Principal Clinical / Counselling Psychologist

East London Nhs Foundation Trust; Dunstable; On-site; GBP 67,000 - 77,000; Part time

Job summary

East London NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a highly experienced Clinical Psychologist to provide advanced assessment, formulation and psychological interventions across multiple clinical pathways. The role emphasizes leadership, supervision, and recruitment within an NHS setting, supporting services across diverse populations.

The post holder will develop psychological provision, contribute to governance, and work within hospital-based and community-linked pathways, ensuring high-quality care

Qualifications

• Qualified Clinical or Counselling or Forensic psychologist with NHS experience.
• Experience teaching, training and supervision in multicultural settings.
• UK registration with HCPC and eligibility to work in the NHS.

Responsibilities

• Provide highly specialist psychological assessments and formulations.
• Lead and supervise staff, including recruitment and retention.
• Contribute to service development and governance within the NHS trust.
• Offer risk assessment and management within legal frameworks.
• Engage with diverse service users across settings and populations.

Skills

Staff leadership

Recruitment experience

Interprofessional collaboration

Risk assessment

Education

Postgraduate Doctoral level training in Clinical or Counselling Psychology

HCPC registration

Supervision training for doctoral trainees/psychotherapies

Job description

Job summary

The post holder will work under the umbrella of the Clinical Health Psychology service across the specialisms of obesity, pain management, limb reconstruction, general medicine and HIV and be responsible for the continuing development of the psychological provision in the services and pathways for patients of the Luton and Dunstable hospital. This will include outpatient clinics with specific emphasis on the areas of pre-bariatric psychological assessment, supervision of clinical teams, and cognitive assessment in the HIV population. A proportion of the workload will be focused on developing the skills of the Luton and Dunstable workforce to enable the provision of stepped, psychologically informed care.

Main duties of the job

The post holder is responsible for the provision of well developed, highly specialist psychological input, particularly those vulnerable to poor health outcomes through poverty and other social inequalities, disabilities and physical health conditions. The post holder is also responsible for the management, development and leadership of staff, including those from different backgrounds and training. The post holder will take delegated responsibility for the recruitment, selection and retention of psychological therapists and participate in recruitment processes for other staff. In addition, the post holder will contribute to the investigations of complaints, grievances, capability and disciplinary procedures as required by senior managers.

Psychologically based provision is offered at the individual, group, couple and family level through to teams, systems and community level. The post holder will offer well developed highly specialist psychological assessments, psychological formulations and delivery of psychological interventions to the communities we serve. Service users seen by the post holder will include those who have experienced high levels of distress and highly complex mental health difficulties. Service users may present with a high level of risk to both themselves and sometimes to other people. Assessments and interventions will be primarily delivered within hospital-based settings.

About us

Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive - so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Details

Date posted: 30 October 2026

Pay scheme: Agenda for change

Band: Band 8b

Salary: £66,582 to £77,368 a year per annum pro rata

Contract: Permanent

Working pattern: Part-time

Reference number: 363-CHB8375480

Closing date: 16 November 2026

Job responsibilities

• Provide well developed, highly specialist psychological assessments, based on the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources (including psychological tests, measures/rating scales including Recovery measures and Quality of Life measures, direct and indirect observation and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and involved others.)
• Use the ecological model of formulation to understand with the person their symptoms and behaviours in relation to their experiences and wider social context.
• Formulate plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of mental health problems across a range of care settings at population, systemic and individual levels, based upon a theoretical knowledge base to analyse, interpret and compare highly complex information in order to design specialist programmes of treatment for individuals, groups and families, care systems and populations tailored to individual need.
• To provide well developed, highly specialist expertise and psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other multidisciplinary professionals contributing directly to service users formulation, diagnosis and service planning. Ensure that multidisciplinary colleagues have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding the care of service users including the Recovery Approach.
• To undertake well developed, highly specialist risk assessment and management and to provide highly specialist advice on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management holding in mind the relevant legal frameworks.
• To be responsible for providing and receiving highly complex, sensitive, distressing and emotional information in relation to health issues where there are often barriers to acceptance.
• To spend sustained amounts of time with service users who may be aggressive and hostile, who may have poor communication skills and self-care and special physical and/or mental needs.
• To be mindful of the needs of individuals and families from a wide range of racial, cultural, sexual, religious and social backgrounds and, with service users and colleagues, co-produce innovative ways of communicating and working across language and cultural barriers.

Person Specification

Education / Qualification

Essential

• Post Graduate Doctoral level training in Clinical or Counselling Psychology or equivalent accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS) and registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
• Models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies, three or more supervised clinical placements (including lifespan developmental psychology and mental health specialisms) and research skills.
• Recognised qualification or training in psychotherapy supervision or Clinical supervision training for doctoral clinical / counselling psychology trainees or psychological therapies staff.

Desirable

• Demonstrable engagement with continuing education.

Experience

Essential

• Assessed experience of working as a qualified Clinical or Counselling or Forensic psychologist at a highly specialist level preferably in the NHS or similar public health provider.
• Experience of working as a specialist clinical psychologist including relevant experience working in a health setting with a wide variety of service user groups across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity.
• Experience of teaching, training and supervision in a multi-cultural setting, including working with interpreters with service users.

Desirable

• Staff management, development and leadership, especially in supervising staff from different backgrounds and trainings.
• Ability to maintain a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.

Knowledge

Essential

• The theory and practice of psychological assessment and therapies in relation to treatment of a range of mental health disorders, including SMI, complex mental health within the physical health setting.
• Trust level NHS structures including clinical governance mechanisms and information governance, legislation in relation to mental health problems and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group.
• The use of risk assessment practice and procedures during the application of standardised assessments and outcome measures.

Desirable

• Routine Outcome measures including PROMs, PREMs and CROMs
• The value of people participation in the delivery and development of services.

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.

Employer details

Employer name: East London NHS Foundation Trust

Address: Luton and Dunstable University Hospital, Lewsey Road, Luton, LU4 0DZ, United Kingdom

Employer's website: https://www.elft.nhs.uk/

For questions about the job, contact:

Consultant Clinical Psychologist, service lead Diane Robinson, [e-mail], 07920213493

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