Job summary
- Main area
- Psychology
- Grade
- Band 8a
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Monday to Friday)
- Job ref
- 363-BED8361271
- Employer
- East London NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Twinwoods Health Resource Centre
- Town
- Clapham
- Salary
- Will consider offering a development post starting at Band 7
- Closing
- 30/11/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Clinical/Counselling Psychologist
Band 8a
ELFT has long been recognised as a centre of excellence for mental and health care, innovation and improvement. So it is a very exciting time for you to come and work for us. Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving quality of life for all we serve. 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.
Job overview
We are looking to recruit a highly motivated, innovative and inspiring HCPC Registered Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist to our Mental Health Care of Older People’s Services in Bedfordshire & Luton.
In line with the ELFT Trust Mission, Values and Strategy, the post holder will ensure the systematic provision of a high-quality comprehensive specialist psychological service to the service users of the Older Adult Community Mental Health Teams and the Memory Assessment Services (MAS) in Bedfordshire and Luton. This includes provision of psychological and neuropsychological assessments, psychological formulations and delivery of highly specialist psychological interventions to service users in community, residential and inpatient settings. Service users seen by the post holder will include people who have experienced high levels of distress and complex mental health difficulties, and people presenting with distressed behavior associated with neurodegenerative disorders. Service users may present with a high level of risk to both themselves and sometimes to other people.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will :
Provide assessment, formulation and psychological interventions.
Consultation to the multi-disciplinary community team and inpatient wards in Bedford and Luton and support in the development of care plans for service users.
Provide supervision to Assistant, Trainee and Clinical Associates in Psychology.
Actively contribute to service development initiatives, audit and research as expected from a senior clinician in the team.
With guidance from the Older People’s Psychology Lead, the post holder will liaise closely with psychologists working in other Older People’s teams in Bedfordshire and Luton to develop and maintain a high standard of professional practice across the service.
We are willing to consider offering this as a development (preceptorship) post.
Working for our organisation
Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. 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.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
We expect all staff to work in line with the Trust's mission, values and strategy with a particular focus on equity. Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for the details of the post.
Person specification
Education & Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Doctorate in Clinical/Counselling Psychology
- HCPC Registration
Desirable criteria
- Relevant specialist post qualification training/ supervision in Neuropsychology and at least two additional psychological therapeutic modalities
- Completed training course in supervision for doctoral psychology trainees.
- Quality Improvement Training
- Reflective Practice and/or working with group dynamics training.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the range of care settings
- Experience in providing psychological assessment and intervention for older people presenting with complex mental health difficulties.
- Experience of providing teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision.
- Experience in working in multidisciplinary settings and representing a psychological perspective in teams and services.
- Experience of coproduction with service users, carers, colleagues, stakeholders
Desirable criteria
- Experience of professional management of qualified and pre-qualified clinical psychologists.
- Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
- Experience in the recruitment of psychology staff.
- Experience in contributing to service development, redesign and improvements in secondary mental health services
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- An in depth knowledge and skills in applying clinical risk assessment and management in own and others’ clinical caseload
- Able to communicate at a high level verbally and in writing highly complex, technical and sensitive information to clients, families, carers, and a range of professionals and lay people within and outside the NHS.
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
- Knowledge of relevant legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in older people’s mental health services and memory clinic.
- Aware of the potential impact of discrimination & disadvantage on mental health.
Desirable criteria
- Record of having published in either peer reviewed or academic or professional journals and/or books.
Personal/Other
Essential criteria
- Enthusiasm for the field
- Able to contain and work with organisational stress and able to hold the stress of others.
- Respectful approach to service users, families, carers, colleagues and other professionals.
- Willing and able to travel between work sites and to community settings for the delivery of services across Bedfordshire & Luton and London.
Desirable criteria
- Driving license, access to a vehicle and insurance for business travel.
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
- Dea Ditchfield
- Job title
- Principle Counselling Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 01234 275464
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