Highly Specialist Clinical or Counselling Psychologist - Aylesbury

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust; Aylesbury; On-site; GBP 62,000 - 73,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading organization is searching for a Senior Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to enhance the Urgent Care Pathway in Aylesbury. Successful candidates will provide high-quality psychological support to adults with severe mental health challenges while overseeing clinical best practices. Enjoy supportive multidisciplinary teams and opportunities for personal and professional growth.

Benefits

27 days annual leave plus bank holidays

Access to tailored learning and development opportunities

NHS discounts across various retailers

Employee Assistance Programme

Mental Health First Aiders

Qualifications

• Doctoral level knowledge of complex data analysis in clinical psychology.
• Accreditation with BABCP or similar body is essential.
• Extensive experience working with complex mental health issues.

Responsibilities

• Lead clinical practice within the Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team.
• Conduct specialized psychological assessments and interventions.
• Supervise and support junior psychologists and support staff.

Skills

Clinical Leadership

Psychological Assessment

Team Supervision

Research Skills

Complex Case Management

Education

Doctoral level training in Clinical or Counselling psychology

HCPC registration or BABCP accreditation

Job description

Highly Specialist Clinical or Counselling Psychologist - Aylesbury

Band 8b

Main area Psychology Grade Band 8b Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 267-BM7254685

Site Whiteleaf Centre Town Aylesbury Salary £62,215 - £72,293 Per annum | Pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 26/06/2025 23:59 Interview date 18/07/2025

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has been rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

We are a responsive and innovative Foundation Trust that places our values of Caring, Safe and Excellent at the heart of everything we do. We take great pride in our staff and believe that investing in you is key to us achieving our vision of outstanding care delivered by outstanding people.

We work with a wide range of partner organisations to deliver care and support to people in their own homes and from a number of hospitals and community bases. We focus on delivering care as close to home as possible for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.

We actively support anti-racism, equality, diversity, and inclusion so, if you’re excited about this job opportunity and you meet our Trust values, but feel unsure about applying, then please get in touch and we will be happy to have a conversation with you.

We are also committed to increasing diversity in the workforce, that is why we actively encourage applications from those groups of people who are currently under-represented, which include amongst others: people with disabilities; men from all socio-economic backgrounds; people from diverse ethnic backgrounds; and people from the LGBTQIA+ community.

Good luck and we hope to hear from you.

Job overview

We're recruiting a Senior Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to join our friendly, skilled, and developing Urgent Care Pathway in Buckinghamshire.

Working clinically within the Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team (CRHTT). You will be based in Aylesbury but may be requested to support service users alongside the High Wycombe team.

You will be expected to provide direct interventions including Assessment and Formulation and Brief Psychological Therapy, and Indirect Interventions supporting the Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team. There may be scope for you to embark upon slightly longer courses of Intervention if that would more effectively prepare service users to access the next stage of their psychological therapy pathway.

The role will require you to work with service users directly face to face and support psychosocial intervention work of colleagues and as the Senior Psychologist you will be supporting service users in a crucial point in their lives. This is a rewarding and creative role, one which has the potential to have a significant positive impact on a person’s life.

Main duties of the job

• Clinical Leadership: Provide clinical leadership within the Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team (CRHTT), ensuring model fidelity and best practice adoption
• Psychological Assessment and Intervention: Conduct highly specialised psychological assessments and interventions for adults with severe and/or complex mental health difficulties
• Supervision and Support: Supervise and support assistant psychologists, doctoral trainees, and other clinical team members in providing psychologically based care and treatment
• Service Development: Develop, coordinate, and ensure the systematic provision of a psychological service to theBuckinghamshire Crisis Resolution and Psychiatric Liaison teams
• Research and Governance: Utilise research skills for audit, policy, service development, and propose policy changes impacting the team

The ability to travel independently between sites within the Trust is essential for this role.

Working for our organisation

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust provides physical, mental health and social care for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.

Our services are delivered at community bases, hospitals, clinics and people’s homes, delivering care as close to home as possible

Our vision is that no matter who you are or where you are, you will tell us that you receive:“Outstanding care delivered by an outstanding team”

Our values are:“Caring, safe and excellent”

At Oxford Health we offer a wide range of benefits designed to support your career and wellbeing. These include:

• Excellent opportunities for career progression
• Access to tailored individual and Trust wide learning and development
• 27 days annual leave, plus bank holidays, rising to 33 days with continuous service
• NHS Discount across a wide range of shops, restaurants and retailers
• Lease car scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Mental Health First Aiders
• Staff accommodation (please note waiting lists may apply)
• Staff networking and support groups hosted by our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion tea

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The teams have regular reflective practice and supportive, open cultures. As a member of the team, you will work closely with colleagues in our CMHTs and in-patient teams and play an important role in developing the crisis psychology pathway within Buckinghamshire Mental Health Services.

