Community Clinical Psychologist

NHS; London; On-site; GBP 54,000 - 61,000; Part time

Job summary

A leading NHS organization is seeking a Clinical Psychologist to join a pilot project aimed at supporting young people affected by serious youth violence and homelessness. The role involves providing assessments, psychological interventions, and clinical leadership within a multi-disciplinary team. This position is part-time, fixed-term for 2 years, and based at the New Horizons Youth Centre in London.

Qualifications

• Doctorate in Clinical Psychology required.
• Registration for HCPC or eligible for registration.
• Experience in working with young people affected by violence and homelessness.

Responsibilities

• Conduct assessments and provide psychological interventions for young people.
• Develop trauma-informed housing recommendations and support plans.
• Provide clinical leadership and consultation to staff.

Skills

Clinical assessment

Psychological intervention

Team collaboration

Crisis management

Education

Doctorate in Clinical Psychology

HCPC registration

Job description

Job summary

The post holder will be part of the ongoing pilot project, commissioned until 2027 working within a multi-disciplinary team to support young people 16-25 affected by serious youth violence and homelessness. This role is part of the North Central London Vanguard commissioned by NHS England to develop a new model of care. The team is made up of Clinical Psychologists, Specialist Caseworkers and Therapeutic Practitioners. The team deliver accessible evidence-based and holistic mental health interventions in environments where young people feel in control and safe, including a community youth homelessness charity hub where this role is based. The post holder will hold a central role in providing assessments and adapted evidence based psychological interventions within one of our partnership community-based settings, the New Horizons Youth Centre hub. The role involves developing the psychology drop-in clinic project within the service, which is currently running to support the NHYC Youth Offending Pathways Team (NHYC YOP). This will require working closely with the NHYC YOP and NCL Vanguard teams, and multi-agency professionals to improve emotional and holistic well-being outcomes for young people affected by homelessness and serious youth violence.

Main duties of the job

This role focuses on supporting young people who find it hard to trust services, offering holistic practical and emotional intervention and engaging with the NHYC team and wider network to improve their wellbeing and increase access to housing options. The role will also include offering advice, consultation, training, supervision and team reflective spaces to staff within NHYC YOP team and wider youth hub, as well as organisations external to the service. The post holder will contribute to providing clinical leadership across the NCL Vanguard Service, working closely with all team members in ensuring the delivery of highly innovative and adaptive evidence-based care. Alongside individual clinical work, the service works across multiple levels, seeking to shift how the wider system perceives and works with young people, hoping to address inequalities to create sustainable change.Embracing new ways of working will be key, as the model constantly evolves to respond to the needs and aspirations of young people it serves. As this is a pilot project, a core aspect of the role will be utilising research skills for data collection, audit, policy, service development and evaluation and wider research in order to evaluate the service and provide evidence for further service development and broader systemic change.

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.

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

21 May 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 7

Salary

£54,320 to £60,981 a year Per annum (pro- rata)

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

2 years

Working pattern

Part-time

Reference number

455-NLFT-0081

Job locations

New Horizon Youth Centre

68 Chalton St

London

NW1 1JR

Job description Job responsibilities

• To offer specialist, highly flexible and innovative assessments for young people and occasionally their families who are affected by homelessness and community violence. This may include risk assessment, and subsequent risk management, with the provision of specialist advice for other professionals.
• To formulate and support in the development of housing recommendations and support plans which are trauma informed and are tailored around each young persons mental health and care needs.
• To formulate and implement highly specialised and innovative plans for the psychological treatment and/or management of a young persons mental health needs where appropriate.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals and groups and to evaluate and make decisions about the intervention options available. This will involve interpretation and integration of complex psychological data and competing or contradictory theories/hypotheses from professionals from other agencies.
• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and intervention approaches for young people in relation to their housing needs and to monitor progress.
• To act as a lead professional, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans. This will involve offering staff from other agencies guidance on mental health and trauma informed care

This is not an exhaustive list, please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification for more information on the role requirements and duties.

Job description Job responsibilities

• To offer specialist, highly flexible and innovative assessments for young people and occasionally their families who are affected by homelessness and community violence. This may include risk assessment, and subsequent risk management, with the provision of specialist advice for other professionals.
• To formulate and support in the development of housing recommendations and support plans which are trauma informed and are tailored around each young persons mental health and care needs.
• To formulate and implement highly specialised and innovative plans for the psychological treatment and/or management of a young persons mental health needs where appropriate.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals and groups and to evaluate and make decisions about the intervention options available. This will involve interpretation and integration of complex psychological data and competing or contradictory theories/hypotheses from professionals from other agencies.
• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and intervention approaches for young people in relation to their housing needs and to monitor progress.
• To act as a lead professional, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans. This will involve offering staff from other agencies guidance on mental health and trauma informed care

This is not an exhaustive list, please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification for more information on the role requirements and duties.

Person Specification Education and qualifications Essential

• Doctorate in Clinical Psychology
• Registration for HCPC or eligible for registration

Desirable

• Training around homelessness and housing legislation.
• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training, youth work, family work and/or community support work.

