Practitioner Psychologist or Psychological Therapist

Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust; Stansted Mountfitchet; On-site; GBP 46,000 - 61,000; Part time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking organization dedicated to mental health and community care, where you will play a vital role as a Practitioner Psychologist or Psychological Therapist. This exciting opportunity allows you to work with a supportive team, delivering evidence-based psychological interventions to empower individuals facing complex mental health challenges. You'll be part of a dynamic environment that values care, learning, and empowerment, contributing to the well-being of the community. If you're passionate about making a difference and have the skills to support those in need, this role is perfect for you.

Benefits

Season Ticket Loans

NHS discounts for staff

Excellent Training facilities

Buying and Selling annual leave scheme

Flexible working options

Salary Sacrifice schemes

Qualifications

• Doctorate or equivalent qualification required for psychologists.
• Experience with complex mental health issues is essential.

Responsibilities

• Assess service users with complex needs and deliver psychological interventions.
• Provide consultation and training for staff and supervise trainees.

Skills

Therapeutic relationship building

Assessment and formulation

NICE approved interventions

Risk assessment and management

Education

Doctorate in Psychology

Postgraduate training in specialized areas

Tools

DBT

CBT

CAT

EMDR

Job description

Practitioner Psychologist or Psychological Therapist

Band 8a

Main area: Psychologist or Psychological Therapist
Grade: Band 8a
Contract: 12 months (Fixed term or secondment)
Hours:

• Part time
• Flexible working
• Compressed hours

30 hours per week (Weekday working pattern, days to suit.)
Job ref: 364-A-8567

Site: Western House
Town: Stansted Mountfitchet, Stansted
Salary: £46,148 - £60,504 per annum pro rata
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 12/01/2025 23:59

About Us

EPUT provides community health, mental health and learning disability services to support more than 3.2 million people living across Bedfordshire, Essex, and Suffolk.

• We are among the largest employers in the East of England region, with more than 10,000 staff working across more than 200 sites.
• We run the COVID-19 vaccination programme across mid and south Essex and Suffolk and north east Essex.

EPUT was formed on 1 April 2017 following the merger of North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (NEP) and South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (SEPT).

Our vision and values

Our Vision
“To be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care.”

Our Purpose
“We care for people every day. What we do together, matters.”

Our Values

• We Care
• We Empower

Our strategic objectives

• We will deliver safe, high-quality integrated care services.
• We will enable each other to be the best that we can.
• We will work together with our partners to make our services better.
• We will help our communities to thrive.

Job overview

We have an exciting opportunity for a Practitioner Psychologist or a Psychological Therapist to join our supportive and highly skilled team of psychologists in West Essex. The post is based in the Uttlesford Specialist Adult Community Mental Health Services based at Stansted Mountfitchet (Essex).

This post is available at Band 7 or Band 8a level dependent on experience. We welcome applications from qualified or soon-to-be qualified Psychological Therapists with experience of working with complex mental health issues to join us at Band 7. We would also consider a final year Trainee Counselling Psychologist, appointed at Band 6 until HCPC registered.

Main duties of the job

Working alongside an experienced psychologist, you will be responsible for assessing service users presenting with complex needs, formulating their difficulties to help them and MDT colleagues better understand how their difficulties are impacting on their life. You will be responsible for delivering NICE-recommended psychological interventions for chronic conditions such as emotionally unstable personality disorder, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, and depression, aiming to promote social inclusion and empower service users within their mental health recovery. You will also provide consultation and training for staff and others, and may offer placement and supervision for a trainee, assistant, and undergraduate student depending on your level of experience.

We employ a trauma-informed consultation approach to support MDT colleagues to actively engage clients in safety and stabilisation work to enable them to make effective use of more formal psychological interventions/therapies.

Within Psychology Services in West Essex, we have specialist skills and training in a variety of areas and approaches, including CAT, CBT, CBTp, DBT, EMDR, Schema Therapy, and Trauma-Informed approaches.

Working for our organisation

EPUT are looking for motivated staff who share our Trust values of Care, Learn, and Empower. In return, EPUT can offer you a range of benefits and development including:

• Season Ticket Loans
• NHS discounts for staff
• Excellent Training facilities and opportunities
• Buying and Selling annual leave scheme
• The opportunity to work bank shifts and expand knowledge and experience in other areas
• Salary Sacrifice schemes including lease cars and Cycle to Work
• Day One Flexible Employer

The Trust supports and actively encourages flexible working for all employees. We offer many options and you are encouraged to ask the recruiting manager what is possible for this role. If appointed, you will have the opportunity to apply for a flexible working request from the first day of your employment.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To work as an integral member of the Adult Community Psychology Service in West Essex, being primarily based within the Uttlesford locality Specialist Community Mental Health Service (MDT).
• To provide verbal and written formulations that aid clinical interventions for service users presenting with highly complex problems, their families and carers, and other professionals.
• To formulate and deliver plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of service users’ mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the service user’s problems, and to practice within the context of evidence-based approaches and the overall therapeutic approach/ philosophy of the service.
• To plan, manage, and prioritise own caseload.
• To conduct risk assessment and risk management of service users on your caseload and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk, including safeguarding.
• To attend MDT meetings to provide guidance or advice and to contribute to clinical discussion about service users of the team.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Doctorate or equivalent or in final year for psychologist
• Qualification with accredited body e.g. ACAT, BABCP, DBT level 4/5, or working towards it
• HCPC Registered or working towards it (psychologists only)
• Postgraduate training in specialised areas of practice

Experience

• Experience of working with complex presentations
• Experience of assessment and formulation
• Experience of planning and delivering NICE approved interventions
• Experience of working in NHS
• Previous experience of providing supervision

Skills

• Skilled at creating therapeutic relationships with service users

Please note - staff who are formally at risk within the organisation will be given priority in securing alternative employment. Should it come to light that a post being advertised by the Trust is considered ‘suitable alternative employment’ to an individual who is at risk, the recruiting manager will be advised and the post will be withdrawn from NHS Jobs.

Important Professional References

Make sure that as a part of your application you have professional references with business contact information covering your last three year employment history. We are unable to accept personal or character references.

As a newly appointed employee, you are responsible for incurring the cost of your initial DBS check relevant to your post, the amount will be deducted from your first salary with the Trust.

Applications for Job Share are positively welcomed.

Our Trust is an Equal Opportunities Employer. We particularly welcome applications from people with experience of using mental health services. We also hold the Disability two tick symbol and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with learning disabilities; we encourage people with a disability to apply.

The Trust has the right to expire vacancies prior to the closing date if they so wish. The Trust makes every attempt to contact all applicants and we strongly advise that you check the email account which is registered with NHS Jobs regularly. We would advise however due to the high number of applications we receive that if you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults, and expect all staff to undertake this commitment. Applicants will be subject to robust safer recruitment processes.

Come and work at EPUT and make a difference in people’s lives.