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Job summary

Main area
Psychological therapist
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 7
Contract
Fixed term: 9 months (Maternity cover)
Hours
Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref
277-8324249-FOR
Employer
Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Bracton Centre
Town
Dartford
Salary
£55,524 - £62,652 per annum
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
18/11/2026 23:59

Employer heading

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust logo

Specialist Psychological Therapist

NHS AfC: Band 7

Job overview

We are seeking to recruit an enthusiastic, compassionate and motivated Psychological Therapist for a whole-time (1.0 WTE) fixed term post (9 months, maternity cover) in our Forensic Community Service (FCS). The role will be community-based, improving the lives of adult service users as they move from secure hospital care into the community, including the Tilt service, a hostel for men with significant mental health needs and forensic risks. You will play a crucial role in the multi–professional approach to working with service users who have severe mental health and interpersonal issues, often co-occurring with substance dependency or neurodevelopmental disorders, all of whom present a risk that warrants support from forensic services. Travel between the three Oxleas boroughs – Bexley, Bromley, and Greenwich – is essential.

Main duties of the job

This is a clinically focused role. You will offer direct clinical assessment and interventions in complex cases, including individual, group, and family work. In addition, you will provide support to the system around the service user, offering consultation and reflective practice to other professionals, and delivering staff training to clinical and non-clinical staff. There may also be opportunities to supervise trainees, to undertake research, and lead initiatives including how we collaborate with families and carers.

Working for our organisation

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.

We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families.  This is strengthened by our new values:

  • We’re Kind
  • We’re Fair
  • We Listen
  • We Care

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

You will be the only psychological therapist in the FCS team but will have links to other forensic psychological therapies outpatient services, including receiving clinical supervision from a psychologist in the Forensic Intellectual and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (FIND) community team. You will also join monthly psychological therapies department meetings. The Forensic Psychological Therapies department provides a breadth of professional opportunities across community, prison and hospital settings and opportunities for research and career progression through ongoing professional development. The post holder will be encouraged to consolidate and further develop their skills and clinical interests in a friendly and supportive multi-professional and multi-agency context. There is access to a network of specialist psychological supervision groups across the forensic directorate. Professionally, psychologists in Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust are highly valued and occupy a variety of directorate and Trust-wide leadership roles, including quality assurance, quality improvement, and operating as Responsible Clinicians. 

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • Doctorate or MSc combined with PG Diploma

Registration

Essential criteria
  • Registered with professional regulatory body e.g., HCPC, BABCP, UKCP

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies and two assessment methodologies.
Desirable criteria
  • Experience in forensic/secure settings

Skills

Essential criteria
  • Skills in complex methods of psychological assessment
Desirable criteria
  • Knowledge of research methodology/data analysis

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Veteran AwareNo smoking policyAge positiveInvestors in People: GoldImproving working livesArmed Forces Covenant Gold AwardMindful employer.  Being positive about mental health.Disability confident employerStonewall equality policy. Equality and justice for lesbians, gay men, bisexual and trans people.Step into healthPride In Veterans

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

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Hazell Bale
Job title
Principal Psychologist
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
020 3927 6150
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