Job summary
- Main area
- Psychology
- Grade
- Band 8a
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 267-OA8049099
- Employer
- Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Slade Site
- Town
- Oxford
- Salary
- £57,528 - £64,750 Per Annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 28/06/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Senior Clinical or Counselling Psychologist - Assertive Outreach
Band 8a
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has been rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
We are a responsive and innovative Foundation Trust that places our values of Caring, Safe and Excellent at the heart of everything we do. We take great pride in our staff and believe that investing in you is key to us achieving our vision of outstanding care delivered by outstanding people.
We work with a wide range of partner organisations to deliver care and support to people in their own homes and from a number of hospitals and community bases. We focus on delivering care as close to home as possible for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.
We actively support anti-racism, equality, diversity, and inclusion so, if you’re excited about this job opportunity and you meet our Trust values, but feel unsure about applying, then please get in touch and we will be happy to have a conversation with you.
We are also committed to increasing diversity in the workforce, that is why we actively encourage applications from those groups of people who are currently under-represented, which include amongst others: people with disabilities; men from all socio-economic backgrounds; people from diverse ethnic backgrounds; and people from the LGBTQIA+ community.
Good luck and we hope to hear from you.
Job overview
Are you an experienced HCPC registered Psychologist seeking a new challenge in a brand new service?
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust is delighted to invite applications for a Senior Clinical or Counselling Psychologist role within our newly established Assertive Outreach Team (AOT).
This innovative service will provide high-quality, person-centred care to individuals with complex mental health needs who may struggle to engage with traditional services. Operating across Oxford, the team will deliver proactive, flexible support, responding to need in a timely and coordinated manner.
Assertive Outreach is founded on active engagement rather than office-based care. Staff will work flexibly across the city, supporting individuals in community settings, their homes or Trust premises. Interventions will be tailored, relationship-focused and recovery-oriented, promoting continuity, trust and consistent engagement. Shared caseload responsibility, alongside a key worker model and regular MDT reviews, will enable rapid responses to relapse, risk and disengagement.
We are seeking motivated and compassionate professionals who are committed to supporting some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. You will be confident in managing complexity and dynamic risk, while working within a recovery-focused, trauma-informed framework. This is an opportunity to help shape a new service and make a meaningful difference across Oxford.
Discover more here
Main duties of the job
The Psychologist for the Oxfordshire Assertive Outreach Team (AOT) provides psychological expertise to support the delivery of high-quality, recovery-focused and evidence-based care for adults with psychosis and complex mental health needs who experience significant challenges in engaging with services.
You will:
- Provide specialist psychological assessments of referred clients based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources.
- Plan and implement 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 of proven efficacy. - Implement a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families, and groups, adjusting and
refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of
provisional hypotheses. - Contribute to the triage of referrals to the AOT and consider the appropriate level of treatment.
Working for our organisation
As a Trust we provide physical, mental health and social care for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset. Our services are delivered at community bases, hospitals, clinics and people’s homes, delivering care as close to home as possible. Our vision is that no matter who you are or where you are, you will tell us that you receive: “Outstanding care delivered by an outstanding team”
Our values are: “Caring, safe and excellent”
At Oxford Health we offer a wide range of benefits designed to support your career and wellbeing. These include:
- Excellent opportunities for career progression
- Individual and Trust wide learning and development
- 27 days annual leave, plus bank holidays, rising to 33 days with continuous service
- NHS Discount
- Pension scheme
- Lease car scheme
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Mental Health First Aiders
- Staff accommodation (waiting lists may apply)
- Staff networking and support groups
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
We hope that the advert has given you a clear understanding of the skills we are seeking and the opportunity at hand. You will need to use the “supporting statement” element of your application form to demonstrate your suitability for this role and you should refer to the job description, person specification and the guidance notes attached to this role to help you tailor your application.
The essential and desirable criteria will be used to shortlist for interview and you should ensure that you refer to these within your application to increase your chances of being selected for interview.
Person specification
Qualifications – Academic/Skills/Professional
Essential criteria
- Doctoral level training in Clinical or Counselling Psychology, or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996, as accredited by the British Psychological Society, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, and neuropsychology two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.
- HCPC registration
Desirable criteria
- Pre-qualification training and qualifications or experience in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.
- Qualifications / training in clinical supervision
- Eligible for BABCP accreditation
Knowledge Requirements
Essential criteria
- Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
- Evidence of continuing professional development as required by professional and accrediting bodies.
Desirable criteria
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies with people with severe and/or complex mental health difficulties
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.
Further Training or Job Related Aptitude and Skills
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 nonprofessional groups.
- Ability to work effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team and independently.
- Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
- 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.
- Good organisational and time management skills, ability to plan and prioritise own workload.
- Excellent IT and keyboard skills.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, day services and in patient 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 threat of physical abuse
- Experience of supervising others.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of running / co-running groups
- Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts
- Experience of working with people with severe and/or complex mental health difficulties
- Experience of working in the NHS
Personal Qualities
Essential criteria
- An interest in and positive approach towards working with people with severe and/or complex mental health difficulties.
- Ability to travel between sites and to regional meetings
Desirable criteria
- Willingness to work flexibly
- An awareness of own strengths and limitations
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
- Aidan Harker
- Job title
- Service Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07786913876
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