Job summary
- Main area
- Health & Justice
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8a
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 333-D-HJ-1888
- Employer
- Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- HMP/YOI Bronzefield
- Town
- Ashford
- Salary
- £57,888 - £64,880 per annum inc HCAS (pro rata if P/T)
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 26/10/2025 23:59
- Interview date
- 07/11/2025
Employer heading
Senior Psychologist - EOS HMP Bronzefield
NHS AfC: Band 8a
CNWL (Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust) has almost 8,000 staff providing integrated healthcare to a third of London's population, Milton Keynes and areas beyond. We involve service users, carers, the public, staff and partner organisations in the way that we are run.
Our catchment area spans diverse communities, with over 100 first languages spoken. It contains areas of great affluence as well as areas of much deprivation. We are committed to providing services that meet the needs of the people who use them, and we actively encourage involvement from local people who can help make a difference. We’re proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME and people with disabilities to promote good relations and understanding between our staff.
We are recognised locally, nationally and internationally for providing high quality, innovative healthcare. We aim to employ only the best people, and our experts are frequently called upon to contribute to national health strategy and policy, and many models of our care have been adapted for use in other countries.
We offer a generous relocation package (subject to eligibility assessment) and flexible working options, including bank assignments for most roles. For more information on these and other benefits of working for us, see our Benefits, Reward and Wellbeing page
Become part of our team. We care for you as much as you care for others.
CNWL NHS Foundation Trust are committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We follow safe recruitment practices to protect children and vulnerable adults.
Job overview
In our quest to deliver patient-focused quality care we are looking to recruit a highly motivated, innovative and enthusiastic Senior Psychologist to join our forward thinking, friendly and expanding EOS Service, based at HMP Bronzefield. By joining our Surrey Prisons Health Care Team, you will not only look after the healthcare needs of the prisoners but also have a real impact on promoting health and well-being. We are keen to recruit someone with a passion for working with women in custody, and those who have experienced trauma, adversity and offending. We work with high risk, complex women and offer supervision, support and training for the workforce who form the network around these women, as well as individual assessment, formulation and ongoing psychological support for the women themselves.
Working in partnership with the criminal justice system and other agencies, as part of the Offender Personality Disorder Service we provide responsive, dependable and high-quality psychological work within the female estate, based in HMP Bronzefield. We work with operational and clinical staff in a close partnership to enable imprisoned women ‘stuck’ in the system to move through a progression pathway.
We would consider a Band 7 preceptorship into this position so if you are passionate about a career in Health and Justice and could utilise this development opportunity, please do get in touch to discuss.
Main duties of the job
- To provide a key role in integrating psychological approaches to developing formulations and progression planning for women within the EOS service.
- To provide specialist psychological assessment, review and therapeutic oversight within the wider prison environment and the female estate.
- To offer psychological supervision, training and support to the operational and clinical staff within the wider prison, and to provide consultation in relation to complex and entrenched difficulties, using an MBT informed approach, enhancing trauma-informed practice.
- To provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy as well as offering advice and consultation on service users’ psychological care to other members of the clinical team.
- To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service’s policies and procedures.
- To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the Health & Justice Services.
- To contribute to the reflective practice and critical thinking of the team on a case-by-case basis (e.g. complex case reviews) and in service improvement.
Our motto is “Caring NOT Judging” so by working in partnership with the criminal justice system and other agencies, we provide responsive, dependable and high-quality services to those who may have offended and those at risk of offending in the communities we serve, to improve their health status and to encourage social inclusion.
Working for our organisation
Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust offers its staff ongoing career progression through:
- · Monthly supervision
- · Annual personal development plans/appraisals
- · Access to exciting internal and external training opportunities.
Excellent progression through various career pathway opportunities such as but not limited to:
- · Preceptorship Programme
- · Support & guidance with Revalidation
- · Hidden Gem & annual award ceremonies
Excellent staff benefits, our benefit packages are among the best in London:
- · Health & wellbeing services
- · Season ticket loans
- · Cycle to work scheme
- · Relocation package *subject to meeting criteria*
The trust also values its staff and you are entitled to become a member of MyTrustBenefits. MyTrustBenefits is an online portal for all CNWL staff, as well as their family and friends. It offers over 1400 discounts at hundreds of retailers nationwide. You can also access free online courses on a variety of topics, professional and personal, ranging from business management, languages, law and teaching.
All of our sites in Surrey offer free use of the onsite leisure facilities and free parking for staff.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To carry out specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the service, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex psychological data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care, in order to reach a psychological formulation of the client’s difficulties.
To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
To provide specialist assessments of clients presenting with cognitive impairment due to a variety of causes or organic conditions, including pre-assessment counselling and neuropsychological and functional assessments, and to be able to adjust psychological interventions to work effectively with people presenting with complex needs due to cognitive impairment and organic disorders.
To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group
Person specification
EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS
Essential criteria
- Doctoral level training in clinical, forensic or counselling psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology, equivalent to that accredited by the BPS
- HCPC Registered as a practitioner psychologist
- Evidence of post-qualification specialist training, experience and developing expertise in a specialist area of clinical practice relevant to this role.
Desirable criteria
- Pre- or Post-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE
Essential criteria
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
- Experience of representing psychology within context of multidisciplinary care
- Experience of the application of applied psychology in different cultural contexts and experience of working within a multicultural framework
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialist psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnosis, people with additional disabilities etc)
- Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC
Desirable criteria
- Experience of working in secure environments and/or forensic mental health.
- Experience of using a trauma informed approach.
- Lived experience of mental health Issues.
SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE, ABILITIES
Essential criteria
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
- Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
- Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology
- Can demonstrate competence in supervision of junior qualified psychology and MDT staff and professional psychology trainees.
- Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour
- Broad knowledge of models of assessment, management and treatment of offenders with mental health difficulties and personality disorders
- Ability to work intensively with people who present challenges in the complexity of their problems and needs, including sexual and violent offending and self-harming and suicidal behaviours.
- High level of ability to plan and organise clinical service provision to meet service demands, and to maintain high quality professional practice.
- Experience of software e.g. SPSS, EXCEL
- Evidence of continual development of specialist knowledge and skills through engaging in relevant study and Continuing Professional Development relevant to the forensic population.
Desirable criteria
- Ability to write reports for varied audiences, including courts and purchasers of services.
ATTITUDES, APTITUDES PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS
Essential criteria
- Excellent interpersonal skills.
- Commitment to multidisciplinary team working.
- Appreciation of the interface between our personal and professional lives, high level of self awareness and knowledge of principles of self care.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
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.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Michelle OSullivan
- Job title
- Principal Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Additional information
We are a friendly team and encourage any prospective candidate to contact us with any questions and/or to book an informal visit.
You can also find more information on our services and the work we do within the Health & Justice Directorate please do take a look at our new website https://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/health-and-justice
PLEASE NOTE ANY CANDIDATE WISHING TO APPLY FOR ANY OF OUR ROLES IN SURREY WILL BE SUBJECT TO VETTING CLEARANCE. WHICH REQUIRES YOU TO HAVE BEEN A RESIDENT IN THE UK FOR A MINIMUM OF 3 YEARS. CANDIDATES WHO DO NOT MEET THIS CRITERIA NEED NOT APPLY.
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