Job summary
HPFT have a long history of delivering outstanding care, and we are taking our Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Teams (CRHTT) to the next level, through embedding Trauma Informed Approaches within teams.
We meet the needs of individual's living in Hertfordshire experiencing a mental health crisis, providing an MDT approach to understand their difficulties and implementing brief interventions to support the crisis to resolve.
This role will also involve in-reaching to a newly established Crisis House that forms part of the wider CRHTT provision within the South-East Team. This is an exciting time of service expansion.
We are looking for a caring and committed HCPC registered Band 8a Clinical or Counselling Psychologist who enjoys working flexibly as part of an MDT to support psychological ways of thinking. Experience of working within crisis services would be beneficial, but not essential.
If you have the skills, are energetic, imaginative, care passionately about working with individuals and their families, and enjoy influencing team culture throughTrauma Informed Approaches then we want to hear from you
The role is based in the South-East CRHTT, Cygnet House, Ware. Psychology is highly valued and sought after in this team. You will form part of a supportive psychology crisis service whose broad spread of roles gives real opportunity for progression within the service.
We don't want you to miss out so - Apply now
Main duties of the job
The successful candidate will:
o Provide a specialist psychology service to service users who are currently in a mental health crisis and are being supported by the South-East Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team, including those service users accessing the newly established Crisis House
o Provide specialist psychological assessment, formulation and interventions, in both individual and group formats.
o Provide clinical supervision to the Assistant Psychologists embedded within the team along with advice and consultation to colleagues, and to other non-professional carers, on psychological aspects of assessment, formulation, care and treatment.
o Provide compassionate care that is based on empathy, kindness, respect and dignity, and underpinned by principles of recovery and knowledge of trauma informed ways of working.
o Support the development and roll out of Trauma Informed Approaches across HPFT crisis services as we change the question people ask from "What's wrong with you?" to "What'shappened to you?"
o Provide a leadership role within the service to support psychologically informed practice across the team.
About us
Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT)is an outstanding organisation with ambitions to match. We are one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of 'Outstanding' from the Care Quality Commission, and our aim is to be the leading provider of mental health and specialist learning disability services in the country.
Our family of over 4000 members of staff provide health and social care for over 400,000 people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. We also deliver a range of nationally commissioned specialist services including Tier 4 services for children and young people, perinatal services, plus medium and low secure learning disabilities services.
The care we provide makes a fantastic difference to the lives of our service users, their families and carers - everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout:
Welcoming. Kind. Positive. Respectful. Professional.
Would you like to be part of the HPFT family? Would you like work with us to ensure our service users live the fullest lives possible they can? Would you like to be supported in your career to be the best that you can be? If so, then apply
Details
Date posted
18 February 2026
Pay scheme
Agenda for change
Band
Band 8a
Salary
£55,690 to £62,682 a year Per annum, Pro rata (5% HCAS Included)
Contract
Permanent
Working pattern
Part-time
Reference number
367-A&UC-9987-A
Job locations
Cygnet House
Priory Street
Ware
SG12 0DE
Job description
Job responsibilities
To work with service users who are in a mental health crisis, to seek to understand and resolve the crisis through psychological means, to support the discharge of those service users back to mainstream services as quickly and safely as possible.
To provide specialist psychological assessments of service users referred to Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Services based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex psychological 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 clients care.
To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods of proven efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
To be responsible for implementing a range of evidence-based psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, 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 highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
To provide specialist psychological supervision, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulations, diagnoses and treatment plans.
To ensure that all members of the treating team have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of psychological research and theory with a focus on Trauma Informed Approaches.
For a comprehensive list of responsibilities and duties, please kindly refer to the Job Description and Person Specification by downloading the JD and PS attachment in the advert.
If you are an internal applicant there is the option for secondment, all applicants must have the endorsement/support of their line manager prior to application.
Job description
Job responsibilities
To work with service users who are in a mental health crisis, to seek to understand and resolve the crisis through psychological means, to support the discharge of those service users back to mainstream services as quickly and safely as possible.
To provide specialist psychological assessments of service users referred to Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Services based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex psychological 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 clients care.
To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods of proven efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
To be responsible for implementing a range of evidence-based psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, 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 highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
To provide specialist psychological supervision, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulations, diagnoses and treatment plans.
To ensure that all members of the treating team have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of psychological research and theory with a focus on Trauma Informed Approaches.
For a comprehensive list of responsibilities and duties, please kindly refer to the Job Description and Person Specification by downloading the JD and PS attachment in the advert.
If you are an internal applicant there is the option for secondment, all applicants must have the endorsement/support of their line manager prior to application.
Person Specification
KNOWLEDGE, TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE
Essential
* Relevant professional qualification i.e. Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) Practitioner Psychologist Clinical
* Professional qualification doctoral level or equivalent, which should include knowledge and application of research methodology
Desirable
* Experience of supervising Band 7 psychological service staff
* Experience of supervising DClinPsy Trainees
AREAS OF EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE
Essential
* Experience of psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings
* Experience of working with 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 off highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
* Knowledge of and some experience of cognitive and neuropsychological assessment
Desirable
* Experience of working with CRHTT's and/or Crisis Houses
* Experience of service quality monitoring e.g. clinical audit, evaluative research etc.
Person Specification
KNOWLEDGE, TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE
Essential
* Relevant professional qualification i.e. Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) Practitioner Psychologist Clinical
* Professional qualification doctoral level or equivalent, which should include knowledge and application of research methodology
Desirable
* Experience of supervising Band 7 psychological service staff
* Experience of supervising DClinPsy Trainees
AREAS OF EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE
Essential
* Experience of psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings
* Experience of working with 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 off highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
* Knowledge of and some experience of cognitive and neuropsychological assessment
Desirable
* Experience of working with CRHTT's and/or Crisis Houses
* Experience of service quality monitoring e.g. clinical audit, evaluative research etc.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Employer details
Employer name
Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
Address
Cygnet House
Priory Street
Ware
SG12 0DE
Employer's website
(Opens in a new tab)
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Employer details
Employer name
Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
Address
Cygnet House
Priory Street
Ware
SG12 0DE
Employer's website
(Opens in a new tab)
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