Senior Clinical Psychologist

Kent And Medway Mental Health Nhs Trust; East Malling; On-site; GBP 58,000 - 65,000; Part time

Job summary

Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust is seeking a Senior Clinical Psychologist to join the Adolescent Hospital in Staplehurst. The post involves expert psychological assessments, formulation, and evidence-based interventions for children and adolescents, within an MDT and alongside CYPMHS, with strong focus on service development and staff training.

Post-holders must hold HCPC registration and a UK driving licence.

Qualifications

• Post-graduate doctorate level training in clinical psychology (BPS or equivalence).
• Registered with HCPC as a Practitioner Psychologist.
• Extensive experience with difficult/challenging children and young people.
• Experience as a qualified specialist clinical psychologist for at least 1 year.
• Experience delivering professional teaching and training to staff.

Skills

IT awareness

Communication skills

Workload planning

Education

Post-graduate Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (BPS accredited)

HCPC registration as Practitioner Psychologist

Extensive paediatric CAMHS experience

Minimum 1 year as specialist clinical psychologist

Experience in autonomous specialist assessments

Experience in teaching/training professionals

Tools

Mobile IT/IT systems

Job description

Senior Clinical Psychologist Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust Staplehurst, United Kingdom

Job summary

We are seeking a compassionate, fully registered HCPC Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to join our dedicated team at the Kent and Medway Adolescent Hospital. Aligned with the QNIC-recommended structure for inpatient Children and Young People (CYP) units, this role offers a rewarding opportunity to deliver specialist psychological care within a supportive and forward-thinking inpatient environment. Working directly within the hospital's Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) and alongside the Intensive Home Treatment team, you will play a key role in ensuring a seamless care pathway for young people transitioning between inpatient and community services. You will collaborate with wider CYPMHS, the Kent and Sussex Provider Collaborative, and our specialist Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) Service to offer comprehensive support to service users, their parents, and carers. As part of our thriving Psychological Professions network at the hospital and across wider CAMHS, you will benefit from strong links with local training institutes and ongoing NHS England upskilling initiatives, with rich opportunities to shape service delivery and host clinical training placements.

The post holder must hold a full, valid, UK driving licence and have access to a car/vehicle to use for business purposes (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010).

Main duties of the job

• Specialist Clinical Practice: Provide high-quality psychological assessments, formulations, and evidence-based interventions for children, adolescents, and their families, incorporating dedicated parenting support where appropriate.
• Therapeutic & MDT Leadership: Facilitate the therapeutic component of the ward programme alongside the hospital MDT, actively contributing to joint assessments and integrated treatment plans.
• Clinical Supervision & Placement Coordination: Provide regular clinical supervision to assistant psychologists, trainees, and junior team members, including taking responsibility for clinical neuropsychology training placements within the hospital.
• Seamless Care Pathways: Work collaboratively across inpatient and community settings--including CYPMHS and the Intensive Home Treatment team--to ensure smooth, continuous transitions for service users.
• Outcome Monitoring & Effectiveness: Actively use CYP-IAPT normed measures to track treatment outcomes, ensure clinical effectiveness, and uphold Trust policies and procedures.
• Research & Audit: Engage in research, audit, and quality improvement activities to evaluate and continually elevate service delivery across the unit.

About us

We are Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. We care for the mental health and wellbeing of people across Kent and Medway and are rated 'Good' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Our teams support children, young people and adults with a wide range of mental health needs. We also provide specialist services, including all-age eating disorder services and neurodevelopmental assessments for children and young people, such as autism and ADHD. Because we work across the whole county and across hospital and community settings, we can make care more joined up and easier to access for the people we serve. Our vision is simple: we are here to help communities not just live with mental illness, but live well. It's why we're passionate about working with communities to make mental health care better for everyone. Everything we do is guided by our values: caring, inclusive, curious and confident.

Take a look at our Clinical Associate Psychologist Video

We are serious about diversity and inclusion, and we are working hard to build this into our DNA. We warmly welcome applications for any of our roles from people from diverse backgrounds, and we are proactively encouraging applications from under-represented communities for our more senior roles, like this one.

Details

Date posted: 10 September 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 8a
Salary: £57,528 to £64,750 a year per annum pro rata
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Part-time
Reference number: 380-CED058
Job locations: Kent and Medway Adolescent Hospital, Cranbrook Road, Staplehurst, TN12 0ER, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities Please refer to the attached job description for the full details on the responsibilities and person specification.

Person Specification

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Basic awareness of IT and IT skills
• Specialist skill in the ability to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside
• Ability to plan and organise own workload and time

Training and Qualifications and Registration

Essential

• Post-graduate doctorate level training in clinical psychology accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS) or the BPS statement of equivalence
• Registered with the Health & Care Professions Council as a Practitioner Psychologist
• Extensive experience of working with difficult, disturbed or challenging children/young people requiring skilled and complex interventions
• Experience of working as a qualified specialist clinical psychologist for a minimum of one year
• Experience of specialist assessment carried out autonomously in order to determine the most appropriate treatment plan from a range of options for the child/young person
• Experience of providing professional teaching and training for other professionals working with the client group within the service and within related agencies

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window). 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. Applicants must have current UK professional registration.