Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust; City of Westminster; On-site; GBP 66,000 - 73,000; Full time

Job summary

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust in Westminster is seeking a Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist to join the Perinatal Mental Health Service. You will provide specialist psychological assessments and evidence-based interventions for women in the perinatal period, adapting approaches for mothers and infants and delivering both individual and group work in community settings.

Working within a multidisciplinary team, you will contribute to assessment, formulation, risk

Qualifications

• Eligible for Graduate membership of BPS with a good honours degree.
• Post-graduate doctorate in Clinical or Counselling Psychology and HCPC registration.
• Eligibility for chartered status with the BPS and ongoing CPD.

Responsibilities

• Provide highly specialist psychological assessments of women referred to PMHS.
• Formulate and implement plans for formal psychological treatment across the perinatal period.
• Develop and deliver evidence-based treatments for severe perinatal disorders and parent–infant relationships.
• Exercise autonomous professional responsibility for assessment, treatment and discharge of clients.
• Lead professional role coordinating care and supervising MDT members.

Skills

Interpersonal communication

Assessment & therapy skills

Clinical consultation

Supervision skills

Risk assessment & management

Education

Bachelor degree in Psychology 2:1 or above

Post-graduate doctorate in Clinical or Counselling Psychology

HCPC registration as Practitioner Psychologist

Eligibility for chartered status with BPS

Commitment to CPD & supervision

Job description

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist

The closing date is 16 November 2026

The post-holder will work as a member of the multidisciplinary team within the Westminster Perinatal Mental Health Service, providing specialist psychological assessment and evidence-based interventions for women experiencing a range of mental health, social and emotional difficulties during the perinatal period. Interventions will be adapted to the needs of women and their infants and will include individual and group-based work within the community.

The post-holder will contribute psychological perspectives to assessment, formulation, care planning and risk management, and provide specialist advice and consultation to MDT colleagues and the wider professional network. They will also provide appropriate support and signposting to families and carers.

Working autonomously within professional guidelines and service policies, the post-holder will participate in team meetings, case discussions and reflective practice, and contribute to the development of effective, recovery-oriented models of care.

The post-holder will work closely with relevant local services, including maternity, Talking Therapies, mental health and children's social care services, to support coordinated and seamless care pathways.

They will contribute to service development, audit and research relevant to perinatal mental health, and provide shared clinical supervision to trainee and Band 7 psychologists and other professionals.

Main duties of the job

To provide highly specialist psychological assessments of women referred

to the PMHS and meeting criteria for specialist perinatal psychological interventions. The specialist assessment will be based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources, including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client's care. The assessments will also include a formal evaluation of the parent infant relationship within the family/social network.

To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client's mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client's problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.

To be responsible for developing and delivering evidence-based treatment protocol for severe and complex psychological disorders occurring in the perinatal period (e.g. severe maternal OCD, depression, anxiety, medically unexplained symptoms) and, when appropriate, for parent-infant relationship disturbances (e.g. Video Interactive Guidance). Adjusting and refining psychological formulations, drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

About us

Our vision

Wellbeing for life: We work in partnership with all who use our services to improve health and wellbeing. Together we look at ways of improving an individual's quality of life, throughhigh qualityhealthcare and personal support.

Our values

Compassion: Our staff will be led by compassion and embody the values of care outlined in our Staff Charter.

Respect: We will respect and value the diversity of our patients, serviceusersand staff, to create a respectful and inclusive environment, whichrecognisesthe uniqueness ofeach individual.

Empowerment: We will involve,informand empower our patients, service users,carersand their families to take an active role in the management of their illness and adopt recovery principles.We will ensure our staff receiveappropriate directionand support, to enable them to develop and grow.

Partnership: We will work closely with our many partners to ensure that our combined efforts are focused on achieving the best possible outcomes for the people we serve.

Job responsibilities

To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both: Theoretical and therapeutic models.

Highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans ensuring appropriate assessment, formulation and intervention communicating with the referral agents and others involved with the care on a regular basis.

To develop and provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan in accordance with NICE guidelines and evidence-based practice.

To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care, to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.

To act as a Lead Professional, including for cases when initial comprehensive assessments are carried out by the post holder, ensuring the provision of a care package appropriate for the clients needs, co-ordinating the work of others involved with care, arranging clients care reviews as required and communicating effectively with the client, her family and all others involved in care; and to monitor progress during the course of multi-disciplinary interventions.

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management in line with Trust and inter-agency policies and procedures with the aim of overall risk reduction.

To ensure that practice operates within the adult and children safeguarding frameworks.

To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.

To provide expertise, advice and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the treatment team.

To provide comprehensive psychological reports and to carry out psychological testing as required by the service or the courts.

To attend and contribute to appropriate MDT meetings within the Perinatal service.

To assist in the coordination and running of therapeutic groups, if the service model has capacity for this.

Person Specification

TRAINING & QUALIFICATIONS

• Good Honours degree in Psychology (2.1 or above) giving eligibility for Graduate membership of BPS.
• Post-graduate doctorate in Clinical or Counselling Psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996 or those in lateral transfer) as accredited by the BPS and giving eligibility for membership of the Health Care Professionals Council (HCPC).
• The post holder must be registered with HCPC as a Practitioner Psychologist
• The post holder must be eligible for chartered status with the BPS.
• In addition to routine CPD and supervision, has demonstrated a clear commitment to developing a specialist area of expertise through significant training, personal study, experience, and/or research, as evidenced by CPD log, appraised during IPR/PDR process.
• Experience of working with adults with complex mental health problems.
• Experience of working with perinatal presentations.
• Experience of working with families impacted by mental health
• Experience of working with trauma, loss and grief
• Trained in EMDR/ trauma focused CBT.

KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS

• Very high level of interpersonal and communication skills enabling written and oral presentation and receipt of complex and sensitive information, to facilitate acceptance, and relate effectively in an emotive and hostile environment.
• Assessment and therapeutic skills related to complex and severe Mental Health Problems.
• Ability to provide consultation to other non-psychology colleagues, and teaching and training skills.
• Skills developed through formal training in supervision of other psychologists.
• Demonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received substantial supervision whilst working as a clinical psychologist. (This would equate to 50 hours of clinical supervision over a minimum of 18 months.)
• Ability to make judgements in complex clinical situations through assessment, analysis and interpretation of information and deciding on appropriate action from a range of options.
• Ability to plan and organise tasks, activities, or programmes and adapt these to changing needs and circumstances.
• Ability to prioritise complex work demands

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.

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

£66,274 to £73,496 a yearper annum inc HCAS (pro rata if P/T)