Consultant Clinical Psychologist Intensive and Assertive Outreach

Job overview

This is an exciting role for a psychologist who would like to lead on innovative and strategic initiatives to improve our pathways for people with severe and relapsing mental illness who struggle to consistently engage with services and are likely to be known to multiple agencies. The bulk of the role will be to guide the team in their approach and developing model, supervise and develop the 8b psychologist, and work systemically across our other pathways to ensure that people don’t fall through the gaps between services.

This post would suit someone who has a passion for health equity and for working with our most vulnerable and socially excluded patient groups.

This role would suit someone who has worked substantially in community services, with complex needs and serious mental illness. Experience of providing senior clinical leadership (at 8b level or above) and leading on outcome reporting, performance reporting and service innovations would be highly desirable.

Main duties of the job

• As 0.3 WTE Consultant Clinical Psychologist within the Intensive and Assertive Outreach Team, you will provide strategic psychological leadership to a highly skilled multidisciplinary service working with individuals experiencing severe and relapsing mental illness who often present with high levels of complexity, risk and difficulties engaging with traditional mental health services.

The role combines clinical leadership, service development, consultation and supervision, with a particular focus on strengthening psychologically informed approaches across pathways and systems of care.

This role offers an exciting opportunity to shape the future direction of an innovative service, ensuring that some of the most vulnerable people within our mental health system receive coordinated, compassionate and effective psychological care.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key responsibilities will include:

• Providing clinical and professional leadership to support the continued development of psychologically informed and evidence-based practice within the Intensive and Assertive Outreach Team.
• Offering specialist psychological consultation, formulation and advice for individuals with complex mental health difficulties, high-risk presentations and multi-agency involvement.
• Supporting and supervising the team's Band 8b Clinical Psychologist, contributing to their professional development and enabling the delivery of high-quality psychological provision across the service.
• Leading on the development and implementation of innovative psychological approaches, service models and care pathways for people who struggle to engage with conventional mental health services.
• Working systemically across community, inpatient and specialist services to improve transitions of care and reduce the risk of individuals falling between services and organisational boundaries.
• Developing strong collaborative relationships with internal and external partners, including community mental health teams, inpatient services, social care, housing, voluntary sector organisations and other relevant agencies.
• Promoting formulation-led and trauma-informed approaches to care planning, risk management and intervention within multidisciplinary teams.
• Providing specialist psychological leadership in relation to complex service-user pathways, supporting staff to maintain engagement and deliver recovery-focused care.
• Contributing to workforce development through training, reflective practice, consultation and supervision for multidisciplinary colleagues.
• Leading and contributing to service evaluation, audit, quality improvement and research activities that enhance service effectiveness and outcomes.
• Supporting strategic developments within the wider Psychology Service and Adult Mental Health Care Group, ensuring psychological expertise informs pathway design and service planning.
• Maintaining a small specialist clinical caseload where appropriate, focused on complex systemic, consultation or direct clinical work that supports the overall objectives of the service.

Whilst the post is located in West Norfolk, the Intensive and Assertive Team covers the geographical region covered by the trust. The post holder might be required to travel on the basis of need (and largely in relation to supporting the 8B principal Clinical Psychologist in the team), but opportunities to work from other parts of the trust will be supported where possible.

This role would be open to a fixed-term secondment by internal candidates (with approval of their line manager) or external candidates.

Please let us know if you are applying for the first time to a consultant role, as we will have a BPS assessor present at the interview who can advise on appointability and development plans for new consultants.

Please find attached our Job Description and Person Specification for more detail on your Key Accountabilities, then if you feel you have what it takes to make a difference in your local communities, click APPLY!

Some of the benefits you can expect:

• NHS pension
• a comprehensive in house & external training programmes
• career progression
• starting annual leave of 27 days per annum increasing to 33 days pa based on length of service (plus paid bank holidays)
• staff physio service
• NHS discounts and many more.

Interview dates are yet to be set; you will be contacted via email and invited to book a time. These emails may go to your SPAM, so please keep checking all your emails if applying.

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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.