Senior Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

NELFT NHS Foundation Trust; Greater London; On-site; GBP 53,000 - 61,000; Part time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking healthcare provider as a Senior Clinical/Counselling Psychologist. This role offers the chance to lead a dedicated team within the Havering Community Learning Disabilities Team, ensuring high-quality psychological services for individuals with learning disabilities. With a commitment to professional development and a supportive work environment, you will have opportunities for enhancing your clinical skills and contributing to innovative care practices. If you are passionate about making a difference and thrive in a collaborative setting, this is the perfect opportunity for you.

Benefits

Flexible working

Compressed hours

Health and wellbeing support

Employee assistance programme

Training opportunities

Qualifications

• Doctoral level training in clinical/counselling psychology required.
• HCPC registration as a Practitioner Psychologist is essential.

Responsibilities

• Lead the psychology service within the Havering Community Learning Disabilities Team.
• Provide operational and professional management to locality psychological practitioners.

Skills

Clinical Psychology

Counselling Psychology

Leadership

Supervision

Knowledge of NHS Plan

Education

Doctoral level training in clinical/counselling psychology

HCPC registration

Job description

Senior Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

NHS AfC: Band 8a

Main area Learning Disabilities psychology Grade NHS AfC: Band 8a Contract Permanent Hours

• Part time
• Flexible working
• Compressed hours

18.75 hours per week Job ref 395-HV002-25-B

Site Havering CLDT Yew Tree Centre Town Romford Salary £53,755 - £60,504 pa pro rata (plus HCAS) Salary period Yearly Closing 15/05/2025 23:59

Joining #TeamNELFT means you’ll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We’re CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for three consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video

Job overview

This is an excellent opportunity as senior Clinical / Counselling Psychologist to lead the psychology service within the Havering Community Learning Disabilities Team (CLDT) within NELFT. The post is 0.50 wte sessions (18.75 hours per week) in a multi-disciplinary team working closely with health and social services colleagues to provide a well-coordinated and high quality service for adults with learning disabilities. The post-holder will be supported by the Principal Psychologist and the Professional Lead of the Learning Disabilities Psychological Service in NELFT.

Our psychological therapies provision within community learning disability team scompromises clinical psychologists, clinical behavioural specialists, art therapists, systemic/family therapists, Clinical Associate in psychology (CAP), assistant psychologist, and trainees from the Doctorate in Clinical or Counselling training courses based in London. We work closely with the local Talking Therapies service strengthening the mainstreaming agenda for people with learning disabilities. Our service is developing trauma informed and culturally sensitive care for people with learning disabilities and their families. There are excellent opportunities for enhancing clinical skills through CPD, peer support and service development. We have a vibrant and active R&D department.

Main duties of the job

To provide locality leadership to support the delivery of a high-quality learning disabilities psychological service for NELFT patients, their families and carers within a designated locality.

Providing leadership to LD Psychological Service colleagues within the Community Learning Disability Team

To provide operational and professional management to the locality psychological practitioners, (Band 7 LD psychologist: Band 7 clinical behaviour specialist; Band 6 Clinical Associate in Psychology (CAP), Band 4 assistant psychologist (40%).

This will include guidance and support to the team including;

> providing clinical leadership

> ensuring appropriate caseload allocation and management

> performance management

> clinical and professional supervision to the relevant psychological practitioners

Working for our organisation

Starting with NELFT
NELFT place a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers and attend a number of drop in sessions focusing in engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period. Internal applicants are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or currently a bank member of staff).

High Cost Area Supplement - London

This post attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (minimum payment of £4,551 and a maximum payment of £5,735 per annum pro rata).

Certificates of Sponsorship

Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points based system.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Detailed Job Description and Main responsibilities

Please see the attached job description and person specification for more information about this role and working at North East London NHS Foundation Trust. We encourage you to refer closely to this when completing your application.

We welcome your application even if you do not meet all the criteria listed in the person specification. Any development needs to help you succeed in the role, can be discussed at the interview stage.

References

Please ensure that the references are from your most recent employer and one of these must be your direct Line Manager or Supervisor. You must provide professional email addresses for all referees as we will contact them as soon as an offer has been made. Please note we do not request references prior to interviews. Additionally, ensure that any gaps in your employment history are clearly indicated. All applications made through NHS Jobs account will be processed by TRAC System. Please note that some emails may go to your spam/junk mailbox so make sure you check this regularly.

Use of AI

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used, then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Doctoral level training in clinical/counselling psychology or its equivalent
• HCPC registered Practitioner Psychologist
• Experience of supervising doctoral trainees

Knowledge

• An awareness of NHS Plan, NICE Guidance and clinical governance priorities

Experience

• Experience of working within Learning Disabilities Psychological services for a minimum of two years

We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:

• A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
• A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our effortsto support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a ‘Top 10 Family Friendly Employer’ from the Working Families Charity.
• Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
• Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link .

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.

We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community make to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Gold Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme. We have supportive policies, guaranteed interview schemes for veterans. reservists and military spouses and give additional leave to our Reservists so that they can attend their annual camp.

Equal opportunities employer

We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic.

We are a Disability Confident employer and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with disabilities.If you require this application in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape please contact the recruitment team on 0300 300 1530 or email [e-mail].

Correspondence with us

You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post.

As part of our recruitment process, we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same.

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.