Clinical Psychologist

NHS; Southampton; On-site; GBP 53,000 - 61,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider seeks a Clinical Psychologist for a secure children's home in Southampton. This role offers a unique opportunity for recently qualified psychologists, with a clear pathway to career development and the chance to work within a supportive, trauma-informed team. The position involves providing psychological assessments, therapy, and supervision, contributing to a culture of compassion and collaboration.

Qualifications

• Doctoral level training in applied psychology required.
• HCPC registration or working towards it.
• Experience in clinical mental health settings is essential.

Responsibilities

• Provide high-quality systemic psychology services to the multidisciplinary team.
• Deliver psychological assessment and therapy to young people.
• Supervise Assistant Psychologists and contribute to a psychologically minded culture.

Skills

Communication

Psychological assessment

Therapeutic intervention

Team collaboration

Education

Doctoral level training in applied psychology

HCPC registration

Qualification in systemic practice/family therapy

Job description

Go back Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Clinical Psychologist

The closing date is 01 June 2025

We're looking for an Clinical Psychologist to join our clinically led health and wellbeing team at Swanwick Lodge, a secure children's home for up to 10 young people placed under section 25 of the Children Act, run in partnership with Hampshire County Council. This is a rare and rewarding opportunity for a recently qualified psychologist to take up the role, with a clear development pathway to Band 8a. You'll be supported through regular supervision, training and hands-on experience designed to help you grow into a confident, senior clinician.

You'll be part of a welcoming, trauma-informed team that works closely with care and education colleagues to understand and meet the complex needs of young people. Our work is guided by the SECURE STAIRS framework; a psychologically led, whole-system approach. You'll play a key role in embedding psychological thinking across the home, delivering reflective spaces, consultation, training and direct therapeutic input.

You'll supervise Assistant Psychologists and contribute to a psychologically minded culture that values curiosity, compassion and collaboration. You'll receive additional therapy training and supervision to support your development; we're especially keen to hear from applicants passionate about systemic work. You'll also have the opportunity to deputise for the clinical lead, building your leadership experience in a setting rated Outstanding by Ofsted and the CQC.

Main duties of the job

To provide a systemic psychology service of a high quality to the multidisciplinary team, and across all sectors of care. To promote an integrated approach enhancing the delivery of trauma informed care. To provide psychological assessment and therapy to young people within the service. To provide advice and consultation through formulation, on psychological intervention and risk to non-psychologist colleagues, external agencies, and non-professional carers. To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service's policies and procedures. To utilise research skills for audit, policy, service development and research within the area served by the service. To undertake a personal research and development programme and develop and encourage a research culture within the clinical team.

And how about...

Apply now and when you are successfully recruited you will receive 2,500 (does not apply to current HIOW NHS Staff)

About us

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is a newly established organisation, bringing together expertise from across mental health, learning disabilities, community, and physical health services. We are dedicated to delivering compassionate, high-quality, and accessible care to the diverse communities of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

With over 13,000 dedicated staff working across more than 300 sites, we place patients and staff at the centre of everything we do. Our goal is to create an integrated healthcare system that improves accessibility and ensures more consistent care for patients. By working together, we aim to improve patient outcomes, drive innovation, and meet the unique needs of the populations we serve.

Our Trust unites services from Southern Health, Solent NHS Trust, Isle of Wight NHS Trusts community and mental health teams, as well as Hampshire CAMHS, originally part of Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. This transformation enables us to deliver more seamless care across the region, ensuring that patients receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time.

Join us as we embark on this exciting journey to shape the future of healthcare across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. We are deeply committed to our CARE values of compassion, accountability, respect, and excellence, and offer outstanding opportunities for career development, training, and collaborative working.

Job responsibilities

Further information about the Trust and this role can be found on the Job Description and Person Specification document attached. It is important to us that we ensure our recruitment processes are accessible and inclusive to everyone - if as a potential candidate you are concerned a person specification may prevent or restrict your application for employment as a result of unintentional barriers on the grounds of your sex, race, age, sexual orientation, religion/belief or disability please initially contact the Trust's Recruitment team - detailed in the advert. The Trust will seek to resolve this issue wherever possible.

We are happy to talk Flexible Working - all requests for flexible working options can be discussed as part of the interview process.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Doctoral level training in applied psychology.
• Post-holder must be HCPC registered (or working towards this if qualifying this year)
• To have undertaken systemic practice training equivalent to the foundation year of systemic practice or be working towards this-- this includes the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology courses where systemic therapy is a core model.
• Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.
• Qualification in systemic practice/family therapy

Experience

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of patients in clinical mental health settings, e.g., hospital or community mental health teams.
• Experience of working with service users with complex psychological needs.
• Experience of engaging and sustaining work with ambivalent clients.
• Experience of exercising clinical responsibility for service users' psychological care within the context of a multi --disciplinary teams and care plans.
• Experience of teaching and training.
• Experience of liaison with other health professionals.
• Experience of supervision of staff.
• Skills
• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to patients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
• Post-qualification experience in secure/ inpatient/forensic or other relevant clinical settings
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of delivering group programmes
• Experience of working with young people presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity.
• Skills
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. looked after children, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc.).
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the setting, mental health and looked after young people.
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.

Additional Criteria

• Commitment to working effectively with teams.
• Interest in working with families as well as individuals.
• Calm under pressure
• Self-motivated
• Diplomatic and empathetic manner
• Able to maintain confidentiality.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

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.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

£53,775 to £60,504 a yearBased of full time hours