Principal Psychologist – South Beds CMHT | East London NHS Foundation Trust

East London NHS Foundation Trust; Dunstable; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare organization is seeking a Principal Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to join its South Bedfordshire Adult Community Mental Health Services. This role includes clinical and leadership responsibilities, providing strategic input to services aimed at supporting individuals facing serious mental health challenges. Candidates should have significant experience in multidisciplinary approaches and a strong focus on trauma-informed care. The position is open to full-time and part-time applicants, including job-share options.

Qualifications

• Experience working with serious mental health difficulties.
• Familiarity with NHS services and systems.
• Track record in service development and leadership.

Responsibilities

• Provide senior clinical and strategic input into services.
• Ensure high-quality psychological service delivery.
• Supervise and lead psychology team members.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary network on mental health.

Skills

Experience with mental health client groups

Leadership and supervision

Multidisciplinary approaches

Clinical skills in assessment and interventions

Job description

Overview

Looking for the next step in your career? Look no further! We have an opportunity for a Principal Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to work in our South Bedfordshire Adult Community Mental Health Services network in a post which has leadership elements alongside clinical and supervision responsibilities. You will provide senior clinical and strategic input into these two local services which provide care and support for people (and their families) who experience serious mental health difficulties, such as psychosis and complex emotional needs. Whilst we are seeking full time hours for this post, we could consider an applicant who can offer part-time hours of 0.8wte or more, or applicants who can offer a job-share at 1.0wte hours.

Responsibilities

The main duties involve ensuring the systematic provision of a high-quality comprehensive specialist psychological service to the service users of the Community Mental Health Teams. You will work closely with the team managers and senior clinicians in leadership roles, and be part of a thriving multi-disciplinary network of mental health professionals, Peer Support Workers, VCSE partners and administrators. There is a dedicated group of psychologists (including assistant psychologists and Clinical Associates in Psychology) and therapists for whom you would provide supervision and leadership.

Qualifications

The candidate will be experienced in working with this client group and be familiar with NHS services, have a track record of working to develop and support multidisciplinary approaches and pathways, and have experience in the management of demand and flow through services. Experience in supervision, consultation, leadership, and service development is essential, along with highly developed clinical skills in assessment, formulation and evidence-based interventions for people presenting in secondary care mental health services. The psychologists and services in our area place high value on trauma-informed care and on co-production, quality improvement and innovation, and on improving access for people in our diverse and rural communities - so we are very interested in hearing from people whose core values align with those.

Values

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

The post requires people to be able to travel to locations around rural South Bedfordshire.

Application Information

Please read the attached job description and person specification for further information regarding the vacancy.

This advert closes on Sunday 18 Jan 2026