Practitioner Psychologist, Psychotherapist & Psychological Therapist

www.healthjobsuk.com - jobboard; London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 81,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading NHS Trust in London is seeking a Practitioner Psychologist to deliver specialist psychological services to families impacted by parental mental health. This position involves clinical leadership, psychological assessment, and engaging with diverse communities to promote positive outcomes in mental health and parenting. Flexible working is available, making this role ideal for those seeking a supportive work-life balance.

Benefits

Flexible working hours

Professional development opportunities

Supportive team environment

Qualifications

• Recognized qualification in a core mental health profession.
• Entry-level qualification in psychological therapy.
• Registered with a professional body as appropriate.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate a specialist psychology service to families.
• Provide clinical leadership and supervision.
• Conduct systematic psychological assessments.

Skills

Clinical risk management

Psychological assessment

Engagement with families

Leadership

Education

Doctorate in Clinical Psychology or equivalent

Training in clinical supervision

Job description

Employer South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Michael Rutter Centre| Town London Salary £70,387 - £80,465 per annum incl. of HCAs pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 10/08/2025 23:59

Practitioner Psychologist, Psychotherapist & Psychological Therapist

NHS AfC: Band 8b

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.

We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’.

We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone’s potential as change makers.

The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role.We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.

Our Values

We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I’m going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you’ll be part of something special.

As a Trust we are happy to talk flexible working.

Job overview

• The Helping Families Team is a clinical team within the Centre for Parent and Child Support, which is part of SlaM’s National and Specialist CAMHS provision.
• The team work in partnership and across Adult, Perinatal and CAMHS Directorates
• The role will interest clinicians who are highly skilled and experienced at engaging with families who are impacted on by parental mental health and other stresses.
• The role involves the systematic and ecological assessment of parental mental health and the delivery of a range of specialist evidence-based parenting interventions developed in the Centre.
• You will take a senior role in providing clinical supervision to colleagues and providing expertise in the assessment and management of clinical risk, as well as providing guidance and leadership in regard to child and adult safeguarding.
• You will be a strong, compassionate and motivating leader and line-manager invested in work force development.
• You are required to take a leadership role in enabling staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.
• You will take a leadership role in the collection of routine outcomes, as well as the coordination of service evaluation, service development, intervention development and research.

Main duties of the job

• Coordination and systematic provision of a highly specialist psychology service to families impacted on by parental mental health.
• Ability to assess, manage and supervise clinical risk, and child and adult safeguarding
• Specialist psychological assessment of parental mental health and family functioning
• Highly skilled in the clinical application of the Helping Families Programme to families with complex presentations
• Confident and skilled in engaging with parents who are experiencing significant mental health difficulties and are likely to have had significant input from a range of services over a long period of time.
• Ability to create a supportive, connected, facilitative, influential and purposeful partnerships with families, colleagues and multi-agencies.
• Coordination and development of specialist peer-led parenting group interventions
• Regular and reflective clinical supervision to colleagues
• Service evaluation, audit and research

Working for our organisation

About our locations: Maudsley Hospital (headquarters)
The HFT are based in the Michael Rutter Centre on the Maudsley Hospital site. Our Trust headquarters is located at Denmark Hill less than 5 minutes from the train station (zone 2) and is within walking distance from the beautiful green spaces of Ruskin Park and the vibrant high-street that offers great shopping opportunities and with a wide range of restaurants. We provide services across the boroughs of Lambeth, Lewisham, Croydon and Southwark. (Due to move to the Pears Maudsley Children and Young People (PMCYP) at the Maudsley Hospital in early 2026)

Flexible working:
As one of the few Trusts in London we are proud to offer flexible working as part of our new ways of working, and we are happy to talk flexible working at the interview stage. In this role you will be able to work Monday to Friday in the time frames from 8am to 6pm giving you the very best of good work life balance. (This may include working early mornings, later evenings or Saturdays as part of the core working hours/working pattern for this post)

