Consultant Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust; Hereford; On-site; Part time

Job summary

A regional healthcare provider in Hereford seeks a Consultant Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to lead psychological services within Neighbourhood Mental Health Teams. This part-time role (30 hours/week) involves governance, intervention leadership, and strategic development of community mental health services. Candidates should possess relevant degrees and strong leadership capabilities in multidisciplinary settings, aiming to improve patient outcomes and support staff well-being. Relocation expenses are available.

Benefits

27 days leave plus bank holidays

Generous NHS pension

Flexible working options

Support for maternity, paternity, and adoption

Health and wellbeing opportunities

Qualifications

• Proven leadership experience in psychological services.
• Experience developing research programs within psychology therapy.
• Ability to lead multidisciplinary teams and represent services strategically.

Responsibilities

• Lead psychological governance and service delivery within NMHTs.
• Provide clinical supervision and expert input on interventions.
• Implement trauma informed care practices across services.

Skills

Effective communication skills

Ability to manage therapeutic relationships

Presentation and teaching skills

IT proficiency

Support for patients' rights

Education

BSc/BA Honours degree in psychology

Post-graduate doctorate in Clinical/Counselling Psychology

Post-graduate level training in NHS leadership/management

Chartered Psychologist eligibility

Registered with Health and Care Professions Council

Job description

Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust

Consultant Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

The closing date is 11 January 2026

We are excited to invite applications for a Consultant Psychologist within Herefordshire's Neighbourhood Mental Health Services.

The post will lead on the governance and delivery of psychological provision within our five NMHTs as well as contributing to the wider strategic leadership and development of community mental health services. You will lead a fantastic team of psychological professionals who are well respected, integrated with our MDTs and enjoy short wait times for intervention.

We are looking for an experienced leader with a passion for applying psychological knowledge to make a real difference to the experience and outcomes of both people who use our services and those who work within them.

The successful applicant will have the ability to engage and inspire colleagues from different professional backgrounds and be able to help teams translate concepts such as trauma informed care, compassionate leadership, and coproduction into tangible day to day practices.

This is a part time post working 30 hours per week. However, we would consider less hours for the successful candidate but would have to be a minimum of 22.5 hours.

This post has been deemed by the Trust as eligible for relocation expenses which will be applicable for suitable successful candidate(s). Please see attached policy for more information

Main duties of the job

• Provide expert psychological leadership with the NMHTs, contributing to strategic planning and service improvement.
• Provide leadership for psychological interventions within the NMHTs, ensuring good mechanisms of governance to ensure safe and quality care.
• Hold a highly specialist clinical caseload.
• Provide clinical supervision to psychological practitioners.
• Provide teaching and training to multi‑disciplinary colleagues.
• Be responsible for the management of psychological practitioners within the NMHTs.
• Be accountable for own professional actions and decisions.
• Provide consultation to colleagues and other services.
• Attend and contribute to clinical and operational leadership forums.
• Use advanced research skills for audit, policy, service evaluation and quality improvement.
• Work with other senior psychological colleagues to promote and implement principles of trauma informed care, compassionate leadership, and coproduction.
• Oversee recruitment of psychological professionals when necessary.

About us

At Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, we are working together to deliver outstanding care. We run community hospitals and community health services across Worcestershire and provide mental health and learning disability services across both Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

Our people (all 4500+ of them) provide services for people of all ages, experiencing both physical and/or mental health conditions from over 100 sites.

We will support you to thrive; offer flexible working options for a great work‑life balance, help you fulfil your ambitions, and empower you to make positive changes within your team or service. We value diversity and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, cultures, and ethnicities.

What we offer;

• 27 days leave plus bank holidays, increasing up to 33 days with long service
• Generous NHS pension and enhanced pay when you work unsocial hours
• Flexible and agile working opportunities
• Great maternity, paternity, and adoption support
• Wide range of supportive staff networks
• Health and wellbeing opportunities

If you would like to know more, please visit ourwebsite.

We encourage you to read the attached applicant guidance notes.

Sharing your data - As a data controller we may sometimes need to process your data to pursue our legitimate business interests, for example to request a survey from you (optional), to support the Trust's understanding of where you gained interest in working for the Trust.

Job responsibilities

For full details of the duties and criteria for the role please refer to the job description and person specification attached.

Person Specification

Skills & Abilities

• Highly developed and effective communication skills, both oral and written, including ability to communicate complex, highly personal and sensitive information
• Advanced ability to develop and maintain a therapeutic relationship and manage transference appropriately
• Ability to communicate effectively within the team and build good sound working relationships
• Good presentation and teaching skills, able to use multi‑media materials for both formal and large group situations and small informal settings
• Ability to use IT equipment, including the use of internet, to carry out literature searches for research purposes
• Ability to prioritise own work and deal with competing demands to work effectively
• Proven ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours
• Committed to promote patients rights, independence and choice e.g. through informed consent for interventions
• A commitment to the development of co‑ordinated psychological services within the Trust.
• Able to manage change through influence, persuasion and good interpersonal relationships.
• Able to think strategically; to consider the wider picture for developing specialist services long term and planning.

Knowledge

• Knowledge required specific to the role and clinical area
• Knowledge of working with a wide variety of patient groups across the full range of clinical severity and complexity, in a range of settings
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of Clinical or Counselling Psychology
• Strategic planning, development and commissioning of psychological services within and across organisation

Additional Criteria

• Able to meet the travel requirements of the post
• Record of having published research/review papers in peer reviews, academic, or professional journals, and/or books

Qualifications

• BSc/BA Honours degree at 2:1 or above in psychology.
• Post‑graduate doctorate in Clinical/Counselling Psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS)
• Post‑graduate level or above training and qualification in NHS leadership/management or equivalent leadership/
• Eligible for registration as a Chartered Psychologist (Clinical or Counselling) by the BPS
• Registered with the Health and Care Professions Council as a Clinical/Counselling Psychologist
• I understand that I will be asked to provide original certificates to verify my qualifications at point of offer.

Experience

• Experience required specific to the role and clinical area
• Experience in developing research and development programmes within psychology therapy services
• Experience in teaching and training of trainee and post‑qualification psychological therapists, and of non‑psychological staff
• NHS/Leadership experience managing or providing professional leadership to a range of qualified psychological therapy staff (including recruitment, appraisal, performance management and clinical supervision)
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for the application of multi‑theoretical psychological assessment, intervention and evaluation with a range of common and complex mental health needs
• Experience working within multidisciplinary services
• Experience of representing psychological services in local and regional policy forums
• Experience of influence at strategic levels within and outside the organisation
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework
• Experience in leading in multidisciplinary services

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.

Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust

Address

Hereford City Neighbourhood Mental Health Team

Hereford City Neighbourhood Mental Health Team