Head of Psychological Workforce and Training

Job overview

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Consultant Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to shape the future psychological workforce across Berkshire Healthcare.

As Head of Psychological Workforce and Training, you will provide Trust-wide leadership for workforce governance, education, training and professional standards across the psychological professions.

You will work at the interface of professional leadership, strategic workforce planning, education and training, using workforce intelligence and partnership working to support safe, effective and sustainable psychological practice.

Working closely with the Director of Psychology and Psychological Therapies, professional and operational leads, corporate services, NHS England, training providers and professional bodies, you will help ensure that the Trust has the right psychological workforce, skills and training infrastructure to meet current and future needs.

The role includes leadership of the Trust’s psychological education and training offer, including placements, recruit-to-train initiatives, funded development opportunities, relationships with training providers and assurance on quality and professional standards. You will also have direct responsibility for clinical psychology doctoral training arrangements, including placement coordination and contractual monitoring with course providers.

Main duties of the job

In this senior Trust-wide role, you will lead the development of systems that support safe, effective and high-quality psychological practice across services.

You will provide assurance on professional, statutory and regulatory requirements; use workforce intelligence to inform capacity, skills and risk analysis; and advise senior leaders on workforce priorities, education, development and investment.

You will lead the Trust’s psychological education and training offer, working with education providers and services to support placement quality, training governance, funded development opportunities and alignment with service needs.

You will directly coordinate and monitor clinical psychology doctoral placements with course providers, while providing oversight, advice and assurance for other psychological professions training arrangements managed within services.

You will promote inclusive workforce development, widening participation and equitable access to training and career pathways that reflect the diversity of the communities we serve.

Please be advised that the interview will be held on the 28th of September. Unfortunately, this date cannot be amended due to service availability. Interviews will be conducted face-to-face.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The ‘must haves’ for this role:

• Postgraduate doctorate in clinical or counselling psychology, or equivalent for those who trained prior to 1996 or completed their training overseas
• Registered as a Clinical or Counselling Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
• Eligibility for Chartered Membership of the British Psychological Society (BPS)
• Clinical supervision training for doctoral psychology trainees and other qualified clinicians
• Extensive experience as a qualified clinical/counselling psychologist, including senior-level leadership in complex healthcare settings
• Significant experience supervising and supporting clinical psychology doctoral trainees and other psychological professions trainees
• Experience of working collaboratively with education and training providers to support placement quality, training governance and learning environments
• Experience of workforce governance, professional standards, data systems, reporting, assurance and improvement
• Experience of leading workforce or service improvement programmes and delivering change in complex multi-stakeholder environments
• Experience of managing or overseeing budgets, funded training allocations, contracts, tariff arrangements, procurement or financial initiatives
• Ability to provide senior professional leadership and governance with direct responsibility for doctoral clinical psychology training arrangements and for collaboration with NHSE and other internal and external commissioners of education and training courses.
• Excellent communication, influencing and partnership-working skills
• Ability to travel to multiple sites and work effectively with stakeholders online

For further information about the role, please see attached job description and person specification. Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role. We recognise that AI tools can support accessibility, equity and confidence for applicants. However, it’s important that examples and responses given in your supporting statement genuinely reflect your own experience and abilities, as these will be explored further during the selection process. AI must not be used to provide misleading or false information during any stage of the application journey.

In addition to explaining how you meet the person specification, you must complete your employment history for at least the last five years. Any experience, skills or responsibilities referenced in your supporting statement should be evidenced within your employment history. Applications that do not include sufficient employment history to support the experience claimed may not be shortlisted.

We’re committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sections of the community. Our commitment to inclusion is reflected in our accreditations: Stonewall Proud Employer, 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 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.

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Dr Alison Pocock, current Head of Psychological Workforce and Training: Alison.Pocock@berkshire.nhs.uk.

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.

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.