Consultant Psychologist and Clinical Lead

NHS; Margate; On-site; GBP 76,000 - 89,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading mental health service provider in England is seeking a Consultant Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to lead the Clinical Lead for Older Adult Acute Psychological Therapies Services. Responsibilities include providing professional leadership in psychological practice for older adults with severe mental health challenges and ensuring high-quality service delivery. The ideal candidate will have a minimum of six years’ experience and will work within a multidisciplinary team. A competitive salary and opportunities for ongoing professional development are available.

Benefits

Training opportunities

Generous annual leave

Pension scheme

Qualifications

• Minimum six years experience as a psychologist/psychotherapist in the NHS.
• Experience with clinical supervision in this area.
• Experience in multidisciplinary teams providing clinical leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead psychological practice for older adults on inpatient wards.
• Provide expert consultation and professional guidance.
• Participate in KMMH senior manager on-call rota.

Skills

Complex communication skills

Multi-factorial clinical information analysis

Knowledge of mental health legislation

Workload management

IT proficiency

Education

Relevant postgraduate qualifications

Job description

Job Summary

We are excited to recruit to a full time Band 8c Consultant Clinical/Counselling Psychologist or Psychotherapist to take on the Clinical Lead for Older Adult Acute Psychological Therapies Services across Kent and Medway.

The role will be responsible for leading the safe and effective psychological practice across the older adult psychiatric wards, and leading an expert range of psychological practitioners.

These inpatient services consist of a team of psychological practitioners of different disciplines providing a comprehensive and multidisciplinary service to older adults across different wards in Kent and Medway.

This is an increasingly well established team of clinicians that has consistently attracted new, innovative and dedicated staff. As such the post holder will benefit from leading a highly regarded range of older adult experts.

We have strong links with the South Thames Clinical Psychology Training Centre, attached to Canterbury Christ Church University, and offer training placements to clinical trainees as well as other Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy training courses. These links also provide access to a variety of post-qualification training courses and events.

The post holder must hold a full, valid, UK driving licence and have access to a car/vehicle to use for business purposes (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010).

Main duties of the job

To provide professional and clinical leadership in the provision of Psychological Practice to older adults with severe and enduring mental health difficulties on inpatient psychiatric wards, within the localities served by Kent & Medway Mental Health Trust.

In Particular:

• To ensure the planning and development of a strategic response to service need, interpreting professional policies and ensuring that the service operates at the highest level of quality and current best practice and taking a major role in the development and implementation of policy for the service system as a whole.
• To provide clinical services at a high level of expertise, supporting and advising colleagues on all issues concerned with psychological practice and providing expert clinical consultation and professional guidance to other psychological practitioners and MDT staff.
• To lead on psychological practice in the Service.
• The post holder will be expected to participate in the KMMH senior manager on call rota.

About Us

We are the Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. We care for the mental health and wellbeing of people across Kent and Medway. Our teams support adults with a wide range of mental health needs. Because we cover the whole county and both hospital and community settings, we can make care more joined up and easier to access for the 1.8 million people of Kent and Medway. We care for over 2,000 people in our hospitals and 54,000 in the community each year.

Our vision is simple: We are here to help communities not just live with mental illness, but live well. It's why we're passionate about working with communities to make mental health care better for everyone. And everything we do is guided by our values caring, inclusive, curious and confident.

Join us - if you share our passion for better mental health care and want to be part of a team that's doing well together.

Take a look at our Consultant Clinical Forensic Psychologist Video and Clinical Associate Psychologist Video.

Details

Date posted 02 February 2026

Pay scheme Agenda for change

Band Band 8c

Salary £76,965 to £88,682 a year per annum

Contract Permanent

Working pattern Full-time

Reference number 380-AC0767-A

Job locations QEQM - Ramsgate / Kent wide; Sevenscore Inpatient ward, QEQM - Ramsgate; Margate; CT9 4BG

Job Description

Job responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description for the full details on the responsibilities and person specification

We are serious about diversity and inclusion, and we are working hard to build this into our DNA. We warmly welcome applications for any of our roles from people from diverse backgrounds, and we are proactively encouraging applications from under-represented communities for our more senior roles, like this one.

Person Specification

Essential

Knowledge and Skills

• Ability to comprehend and communicate verbally and in writing highly complex and sensitive information in a manner appropriate to a range of settings and audiences, including complex highly emotive situations and those with significantly impaired communication capacities.
• Ability to analyse and manage complex multi-factorial clinical information from a range of sources integrating it into a formulation utilising a variety of psychological perspectives.
• Knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group and mental health.
• Ability to organise own workload effectively, prioritising a complex range of tasks and responsibilities to meet agreed deadlines.
• Adequate keyboard skills and sound understanding of IT packages

Desirable

• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies

Training, Qualifications and Registration

• Achieved grade will refer to JD depending if Psychologists or Psychotherapists

Desirable

• Achieved grade

Experience

• Experience working as a qualified specialist psychologist / psychotherapist for a minimum of six years in the NHS, including substantial post-qualification experience within the speciality where the post is located.
• Experience of minimum of 100 hours specialist clinical supervision in this area of practice
• Experience of providing supervision on psychological work to MDT staff & psychological practitioners.
• Experience of working successfully in a multi-disciplinary team context, providing clinical leadership and promoting effective team working.
• Experience of managing applied/assistant psychologists and psychological therapists
• Experience of facilitating reflective practice, post incident debriefs and complex case discussions

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.

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 Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust

Address QEQM - Ramsgate / Kent wide; Sevenscore Inpatient ward, QEQM - Ramsgate; Margate; CT9 4BG

Employer's website https://www.kentmedwaymentalhealth.nhs.uk