Search for more NHS jobs in Oxford
Job requirements
Essential
17 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, day services 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 threat of physical abuse
- Experience
Experience of supervising others.
- Personal Qualities
An interest in and positive approach towards working with people with severe and/or complex mental health difficulties.
- Personal Qualities
Ability to travel between sites and to regional meetings
- Knowledge Requirements
Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
- Knowledge Requirements
Evidence of continuing professional development as required by professional and accrediting bodies.
- Qualifications – Academic/Skills/Professional
Doctoral level training in Clinical or Counselling Psychology, or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996, as accredited by the British Psychological Society, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, and neuropsychology two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.
- Qualifications – Academic/Skills/Professional
HCPC registration
- Further Training or Job Related Aptitude and Skills
Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- Further Training or Job Related Aptitude and Skills
Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers, and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
- Further Training or Job Related Aptitude and Skills
Skills in providing consultation to other professional and nonprofessional groups.
- Further Training or Job Related Aptitude and Skills
Ability to work effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team and independently.
- Further Training or Job Related Aptitude and Skills
Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
- Further Training or Job Related Aptitude and Skills
Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
- Further Training or Job Related Aptitude and Skills
Good organisational and time management skills, ability to plan and prioritise own workload.
- Further Training or Job Related Aptitude and Skills
Excellent IT and keyboard skills.
Desirable
11 listedAdditional qualities the employer would prefer.
- Experience
Experience of running / co-running groups
- Experience
Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts
- Experience
Experience of working with people with severe and/or complex mental health difficulties
- Experience
Experience of working in the NHS
- Personal Qualities
Willingness to work flexibly
- Personal Qualities
An awareness of own strengths and limitations
- Knowledge Requirements
Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies with people with severe and/or complex mental health difficulties
- Knowledge Requirements
Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.
- Qualifications – Academic/Skills/Professional
Pre-qualification training and qualifications or experience in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.
- Qualifications – Academic/Skills/Professional
Qualifications / training in clinical supervision
- Qualifications – Academic/Skills/Professional
Eligible for BABCP accreditation
Job overview
Are you an enthusiastic HCPC registered Clinical/Counselling Psychologists wanting to make a difference to patients with complex mental health difficulties.
We are currently recruiting a Senior Clinical/Counselling Psychologist, to provide maternity leave cover within the South Psychological Therapies Team, which is part of the integrated South Oxfordshire Adult Mental Health Team.
We welcome applications from appropriately accredited psychological therapists that can demonstrate they meet the specification.
We offer CPD and training for career progression, have excellent links with the Oxford Centre for Psychological Health that includes Oxford Centre for Cognitive Therapy and Oxford Institute for Clinical Psychology Training, which is hosted by the Trust.
We encourage innovation and research with opportunities for collaborations with University of Oxford Department of Psychiatry and Department of Experimental Psychology. We also collaborate with Oxford Brookes University and Buckinghamshire New University.
We provide excellent accredited supervision by senior therapists to help you consolidate your therapy skills in a focused and supported way.
As a flexible employer we would welcome discussions about opportunities for people wanting to specialise in adult mental health.
Main duties of the job
The responsibilities of the role include, but are not limited to:
- To provide specialist psychological assessments of referred clients based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care.
- To plan and implement formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods of proven efficacy.
- To implement a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families, and groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
- To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
- To contribute to the triage of referrals from the AMHT and consider the appropriate level of treatment.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
We hope that the advert has given you a clear understanding of the skills we are seeking and the opportunity at hand. You will need to use the “supporting statement” element of your application form to demonstrate your suitability for this role and you should refer to the job description, person specification and the guidance notes attached to this role to help you tailor your application.
The essential and desirable criteria will be used to shortlist for interview and you should ensure that you refer to these within your application to increase your chances of being selected for interview.
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.
WhatsApp job alerts
Get instant WhatsApp alerts for Band 8 Psychology roles in Oxford
Create your Job Clerk account first. We'll collect your alert preferences during onboarding and help you turn on WhatsApp notifications for matching healthcare roles.
Applying for this NHS job
This advert is for Senior Clinical/Counselling Psychologist with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust in Oxford, England. It is listed as a Band 8 Psychologist role. The advertised salary is £57,528 - £64,750 per annum. The contract type is Fixed term: 12 months (Maternity Leave Cover). The application deadline is 26 Nov 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 (12 Nov 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.