You will join our established, friendly and supportive multi-disciplinary teams which are part of the wider Buckinghamshire Urgent Care Services. We provide a wide range of evidence-based and innovative psychological therapies. The post will be attractive to clinical or counselling psychologists with a track record in working with people with acute and/or complex mental health problems.

You will receive expert clinical supervision and will have access to a wide range of CPD activities. There are excellent opportunities for service development, service evaluation/research and teaching/training.

We look forward to receiving your application if you have skills in delivering therapy to this client group, evidence of significant knowledge in your specialist therapy area, sound clinical risk assessment and management skills, experience of safeguarding children and vulnerable adults, experience and enthusiasm to work collaboratively with colleagues in the wider mental health system and a desire to play a positive and proactive role within the Urgent Care Pathway as a colleague and clinical supervisor and as part of the leadership team.

The post is based at The Whiteleaf Centre and Stoke Mandeville Hospitals in Aylesbury, both of which are easily accessible by road and public transport and within walking distance of the town centre.

Please note if you are based outside of the UK you will need to hold HCPC registration in order to be considered for this role.

Person specification

Knowledge

• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health
• Knowledge of working with complex patients in time-limited therapies
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of different, specialised psychological therapies and how they are used for patients with severe and complex presentations

Qualifications

• Doctoral level training in Clinical or Counselling psychology, or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996, as accredited by the British Psychological Society, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology
• Accreditation with accrediting body such as BABCP, ACAT or SfDBT
• HCPC registration or BABCP accreditation
• Pre-qualification training and qualifications or experience in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology

Experience

• Extensive experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course with presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity
• Experience of working with people with severe and/or complex mental health difficulties
• Experience of working in Mental Health services in an NHS setting working closely with others as part of a multidisciplinary team
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts
• Experience of working as part of a leadership team
• Experience of line managing other staff
• All new starters have a thorough induction process, both local and Trust wide, which aims to create a positive supportive working environment allowing new employees to learn key elements of their role over a reasonable timescale.
• Appointment to this post is subject to the trust receiving satisfactory references covering 3 years of employment or study. Please ask your referees to respond promptly to reference requests.
• We’re advocates of flexible working and many of our roles offer a range of employment options to help you balance your work and personal life.
• Employees are expected to undertake mandatory and statutory training related to their role.
• We are ambitious in our pursuit of excellence, driven by the belief that a fair, just and fully inclusive organisational culture enables our teams to deliver the best quality of care and services possible and we work hard to ensure that our diverse workforce reflects the communities that we serve.
• We welcome applications from all sections of the community, are an Equal Opportunities employer with a number of internal networking groups to support our employees and where possible will always look to make reasonable adjustments in order that you can fulfil the role to recognise your full potential. All our employees are committed to demonstrating through their behaviour our core values – safe, caring and excellent.
• We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, we expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
• Oxford is a world-renowned centre of excellence for research. Oxford Health works closely with the University of Oxford department of Psychiatry and the Department of Primary care, has a Biomedical Research Centre dedicated to improving mental health and the NIHR Clinical Research Facility at the Warneford site. The Trust also hosts the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) which carries out applied research that directly impacts patient health and wellbeing

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

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.

Name Shazma Thabusom Job title Consultant Clinical Psychologist Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 07999150565 Additional information

At Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, we want to employ people not just with experience, but with the aptitude and motivation to succeed and whose values resonate with our own.

Therefore, if you don’t meet all the requirements of the role and are unsure about applying but are excited about the opportunity, please do get in touch. We will be happy to discuss the requirements in more detail ahead of making a written application.

We would welcome speaking with you, feel free to make contact for enquiries please call Dr Shazma Thabusom, Consultant Clinical Psychologist on 07999 150565.

If you are considering a career change and don’t know which role would be suitable for you, please visit the NHS careers website to discover which of our 350 roles might be right for you.

All of our current vacancies can be found on our careers site and if you are interested in a role but unsure if it might be the right move for you, please do get in touch with the named contact listed at the bottom of the vacancy. This will give you the opportunity to have an informal discussion about your suitability prior to making a formal application.

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