Clinical Psychologist

Transformationunitgm; Ilford; On-site; GBP 80,000 - GBP 100,000; Part time

Job summary

A leading NHS Trust is seeking a Clinical or Counselling Psychologist for a part-time role to provide maternity cover within their Acute Psychology Service in Ilford. The successful candidate will work in crisis settings, focusing on providing psychological assessments and interventions. There are opportunities for professional development within a dynamic team dedicated to supporting marginalized communities. Applicants with Band 7 qualifications are encouraged to apply. Competitive salary and flexible working arrangements available.

Benefits

Professional development opportunities

Employee assistance program

Health and wellbeing initiatives

Qualifications

• Experience in crisis settings is required.
• Applicants must have worked with multidisciplinary teams (MDTs).

Responsibilities

• Provide psychological assessments and brief interventions in crisis situations.
• Support safe therapeutic discharge plans to enhance patient recovery.
• Contribute to multidisciplinary team collaborations.

Skills

Crisis intervention

Multidisciplinary teamwork

Psychological assessment

Therapeutic interventions

Education

Core psychological profession

Relevant additional training

Job description

Main area Clinical, Counselling and psychological therapist. Grade NHS AfC: Band 8a Contract Fixed term: 6 months (October 2026 Maternity Cover) Hours Part time - 22.5 hours per week Job ref 395-PP178-25

Employer NELFT NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Tantallon House, Goodmayes Hospital Town Ilford Salary Dependant on experience Closing 23/02/2026 23:59

Clinical / Counselling Psychologist

NHS AfC: Band 8a

Joining #TeamNELFT means you’ll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We’re CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for five consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video

Job overview

We are seeking a Clinical or Counselling Psychologist, or a Psychological Practitioner with a core profession, to provide maternity cover to join our Acute and Inpatient & Home Treatment Psychology Service. The post is within the Home Treatment Team pathway. This is a fixed-term, 0.6 FTE post until October 2026.

The role is advertised at Band 8a, though Band 7 applicants are encouraged to apply. The job plan will be adjusted in line with Band 7 competencies.

Main duties of the job

The Acute and Rehab psychology service is an exciting and dynamic team of psychological professionals working in crisis settings – home treatment crisis teams, psychiatric inpatient wards and a range of other settings.

The successful applicant would join our well respected and exciting Acute Psychology Service. We are passionate about tackling social inequalities and making therapy accessible to everyone. Our work focuses on supporting people from marginalised communities. Those who may not usually have the chance to access therapy, and creating welcoming, inclusive spaces where they feel seen and supported.

The team are at the forefront of national developments in inpatient and acute working. We are actively involved in research and keen to recruit people who share that vision of contributing to best practice, national guidelines and an evidence base. For example, a number of our team were involved in contributing to the psychological services for acute adult mental health BPS/ACP-UK guidelines.

We are committed to supporting staff development through our in-house CPD package, and where funding allows, we aim to open up further training opportunities in models like Systemic Family Therapy, EMDR, FLP, and CBT for psychosis.

Working for our organisation

Our Values 2025 - 2030

Working with our colleagues, patients and carers we have co-produced three new values that we aim to embed within our culture here at NELFT.

They are:

• We are kind.
• We are respectful.
• We work together with our communities.

These three values help us to strive to provide the best care by the best people.

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period.

Starting with Us

NELFT places great importance on new starters being properly welcomed into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks, including mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process, new starters will also have the opportunity to meet the executive team, senior managers, and attend several drop-in sessions focusing on engagement, health and wellbeing, and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Goodmayes, Essex.

High Cost Area Supplement - Outer London

This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (with a minimum of £4,313 to a maximum of £5,436 p.a. pro rata for part time).

High Cost Area Supplement - Fringe

This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 5% of the basic salary (with a minimum of £1,192 to a maximum of £2,011 p.a. pro rata for part time).

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

You would be part of the wider Acute Psychology Service.

The post holder will undertake assessment and brief psychological interventions for the most complex presentations who have presented in crisis to develop safety and stabilisation skills. The post holder will contribute to safe therapeutic discharge plans in order to enhance recovery and prevent relapse.

The Home Treatment Teams (HTT) offer crisis assessment, crisis intervention and brief therapeutic interventions to service users experiencing a significant crisis in their mental health and psychological well being. The HTTs receive a wide breadth of referrals which provides opportunities to work with and a variety of presentations using different therapeutic approaches.

The role of the Psychological practitioner in the HTTs includes:

• providing and encouraging the use of psychological formulations to inform overall care planning
• offering assessments and brief psychological interventions to service users
• developing the psychological skill set of the multidisciplinary team through provision of training / teaching / supervision /consultation and reflective practice
• liaising with other teams / services to support discharge plans / onward referrals.
• Service development and evaluation / audit

We are looking for enthusiastic, committed and skilled clinicians who can work effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team, to provide a range of clinical services. The individual will have excellent opportunities to gain experience of multilevel and integrated service provision and to further develop skills of complex case assessment, formulation and the application of evidence based psychological interventions, both individual and in groups.

Please see the attached job description and person specification for more information about this role and working at North East London NHS Foundation Trust. We encourage you to refer closely to this when completing your application.

Please get in touch for more information if you are interested in the vacancy.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Has a core psychological profession
• Relevant additional training

Experience

• Worked in crisis settings
• Worked with MDTs

We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:

• A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
• A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our efforts to support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a ‘Top 10 Family Friendly Employer’ from the Working Families Charity.
• Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
• Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link .

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.

We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community make to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Gold Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme. We have supportive policies, guaranteed interview schemes for veterans. reservists and military spouses and give additional leave to our Reservists so that they can attend their annual camp.

Equal opportunities employer

We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic.

We are a Disability Confident employer and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with disabilities.If you require this application in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape please contact the recruitment team on 0300 300 1530 or email [e-mail].

Correspondence with us

You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post.

As part of our recruitment process, we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.

Application numbers

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, we encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible to ensure consideration.

If you require any additional support during the application process please contact [e-mail]. We are happy to make reasonable adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment journey.