Experience and knowlege Essential

• Experience of working directly with young people in contact with the criminal justice system and/or affected by serious youth violence
• Experience of working with individuals and families affected by homelessness and/or working within homelessness teams/organisations
• Experience of working with young people with psychological difficulties and / or facing extremely challenging circumstances with complex mental health needs. For example, working with looked after children services, refugees and asylum seekers.
• Extensive experience in risk assessment and supporting those in crisis. Experience in management of both individual and community risks
• Experience of delivering flexible and creative individual and group interventions to young people
• Experience delivering staff reflective or formulation sessions and staff teaching and training
• Knowledge of the theory and supervised practice of individual interventions with young people affected by youth violence in a community setting

Desirable

• Knowledge of relevant legislation (i.e. Homelessness Guidance, Children's Act)
• Experience of Attachment/mentalisation based approaches, Narrative Therapy or Community Psychology
• Experience of working in the charity sector
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts
• Experience providing practical support, such as support with housing, benefits and employment
• Knowledge of local policies in respect of safeguarding children and the protection of vulnerable adults
• Knowledge of Mental Health legislation and its implications for clinical practice in relation to this client group

skills an abilities Essential

• Skills in developing, managing and coordinating psychological interventions with young people who do not initially seek help
• Working knowledge of at least two specialised psychological therapies for example narrative therapy, Systemic Models etc.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Skills in delivering teaching and training workshops to professionals from varied professional backgrounds
• Experience of working as part of a multi-agency team

Desirable

• Understanding of the impact of stigma and discrimination
• Evidence of a high level of competent and autonomous practice in delivering therapeutic interventions
• Experience in developing culturally sensitive and supportive spaces, groups and workshops within community settings

Personal qualities Essential

• Ability to manage a range of tasks in order to meet agreed priorities and deadlines; ability to monitor, review, evaluate and report progress.
• 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 social contexts.
• Ability to carry out travel around the designated area of work and to work flexible and sometimes antisocial hours as the needs of the job dictate.
• Ability to accompany young people to appropriate appointments
• A commitment to and skills in, culturally sensitive practice

Desirable

• Demonstrable resourcefulness and skills in problem solving
• Flexible, engaging and approachable person who can work quickly and responsively with both clients and the multidisciplinary team

Person Specification Education and qualifications Essential

• Doctorate in Clinical Psychology
• Registration for HCPC or eligible for registration

Desirable

• Training around homelessness and housing legislation.
• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training, youth work, family work and/or community support work.

Experience and knowlege Essential

• Experience of working directly with young people in contact with the criminal justice system and/or affected by serious youth violence
• Experience of working with individuals and families affected by homelessness and/or working within homelessness teams/organisations
• Experience of working with young people with psychological difficulties and / or facing extremely challenging circumstances with complex mental health needs. For example, working with looked after children services, refugees and asylum seekers.
• Extensive experience in risk assessment and supporting those in crisis. Experience in management of both individual and community risks
• Experience of delivering flexible and creative individual and group interventions to young people
• Experience delivering staff reflective or formulation sessions and staff teaching and training
• Knowledge of the theory and supervised practice of individual interventions with young people affected by youth violence in a community setting

Desirable

• Knowledge of relevant legislation (i.e. Homelessness Guidance, Children's Act)
• Experience of Attachment/mentalisation based approaches, Narrative Therapy or Community Psychology
• Experience of working in the charity sector
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts
• Experience providing practical support, such as support with housing, benefits and employment
• Knowledge of local policies in respect of safeguarding children and the protection of vulnerable adults
• Knowledge of Mental Health legislation and its implications for clinical practice in relation to this client group

skills an abilities Essential

• Skills in developing, managing and coordinating psychological interventions with young people who do not initially seek help
• Working knowledge of at least two specialised psychological therapies for example narrative therapy, Systemic Models etc.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Skills in delivering teaching and training workshops to professionals from varied professional backgrounds
• Experience of working as part of a multi-agency team

Desirable

• Understanding of the impact of stigma and discrimination
• Evidence of a high level of competent and autonomous practice in delivering therapeutic interventions
• Experience in developing culturally sensitive and supportive spaces, groups and workshops within community settings

Personal qualities Essential

• Ability to manage a range of tasks in order to meet agreed priorities and deadlines; ability to monitor, review, evaluate and report progress.
• 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 social contexts.
• Ability to carry out travel around the designated area of work and to work flexible and sometimes antisocial hours as the needs of the job dictate.
• Ability to accompany young people to appropriate appointments
• A commitment to and skills in, culturally sensitive practice

Desirable

• Demonstrable resourcefulness and skills in problem solving
• Flexible, engaging and approachable person who can work quickly and responsively with both clients and the multidisciplinary team

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

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).

UK Registration

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

Additional information 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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

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).

UK Registration

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

Employer details Employer name

455 North London NHS Foundation Trust

Address

New Horizon Youth Centre

68 Chalton St

London

NW1 1JR

Employer's website

https://www.northlondonmentalhealth.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)

Employer details Employer name

455 North London NHS Foundation Trust

Address

New Horizon Youth Centre

68 Chalton St

London

NW1 1JR

Employer's website

https://www.northlondonmentalhealth.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)