Employer North London NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre (HIRC) Town West Drayton Salary £61,631 - £68,623 Per annum including HCAS Salary period Yearly Closing 18/01/2026 23:59
Senior Clinical/Forensic Psychologist
NHS AfC: Band 8a
Thank you for your interest in the North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT). This is an exciting time to join us and be part of our journey to improve mental health care across North London and deliver excellent services to our local people. We will achieve this through the North London Way, as we:
* Collaborate at every level by living our values to create the right conditions for us all to work together.
* Develop our new Trust culture, to help make our new Trust a great place to work and to receive great care.
* Empower our teams to lead the planned improvements in our services, by skilling them and giving them the tools to make the changes.
* Focus on delivering excellence at every level to improve our performance and ensure consistently high-quality care across all our services.
* Ensure that research, quality improvement, and technology lead the way and are embedded in our services.
* Take a trauma informed approach to everything we do
We proactively welcome diversity in our workforce and pride ourselves on being an inclusive employer. We aim to recruit from our local communities and provide opportunities to all including apprenticeships, veterans, care leavers and more.
The North London Way to deliver: Better Mental Health, Better Lives, Better Communities.
We are recruiting a kind-hearted, highly motivated and passionate Clinical/ Forensic Psychologist to support leading the Psychology Service at the Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre (HIRC; North London Mental Health NHS Trust).
Psychology interventions are provided to residents experiencing a range of mental health difficulties; including complex emotional needs and PTSD as well as difficulties associated with anxiety and mood.
The post-holder will also be expected to take a leading role on the continued facilitation and ongoing development of Trauma-Informed Approaches (TIA) and framework.
It is an exciting time to join the NLFS, as we embed trauma-informed and co-produced care across the service and conduct a range of QI and research projects to help our learning and processes.
This role would suit you if you are interested in attachment focused and trauma-informed approaches to considering human distress and trauma. There are a range of training, CPD and research opportunities available for you to develop your skills in this area; we have recently trained staff in Schema and Compassion-Focused Therapies, EMDR and narrative interventions.
There are opportunities for flexible and hybrid working, although the predominant base for the roles will be at the HIRC.
Main duties of the job
The post-holder will be responsible for supporting leading the Psychology Service at the IRC. They will be expected to work as a senior member of the MDT, and provide consultation, co-working, clinical and operational supervision, as well as developing specific training to enhance the systematic provision of psychological interventions. More generally, the post holder will provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy at the same time as offering advice and consultation on clients’ psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other, non-professional careers, working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedures.
The post-holder will also make a leading contribution to the learning culture of the team and wider service and play an integral role in the continued development Trauma-Informed Approaches and to contribute to audit, policy and service development and research within the area served by the North London Forensic Service.
Working for our organisation
North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people.
* We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home.
* With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all
* We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care
Why NLFT?
* We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities.
* We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
* NHS Discounts, generous annual leave and NHS pension scheme
* Excellent internal staff network
In order to meet the needs of the Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that fall under Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey or Islington. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
· To support the team’s lead with strategic overview and senior clinical leadership of the provision of psychological interventions at the HIRC.
To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals and group.
To provide overall clinical responsibility to highly complex clients who are assessed as posing a high risk of harm to self and others within HIRC.
To provide highly specialist and expert psychological assessment, intervention and treatment.
To provide supervision and provide specialist knowledge and expertise whilst professionally managing staff involved in psychology and, if necessary, other clinicians within the primary care mental health service.
To provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy as well as offering advice and consultation on patient’s psychological care to other members of the clinical team and to IRC staff.
To formulate and implement plans for the psychological treatment and/or management of a detainee’s mental health and behavioural difficulties based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the patient’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy.
To provide clinical supervision and/or reflective practice to identified staff across Health in Justice, Specialist division when appropriate.
To manage the development, facilitation and delivery of relevant training events at HIRC.
To offer specialist consultation and expertise regarding the treatment and understanding of all highly complex cases that pose a risk to self and others, to all HIRC staff as and when requeste
To develop an effective co-working relationship with all stakeholders.
To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the Specialist division.
To deputise, when appropriate, for the Lead Psychologist and to take on management responsibility and tasks as designate.
To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service’s policies and procedures.
Person specification
EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS
* Doctoral level training in clinical/forensic psychology. OR Doctoral or Masters level training in forensic psychology with full competencies completed.
* Registration with HCPC.
* Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.
EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE
* Experience of working as a qualified clinical/ forensic psychologist including substantial recent post qualification experience in forensic mental health services.
* Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity across a range of care settings, which can include IRC, outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings, including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of emotive and distressing problems and where there is a history of violence.
* Experience of teaching and training.
* Experience of the supervision.
* Experience of developing and supervising psychological group programmes.
* Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
* Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.
SKILLS AND ABILITIES
* Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
* 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.
* Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.Able to contain explore and formulate an understanding of high levels of distress both directly with patients and indirectly via supervision or case reviews with other staff.
* Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS and HCPC.
* Experience of working in a multiagency setting and providing consultation and training on complex cases
* IRC/Secure settings-related prior experience.
* Experience of professional management of qualified and pre-qualified Clinical and/or forensic psychologists.
* Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.
PERSONAL QUALITIES
* Flexible, engaging and approachable who can work quickly and responsively with both clients and the multidisciplinary team.
* Creative in approach as well as reflective about their own practice.
* Able to work autonomously, as well as under supervision and with colleagues.
* Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to ‘hold’ the stress of others.
* Flexible, engaging and approachable who can work quickly and responsively with both clients and the multidisciplinary team.
* Able to work autonomously, as well as under supervision and with colleagues.
* Demonstrable leadership and management qualities.
OTHER REQUIREMENTS
* CTC (Counter Terrorist Check) clearance.
* Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
* 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.
* Clean driving license with access to a car.
References will be required to cover your last 3 years of employment/training. One has to be from your current or most recent employer and the others from your previous employer. The references should be from persons with management responsibility or HR.
If you have been unemployed for a period of four years or more, please give the details of your last employer and one character referee of your choice (not members of your family). If more applicable, references will be requested from your teacher or head of faculty. Please ensure you provide full contact details.
Vacancies that are advertised as Fixed Term Contracts will also be available as secondment opportunities for substantive internal staff.
Please be aware that your documents eg. Passport/NI Card, will be electronically scanned using Home Office accredited Verification System.
Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts, we will close vacancies before the stated closing date once the first 50 applications are received. Therefore, please apply as soon as possible.
All non-medical posts with the Trust are subject to a probationary period of six months, during which time you will be required to demonstrate to the Trust’s satisfaction, your suitability for the position in which you will be employed.
Should you not hear from us within three working weeks of the closing date for this post, then regretfully in this instance, you have not been shortlisted.
By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at improving efficiencies within the NHS both to make costs savings for NHS organisations but also to save you time when your employment transfers.
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
This vacancy may close early if it receives a high number of applications. Please complete and submit your application in good time to avoid disappointment.
PLEASE NOTE: Appointment to this post is subject to CTC (Counter Terrorist Check) clearance.
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