Highly Specialist Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

The closing date is 31 July 2026

Job summary
Are you a psychologist with an interest in inpatient mental health and a passion for bringing psychological ways of working to complex systems?

If so, read on!

We are looking for an enthusiastic qualified psychologist with experience in working with systems and families, to join the Newham Acute Psychology Service (NAPS). This team provides psychological services to the people who reside, work and visit Newham Centre for Mental Health (NCMH). This post is advertised at 12 months but will end on 14th September 2027, irrespective of start date.

Why work with us?
Within the NAPS team you will be encouraged to bring your ideas and creativity to develop the psychology provision in your wards and across the service. Staff development and innovation is very important to us. See below for a list of some of our current projects:

• Relational Security and patient engagement.
• Quality improvement projects.
• Sensory interventions in NCMH.

CPD opportunities:

• Collaboration with the local MDT and Therapies services.
• Research opportunities in collaboration with NELFT and the University of East London.
• CPD opportunities (e.g. systemic working, indirect approaches, leadership) within a Band 8a role.
• Local Secondary Care Psychological Services network offers further opportunities for learning and connection.

Main duties of the job
You will be responsible for bringing psychological approaches to our adult triage mental health wards. Our overall aim within the NAPS team is to foster a compassionate, safe and therapeutic culture for all people within the service. You would be expected to play an active part in planning, prioritising and reflecting on how best to organise your work to move towards this aim.

Roles will include direct interventions with patients in group, individual and family sessions; staff support and development including team formulation, reflective practice and training; leadership of co-production, evaluation and quality improvement (QI) initiatives throughout the service. There is a current focus on supporting the discharge process and interface in collaboration with our community services. Where required, this may involve seeing families in their homes.

We are looking for applicants who bring enthusiasm and creativity around inpatient working. Experience in acute mh services and providing culturally inclusive psychological approaches in NHS services is also highly desirable as well as an ability to speak an additional local language.

The Trust has embraced flexible working. We are interested in hybrid ways of working that are within the scope of the role.

We look forward to welcoming the successful candidate; their ideas, passions and aspirations into our team.

About us
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.

Job responsibilities
For full details of the job, please refer to the attached Job Description and Personal Specification

Please note: This post is advertised at 12 months but will end on 14th September 2027, irrespective of start date.

Person Specification
Education/ Qualification
Essential

• Doctorate in Clinical/ Counselling Psychology or equivalence and able to demonstrate eligibility for BPS
• HCPC registration as a Practitioner Psychologist.

Desirable

• Further training or qualifications in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice (e.g. Systemic approaches).
• Quality Improvement Training
• Clinical supervision training for doctoral psychology trainees.

Experience
Essential

• Post-qualification experience as a practitioner psychologist or equivalent.
• 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, including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the treat of physical abuse.
• 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 systemic working with families and/or teams

Desirable

• Experience of working as a psychologist in an inpatient setting.
• Experience of professional management of qualified and pre-qualified clinical psychologists.
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience in contributing to service development, redesign and improvements in secondary mental health services

Knowledge and Skills
Essential

• Doctoral level knowledge of clinical psychology including highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, psychometrics and neuropsychology.
• Able to draw theoretical knowledge base in the analysis of highly complex facts and situations
• Knowledge and skills in applying clinical risk assessment and management.
• Skills in providing supervision and consultation to psychology staff and other professional and non-professional groups.
• Able to plan, organise and prioritise own workload in the face of periods of competing demands.
• Up to date knowledge of psychological research, national guidance and legislation relevant to the delivery of secondary mental health services.
• Aware of the potential impact of discrimination & disadvantage on mental health.

Desirable

• Highly developed knowledge of the theory and delivery of specialised psychological practice relevant to a secondary mental health setting, specifically inpatient mental health (e.g. systemic working, psychosis, personality disorder, complex trauma).
• Record of having published in either peer reviewed or academic or professional journals and/or books.

Personal
Essential

• Enthusiasm and interest in models of service delivery and an ability to articulate the value added by clinical psychology services within the context of multi-disciplinary mental health services (particularly inpatient mental health).
• Able to contain and work with organisational stress and able to hold the stress of others.
• Able to manage effectively frequent exposure to highly distressing/highly emotional circumstances and exposure to traumatic circumstances.
• Respectful approach to service users, families, carers, colleagues and other professionals. Willing to negotiate and can handle confrontation effectively and professionally.

Other
Essential

• Able to work to professional guidelines and Trust policy.
• Able to travel independently between work sites and to community settings for the delivery of services.

Desirable

• Ability to speak an additional local language.

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details
Employer name: East London NHS Foundation Trust
Address: Newham Centre for Mental Health, Glen Road, London, E13 8SP
Employer's website: (opens in a new tab)

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact: Lead for Newham Acute Psychology Service, MR Gavin Taylor, View email address on meeveem.com, View phone number on meeveem.com.