Highly Specialist Clinical Forensic Psychologist

West London NHS Trust; Southall; On-site; GBP 59,000 - 67,000; Full time

Job summary

An excellent opportunity at West London NHS Trust for a Highly Specialist Clinical Forensic Psychologist passionate about working with women in secure care. The role offers full-time flexible working, with responsibilities in a multi-disciplinary team, and opportunities for continued professional development within a leading mental health organization.

Qualifications

• Post-graduate level training required.
• Experience in forensic settings is essential.
• Knowledge of trauma treatment and personality disorders preferred.

Responsibilities

• Provide high-quality psychology services to female low and medium secure wards.
• Develop and implement psychologically-informed treatments.
• Engage in audit, training, and collaborative unit management activities.

Skills

Interpersonal Skills

Communication Skills

Judgement Skills

Organisation Skills

Crisis Management

Research Design Knowledge

Cultural Sensitivity

Education

Good honours degree in Psychology

Post-graduate doctorate in clinical/forensic/counseling psychology

Registration with the Health and Care Professions Council

Tools

SPSS

Job description

Use the job search to find and apply for roles using keywords or look at the roles listed below.

Highly Specialist Clinical Forensic Psychologist

Band 8a

Main area St Bernard's Hospital Grade Band 8a Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 222-SF-630

Site St Bernard's Hospital Town Ealing Salary £59,490 - £66,239 per annum inclusive Salary period Yearly Closing 19/06/2025 23:59 Interview date 03/07/2025

West London NHS Trust provides a full range of mental health, community and physical healthcare services for children, adults and older people living in the London boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow.

We also provide some specialist services that are commissioned regionally, such as our medium secure services; and nationally, such as the Cassel Hospital for people with complex and severe personality disorder and our high secure services at Broadmoor Hospital.

Job overview

An excellent opportunity for a Clinical or Forensic Psychologist, who is passionate about working with women in secure care, to join the Women’s Forensic Service at West London NHS Trust. This is a full-time post (1.0wte) but part-time or flexible working may also be considered. This is an 8a post but can be appointed to as a band 7/8a preceptorship.

West London NHS Trust provides a broad range of forensic mental health care across high/medium/low security and community settings. The Orchard Unit is a purpose built women-only medium/low secure unit, with an emphasis on relational security. It provides 35 medium and 15 low secure beds. It is the country’s largest NHS provider of women’s secure services. You will work within the Low / Medium secure wards with a warm, supportive and experienced Multi-Disciplinary Team. We actively promote CPD with opportunities to develop specialist skills, engage in research and encourage working within our large group of psychological professionals.

Main duties of the job

You will be responsible for providing a high quality psychology service to a female low secure ward (15 beds) and a medium secure ward (5 beds). As such you’ll be able to utilise varied skills in assessment, formulation and group and individual evidence-based intervention tailored to meet the challenging needs of the inpatient client group. As a key member of the MDT, you will be responsible for developing and implementing psychologically informed treatment for a very diverse group of female service users who are detained in medium and low secure settings, who are mentally disordered offenders with severe and enduring mental disorders (both mental illness and personality disorder) and serious forensic histories and have a wide range of psychiatric, psychological and criminological problems and extremely complex needs.

As well as direct clinical work the role will involve service development and audit, staff training / supervision and frequent collaborative working within the psychological therapies department and with MDT colleagues.

Working for our organisation

West London NHS Trust is one of the most diverse healthcare providers in the UK, delivering a range of mental health and physical healthcare and community services. The Trust runs Broadmoor Hospital, one of three high secure hospitals in the country, with an international reputation.

Our high secure services care for patients from South of England and we provide low and medium secure services across eight London boroughs. The Trust also provides mental and physical healthcare in three London boroughs (Ealing, Hounslow and Hammersmith & Fulham). We employ over 5,000 staff, of whom 59% are BME. Our turnover for 2024-25 is over £500m.

The Trust is rated as ‘Good’ overallby the Care Quality Commission. Forensic services are rated as ‘Outstanding’.