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• The Helping Families Team is a Parental Mental Health team. The service aims to disrupt the intergenerational transmission of mental illness and mental health challenges.
• To develop, co-ordinate and ensure the systematic provision of psychological assessment and intervention to a highly specialist parental mental health service and personally provide highly specialist clinical input.
• To provide clinical leadership in supporting the development of an innovative and evidence-based service to disrupt the intergenerational transmission of mental health challenges
• Clinical application and supervision of the Helping Families Programme, Being a Parent-Enjoying Family Life Group and Baby and Us-Perinatal, as well as other evidence-based interventions designed and disseminated within the Centre.
• The evidence-based interventions
• To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.
• To act as Deputy Lead Clinician, within HFT, taking responsibility for child and adult safeguarding and clinical risk management of families.
• To provide consultation to SLaM colleagues and multi-agency professionals and functioning as a lead specialist in parental mental health.
• To ensure that systems are in place and working effectively for the clinical and professional supervision and support of other psychologists and multi-disciplinary colleagues within the Helping Families Team and across the CPCS.
• Provision of professional training in the Helping Families Programme, Family Partnership Model and Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities group interventions.
• To undertake service evaluation, audit, research and policy development.
• To work as an autonomous professional within HCPC guidelines and professional codes of conduct, guided by principles and policies or procedures of the service, taking responsibility for interpreting policies within defined parameters.
• To agree outcomes/results with clinical/professional lead and to decide how they are best achieved.

Person specification

Qualifications

• To have undertaken a recognised qualification in one of the core mental health professions, e.g. psychiatric nursing, clinical psychology, medicine, social work and occupational therapy OR to have equivalent relevant experience and demonstrable competence to work in the mental health field in the NHS. (A/I)
• Entry-level qualification in applied psychological therapy/mental health/social welfare profession or equivalent and demonstrable practice in this field (professional Doctorate, or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level/supervised practice/additional training) that has been accepted for the purposes of professional registration. (A/I)
• Completed training course in clinical supervision and/or accredited to supervised qualified psychological practitioners in relevant discipline. (A/I/R)
• Registered with professional body as appropriate to discipline HCPC/ACP/BPC/UKCP/BACP/BABCP/ADMP-UK. (A/I)
• Training in delivery of Helping Families Programme; Family Partnership Model; Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities group interventions.

Experience

• Evidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision in parental mental health or areas that align with parental mental health (A/I)
• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature including mood disorders, Complex PTSD, Interpersonal difficulties and emotional dysregulation, psychosis, in the context of parenting. (A/I)
• Post-qualification experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities. (A/I)
• The Trust encourages and welcomes applications from people with lived experience of mental health challenges. We see this as valuable and recognise the positive impact this experience can have on the work we do. (A/I)
• Post-qualification experience of specialist assessment and intervention for adults with a range of mental health disorders (Psychosis; Mood disorders; Personality Disorders) and/or parents with neurodivergence
• To value and be able to work in partnership with peer supporters and people with lived experience. (A/I)

Knowledge/Skills

• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health issues, child and adult protection, and equalities. (A/I/R)
• To deliver psychological/psychotherapeutic therapy across cultural and other differences. (A/I/R)
• Doctoral/MSc level knowledge of psychological research methodology and complex statistical analysis. (A/I/R)
• To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues overcoming barriers to communication including sensory, and emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to or rejection of information. (A/I/R)
• Skills in providing teaching and training to other professional groups. (A/I/R)
• Consultation skills to work with the multi-professional team or other professional groups and sensitively managing, a number of people’s needs simultaneously within the context of therapeutic work/consultation. (A/I/R)
• Ability to manage highly complex situations involving multiple difficulties, and competing/conflicting views about those difficulties; and to help create contexts that develop systemic engagement, and harness the strengths and abilities of those involved in order to work towards solutions (A/I/R)
• Advanced understanding of the family Partnership model, Helping families Programme, and Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities evidence-base and models.
• To adapt evidence-based models to improve service provision and service user acceptability (A/I)
• Skills showing an ability to work in Partnership with families, colleagues, communities and multi-agency professionals. (A/I)

The Trust is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect and dignity and in promoting equality and human rights. We aim to put this commitment into practice by:

• Embedding our commitment to tackling inequality, eliminating discrimination and harassment; promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good relations in our everyday practice
• Ensuring that all our services and all staff understand and support our commitment
• We believe that people who use our services, their carers and our staff, should be treated with compassion, respect and dignity

Please note:

• That all applications for this post will need to be made online
• That you read and understand the Job Description and Personal Specification attached to the role. Your Statement in Support should reflect the requirements specified as your application will be judged against these criteria
• That the closing date listed is a guide only and that the vacancy may close earlier should sufficient number of applicants have been received. We advise that you submit your application as early as possible
• That once you have submitted your application you agree to your application being transferred to a 3rd party e-recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs
• That should you not have heard from us within three weeks from the closing date your application has not successful
• That priority consideration for applications may be given to at-risk NHS employees
• That should you be successful and appointed, you authorise South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to confirm your previous NHS service via an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process
• That we are a smoke-free Trust

SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion , Stonewall is the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans (LGBT) rights charity in Europe’

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.