Consultant Psychologist Clinical Lead

Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust; Margate; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading NHS Trust in mental health is seeking a full-time Consultant Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to lead the Older Adult Acute Psychological Therapies Services. Responsibilities include maintaining high standards of psychological practice, team leadership, and clinical consultation. Candidates should possess a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology or equivalent, relevant experience working with older adults, and a valid UK driving license. Opportunities for professional development and training placements are available. Join a dedicated team contributing to mental health care across Kent and Medway.

Qualifications

• Experience in providing psychological services to older adults.
• Must hold a full, valid UK driving license.
• Ability to lead and develop clinical teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead psychological practice across inpatient psychiatric wards.
• Ensure high quality and best practice in psychological services.
• Participate in the senior manager on-call rota.

Skills

Clinical leadership

Psychological practice expertise

Interpersonal communication

Multidisciplinary teamwork

Education

Doctorate in Clinical Psychology or equivalent

Job description

Please note, at this stage, the role is open only to internal staff (including NHSP and Agency staff currently on placement within our organisation) and staff substantively employed within Kent and Medway NHS Trusts and the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB). Any individual who is at risk of redundancy will be given priority, provided they meet the essential criteria.

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).

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.

Responsibilities

• 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.
• 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.
• Lead on psychological practice in the Service.
• 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

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

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.

Videos

Take a look at our Consultant Clinical Forensic Psychologist Video

Take a look at our Clinical Associate Psychologist Video

Diversity & Inclusion

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.

This advert closes on Friday 23 Jan 2026