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Job requirements
Requirements from the employer’s person specification. These describe the role, not your personal match.
Essential
6 listedRequirements the employer expects applicants to meet.
- Experience
Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings
- Experience
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 the threat of physical abuse
- Experience
Experience of working with people who experience severe, complex and long-term mental health problems
- Experience
Demonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a specialist clinical / counselling psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an alternative agreed by the Director of Psychology
- Training & Qualifications
Doctorate level training in Clinical or Counselling Psychology, or its’ equivalent, including two or more distinct psychological therapies as accredited by the HCPC
- Training & Qualifications
Registered as a practitioner psychologist with the HCPC under the appropriate domain specific title (Clinical Psychologist)
Desirable
7 listedAdditional qualities the employer would prefer.
- Experience
Post qualification experience of working in acute psychiatric ward
- Experience
Post qualification training in CBTp
- Experience
Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision
- Experience
Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts
- Experience
Experience of working within a multicultural framework
- Experience
Post qualification experience of working with a Home Treatment Team.
- Training & Qualifications
Post qualification training in applied research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology
Job overview
We are excited to offer a psychologist post to work on our adult acute psychiatric wards. The post will join a team of 7 qualified psychologists and 5 assistant psychologists providing input to 10 wards.
The job involves providing psychological input to the ward multi-disciplinry team to help to understand services users and to plan their treatment. There will be direct work with individual, families and groups, as well as indirect work supporting our colleagues and service development work aimed at making our wards more therapeutic.
The post is established at band 8a, however they can be taken as band 7 preceptorship posts with a pathway to transition to 8a after a minimum of 18 months.
This post will be spread across two wards at Springfield Hospital and an assistant psychologist is attached to the post..
Main duties of the job
To provide a qualified highly specialist clinical psychology or counselling psychology input to service users on a mixed gender psychiatric ward, providing highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy, working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the acute and urgent care pathway and ward policies and procedures.
To support and enhance the work of the multi-disciplinary team by providing advice, consultation, training and supervision on service users’ psychological care to other members of the team, including facilitating or supervising the facilitation of reflective practice groups. To lead on the implementation of trauma informed approaches to care across two admission wards.
To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the area served by the service and participate in service-related quality improvement and innovation projects.
To take professional responsibility for attached doctoral trainee practitioner psychologists (8a role only), assistants and/or graduate psychologists
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
- Regular contribution to daily MDT meetings to plan patient care
- Joining MDT for individual patient reviews to ensure that psychological aspects of their difficulties and care planning are considered
- Direct sessions on the ward including individual patient assessment, formulation and treatment, as well as group and family sessions.
- Indirect input to MDT to support staff in day-to-day management of patients.
- Focus on service users who require one-to-one observations or seclusion to identify a pathway to reduce need for restriction.
- Provision of regular reflective practice.
Other Duties include:
- Regular contribution to various aspects of service improvement for ward one.
- Provision of supervision to other qualified psychology staff working on acute wards.
Contribution to wider service planning and improvement for the adult inpatient services
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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.
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Applying for this NHS job
This advert is for Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist with South West London and St George's Mental Health Trust NHS Trust in London, England. It is listed as a Band 8 Psychologist role. The advertised salary is £66,274 - £73,496 per annum inclusive of Inner London HCAs. The contract type is Permanent. The application deadline is 10 Sep 2026.
Before you apply, compare the job description with the person specification and mirror the employer's essential criteria in your supporting information. Use the vacancy title, employer, location, salary, contract type, closing date and posted date (27 Aug 2026) to decide whether this role fits your current NHSjob search. If the employer can close applications early, prepare the application before the stated deadline rather than waiting for the final day.
For more context, review related Job Clerk pages for the same profession, band or location where they exist, then use the application-support guides to tailor your statement and prepare for interview.