Consultant Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Job overview

Interview will be held on 22nd May 2025

We are a warm, innovative and forward-thinking psychology service in a compassionate and highly rated Mental Health and Community Trust. We are passionate about improving the lives of people with learning disabilities and are looking for someone who shares these values.

Are you an innovative and forward-looking clinical / counselling psychologist with a background of working in psychology services for people with learning disabilities? Do you have experience of successfully leading psychological services, managing strategic projects, and of working effectively in multi-disciplinary settings?

If the above describes you, and if you’re energetic and ready for your next career move, we are looking for the right person to join the leadership of our service. This is a rare opportunity to join a well-established psychology service where psychologists work closely with other multi-disciplinary professionals to offer high-quality care to adults with learning disabilities both in a community setting and in an inpatient unit. This is a great time to become involved to support, lead and progress this work.  If successful you will be supported to develop your clinical leadership and change management skills, while continuing to use your supervision, consultation, training and governance skills to enhance client and staff well-being.

Main duties of the job

• To lead, manage, and supervise the psychological workforce to enable all staff to deliver high quality assessments and evidence-based interventions to adults with learning disabilities referred to the service.

• To draw on a high level of expert knowledge and experience of evidence-based interventions of working with people with learning disabilities

• To lead on service delivery and service development

• To work as part of the psychology management team alongside the Consultant Lead Psychologist

• To deputise for the Consultant Lead Psychologist and represent Learning Disabilities Psychology and/or psychological therapies at relevant policy and service provision meetings, locally and nationally

• To bring a personal, professional and leadership approach which is collaborative and compassionate and enables positive engagement, emotional containment, and skills-development relevant to work with the client group.

• To exercise responsibility for service improvement, quality assurance and governance of the service

Location: Based in Reading, with Trust-wide responsibilities.

Flexibility: Opportunities for home and flexible working arrangements – although travelling to sites in Berkshire will be required at times.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The “must haves” for this role:

• Post graduate doctoral qualification in clinical/counselling psychology (or approved equivalent)

• Current UK professional registration with the Health and Care Professions Council or a UKCP registration.

• Extensive experience working as a qualified Principal clinical/counselling psychologist, including demonstrable post qualification experience at a highly specialist level in the related specialisms.

• Experience in leading services and successfully managing or contributing to major      change programmes.

• Exceptional interpersonal and highly effective communication skills with the ability to   support, engage and lead

• An enhanced DBS check

• You will be able and willing to travel between bases in Berkshire as needed.

For further information about the role, please see attached job description and person specification.

We have identified that this is a role where we have underrepresentation of ethnically diverse colleagues. As part of our commitment to inclusion and Unity Against Racism we offer guaranteed interviews to candidates who meet the essential criteria and identify as: Asian or Asian British, Black or Black British, Mixed and ‘Other’ Ethnic Groups.

We strongly encourage you to review how you meet the criteria in the person specification and write about this point-by-point in your supporting statement for the best chance of being shortlisted.

We are committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sections of the community. Our commitment to inclusion is reflected in our accreditations: Race Equality Matters Silver Trailblazer, Neurodiversity in Business Corporate Member, Disability Confident Leader, Carer Confident Level 2, and the Armed Forces Covenant Gold Award. Reasonable adjustments will be provided to candidates as needed.

We welcome a conversation about flexibility and any other questions you may have. Please don’t hesitate to contact: Dr Sarah Walden, Consultant Clinical Psychologist on [email protected] or in 0118 904 7197, 07890 395584 who will be delighted to help.

Please note, if we receive a high number of applications, we may close this role earlier than the advertised closing date, so please submit your application as soon as possible.