The Trust is an established partner and contributor in the development of the evolving North West London Integrated Care System and the Integrated Care Board. The Trust leads the NW London Children and Adolescent Mental Health provider collaborative.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Candidate Pack provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge required. Please view as attached

The person specification below is not the full person specification, but outlines the criteria against which your application form will be assessed.

Person specification

Skills

• Able to provide and receive highly complex, highly sensitive or highly contentious information, where there are significant barriers to acceptance which need to be overcome using the highest level of interpersonal and communication skills such as would be required when communicating in a hostile, antagonistic or highly emotive atmosphere
• Able to make judgements involving highly complex facts or situations, which require the evaluation of a range of options (e.g. the assessment of specialist clinical conditions and the determination of treatment options), Where expert opinions may differ
• Able to plan, prioritise and organise own service user caseload, treatment programmes (individual or group) involving other staff, and other aspects of the work such as research activity
• Post-graduate level knowledge of research design and methodology
• Able to maintain intense concentration frequently and for prolonged periods with unpredictable patients (e.g. in the assessment and treatment of mentally disordered offender patients)
• Able to function in potentially traumatic circumstances and in highly emotionally distressing circumstances on a frequent basis (e.g. in dealing with patients with serious mental illness, histories of homicide and serious violence, self-harm, sexual abuse)
• Able to provide services in environments with patients who are disturbed and sometimes violent and where the awareness of the risk of assault must always be maintained
• Able to “hold” the stress of patients compulsorily detained in a secure hospital
• Able to respond adaptably to rapidly changing service demands
• Knowledge of SPSS

Qualifications

• Good honours degree (2:i minimum) in Psychology. Eligibility for graduate membership of BPS.
• Post-graduate doctorate in clinical / forensic / counselling psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996 or those in lateral transfer) as accredited by the BPS.
• Registration with the Health and Care Professions Council
• Other related academic qualifications
• Training in clinical supervision for Doctoral, and equivalent, trainees
• Evidence of post-doctoral training in psychological therapy techniques

Experience

• Experience of working as a qualified (specialist) psychologist for a minimum of one year in a forensic clinical setting or equivalent (or some experience of working clinically in a forensic service or similar if applying for a Band 7 preceptorship)
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience of having facilitated/co-facilitated psychological therapy groups
• Experience of working clinically with female service users in secure settings
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of administration, scoring and written interpretation of formal personality tools and/or neuropsychological assessments

Knowledge

• Advanced specialist knowledge, both theoretical and practical, of psychology applied to forensic clinical practice
• Completion of at least 1 year’s supervised practice in specialist forensic clinical practice (or approximately 6 months for Band 7)
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and its implications for work with mentally disordered offenders
• Specialist knowledge of the assessment and treatment of trauma.
• Specialist theoretical and practical knowledge of the assessment and treatment of personality disorder and mental illness.

As an employee of West London NHS Trust, you have a responsibility to maintain a sound understanding of, and a commitment to uphold the National Health Service values and principles set out in the NHS Constitution.

We reserve the right to close adverts prior to the closing date stated should we receive a high volume of applications.

By applying for this post you are agreeing to West London NHS Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job, you will be required to undergo a pre-employment checks which can take between 4-8 weeks . After which your information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system (ESR ).

Please ensure you include email addresses for your referees which MUST be at supervisory or managerial capacity covering the last 3 years of employment to date to avoid delay in the recruitment process.

West London NHS Trust is committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We encourage the thoughtful use of technology as a demonstration of strong time management and a commitment to innovation. However, we encourage applicants to personalise their recruitment application to showcase their unique skills and experiences.

While AI-generated content can be a helpful tool, relying solely on generic responses instead of highlighting your own strengths and achievements may impact the success of your application. The success of an application will always be assessed against the essential and desirable criteria for the role, so it is important to ensure that your application and any supporting information clearly demonstrate how you meet these requirements.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

At West London NHS Trust, we want you to support you to build a career you can be proud of and this starts before your first day with us. Our people live our values every day as they deliver, manage and work to improve our services to patients, carers, families and other professionals.

We’re committed to making our recruitment process clear and efficient. It’s in everyone’s interest that we get the very best people on board as soon as we can.