Senior Psychologist/Cognitive Behavioural Therapist- Here for Staff

NELFT North East London Foundation Trust; Tendring; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 63,000; Part time

Job summary

A prominent NHS Trust in England seeks a part-time Senior Psychologist/Cognitive Behavioural Therapist to support staff in the Acute and Rehabilitation Directorate. The role involves providing psychological support, consultation, and therapeutic interventions, particularly after incidents affecting employee wellbeing. Candidates should have relevant qualifications and experience in delivering psychological interventions, with a strong emphasis on communication and empathy. Salary ranges from £55,690 to £62,682 per annum pro rata plus High Cost Area Supplement.

Benefits

High Cost Area Supplement

Qualifications

• Minimum two years post-qualification experience in NHS settings.
• Experience in group and psycho-educational work.
• Ability to communicate effectively with stressed staff.

Responsibilities

• Support staff after critical incidents and provide psychological support.
• Deliver individual and group psychological interventions.
• Consult with managers and teams on staff psychological care.

Skills

HCPC registration as a psychological practitioner

Experience delivering psychological interventions

Advanced therapy skills (CBT, EMDR, Mindfulness)

Communication skills

Education

Post-qualification experience in psychological assessment

Training in advanced therapy skills

Job description

Senior Psychologist/Cognitive Behavioural Therapist - Here for Staff

The closing date is 02 October 2025

This is an exciting part-time opportunity for a Practitioner Psychologist or Cognitive Behavioural Therapist to work in the 'Here for Staff' service, specifically supporting staff in the Acute and Rehabilitation Directorate (ARD).

Here for Staff works across the Trust to offer confidential support, consultation, guidance, and brief therapeutic interventions for staff and teams who have been impacted by events of violence and aggression, racism, sexual harm and patient safety.

The postholder would have a presence at ARD, meeting regularly with staff, matrons and managers to build relationships and enable staff to recognise the impact of events and feel confident in accessing support. In addition to offering individual and team support face to face or virtually, consultation and training would be offered, as required.

You would be based at Goodmayes Hospital, though other aspects of the post may require some travel.

This role would suit people who are interested in developing staff support skills, providing psychoeducation and offering space for reflection and building team resilience. This is a key role within an important and meaningful part of NELFT's strategy to ensure the wellbeing of staff and enhancing patient safety.

For more information, please contact Dr Marc Kingsley on [e-mail] and Nadya Khokhar on [e-mail]

Main duties of the job

• Supporting managers to offer a consistent approach following a patient or staff safety incident.
• Providing support to staff following patient suicide, serious investigation process and legal proceedings.
• Ensuring a consistent model of supportive/debrief sessions following patient and staff safety incidents.
• Offering parity of offer to all staff, including bank and agency workers.
• Using suitable data to capture the experience of affected staff.
• Supporting the creation of an MDT workplace wellbeing expert reference group.
• Ensuring there are suitable online support resources for staff and managers.

About us

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 £4,714 and a maximum payment of £5,941 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.

Job responsibilities

• To provide a highly skilled psychological service for staff and teams referred to the Staff Support Service with three days for ARD involving: brief NICE endorsed individual and group psychological interventions and psychoeducation. There may be some need for individual work.
• To employ core professional skills in using outcome measures and risk assessments.
• To provide psychoeducation to staff groups for preventative measures (such as stress management, mindfulness techniques). These could include one off group sessions, or up to 8 designated sessions.
• To facilitate critical incident debriefing and support for individuals and teams.
• To work flexibly and independently, as an autonomous clinical practitioner, with the support of Staff Support service colleagues.
• To actively support reduced waiting times for staff and teams referred for support.
• To offer advice and consultation on staff psychological care to psychology and non-psychology colleagues, working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the services policies and procedures.
• To expand the psychological component of Health and Wellbeing the Trust. This will include preventative work that addresses mental health and stress and promoting health and well-being training events.
• To work closely with managers and teams, and in this capacity to offer consultation, training and supervision to non-psychology staff when required.
• To work closely with other colleagues in NELFT, to be able to demonstrate a high standard of clinical skill, multidisciplinary engagement and flexibility.
• To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research.
• To enhance the psychological profile of staff support by attending and contributing both to in-house meetings and external specialist interest groups.
• To deliver a culturally and ethically sensitive, equitable psychological service to all groups regardless of race and ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, culture, religion, and disability; to include staff users in the design and delivery of the service.

NELFT is an innovative and creative NHS Trust, committed to creating a Just and Compassionate culture for staff and patients alike. It recent increased investment in staff support is good evidence of this.

It is conveniently located between London and Essex, so is an easy commute for many people. While here you will have the opportunity to develop your own skills and interests further and this is actively encouraged. you will receive good support and supervision and will be joining a family of psychological practitioners.

Person Specification

Education

• HCPC registration as a psychological practitioner or BABCP registered practitioner
• Additional specialist training in advanced therapy skills, such as CBT, EMDR, Mindfulness

Interest

• Interest in working with staff teams post critical incident, and who are often highly stressed
• Interest in developing new skills and techniques that are shown to be effective in staff support

Experience

• At least two years post-qualification experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of service users within the NHS.
• At least two years post-qualification experience of delivering psychological interventions to a wide variety of client groups, ages, contexts, and presenting problems
• Experience of delivering group/psycho-education work

Teaching

• Experience of teaching, training, and / or supervision.
• Experience of supporting and supervising research projects, audit and service evaluation.

Skills

• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, with staff and other professional colleagues post critical incident and high levels of stress.
• Skills in providing consultation to professional colleagues.

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.

NELFT North East London Foundation Trust

£55,690 to £62,682 a year pa pro rata (plus HCAS)