nhs.uk/

Employer contact details

For questions about the job, contact: Lead for Therapies/ Specialist Health Psychologist, Suzanne Lee, [e-mail], 02085883389

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Clinical/Forensic/Counselling Psychologist • London, United Kingdom