Employer South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site 151 Blackfriars road Town London Salary £61,927 - £68,676 pro rata inc HCAS Salary period Yearly Closing 11/08/2025 23:59
Psychotherapist/Psychologist/Psychological Therapist
NHS AfC: Band 8a
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.
We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’.
We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone’s potential as change makers.
The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role.We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.
Our Values
We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I’m going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you’ll be part of something special.
As a Trust we are happy to talk flexible working.
Job overview
In Lambeth Secondary Care Psychological Therapies (SCPT) we are reaching across the pathway and into community and primary care settings. Our clinicians provide a range of specialist psychological therapies for mood, anxiety, trauma related and personality difficulties for adults with long-standing and complex mental health difficulties.
We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced psychological therapist to join us on maternity cover secondment, focusing on close working with our first step of care - our tier 1 team - and with Lambeth's Short Term Support Team, providing clinical care to clients with complex needs, as well as overseeing and assessing new referrals to our service. In addition, the postholder will be working therapeutically in our tier 2 trauma-reliving /complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (cPTSD)reliving therapy pathway offering Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (TF-CBT) or/and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).
Main duties of the job
The post is based at 151 Blackfriars road, but there is an expectation that the postholder will travel to other sites as needed.
As described above, the postholder will be working in close liaison with the North Short Term Support Team (STS North Living Well Centre) and oversee the SCPT team working within that locality. This includes attending and providing input to STS Multi-disciplinary meetings, Primary Care and Alliance Network meetings, conducting joint assessments and formulations, offering training and supervision to Tier 1 SCPT staff and to STS staff.
The postholder will also work clinically on our tier 2 complex PTSD reliving therapy pathway, co-facilitating preparatory groups including our Trauma Stabilisation Group and our EMDR preparation group, as well as offering assessments and treatment for individual reliving-focused therapy, including TF-CBT and/or EMDR. Local training will in protocols will be provided and relevant supervision is available.
Finally, the postholder will be involved in recruitment of new Tier 1 staff.
Working for our organisation
The second largest inner London Borough with an official population of around 350,000. The local population has needs related to a high level of social deprivation such as unemployment, poor social housing and child poverty. There are also pockets of greater affluence. There are high levels of morbidity, and levels and complexity of mental health problems are above the national average
Lambeth CCG and Lambeth Council want people of Lambeth to have a fully integrated and coordinated mental health system which focuses on people’s strengths and supports their whole health and wellbeing. They have commissioned SLAM NHS as part of the Lambeth Living Well Network (LWN) Alliance to lead, co-ordinate and, in large part, deliver support and services for those experiencing mental health issues in Lambeth.
The Trust:The South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust is part of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) and committed to innovation, effective interventions and improved service user outcomes. It provides mental health services to the people of Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham and Croydon, and some more specialist services to people from across the UK.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
· To act, alongside colleagues, as Lead Psychological Therapist for one of the place-based Living Well Centres (North) and the Tier 1 protocolised interventions service, supporting the multidisciplinary team and psychological therapies pathway in the care of complex presentations
· To provide specialist psychological assessment, formulation and interventions for people with complex mental health presentations. The role will also involve the provision of advice, education and support to service users and their carers or family members as indicated. You will also act as the psychological therapies lead to ensure effective care between the team and the pathway, leading Tier 1 provision. This role also involves providing assessment and intervention for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms in a population with complex emotional needs.
· To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.
· To provide clinical supervision and consultation as appropriate, functioning as a lead specialist clinician in relevant therapies and the Tier 1 context.
· To ensure that systems are in place and working effectively for managing care in these components of the pathway, and across relevant care teams/systems.
· To undertake service evaluation, audit, research and policy development.
· To work as an autonomous professional within BPS/HCPC/ APC/BPC/UKCP/BACP guidelines and codes of conduct. Guided by principles and policies or procedures of SLaM and the borough, and taking responsibility for interpreting policies within defined parameters.
· To agree outcomes/results with clinical/professional lead and to decide how they are best achieved.
· Toutilisetheory, evidence-based literature and research to supportevidence-basedpracticeand/or currently understood best practice-based evidence,in individual work and work with other team members.
· Liaison with external agencies
· Investigations and incidents - lead on informal and formal
· Flow management (Capacity/Demand) for locality
· Ensuring staff stay up to date with developments in field
· Data reporting to senior leadership team, including flagging and problem solving suggestions of difficulties
· The post holder will need to provide visible and effective clinical leadership to the clinical teams they supervise and be skilled in working collaboratively with others.
Person specification
Qualifications
* A First-class or Upper-second-class Bachelors degree with Honours in Psychology that is accredited by the British Psychological Society and confers the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership of the British Psychological Society, or equivalent conferring GBC, including BPS-accredited conversion course.
* MSc or PhD in mental health related topic scores 2; Other PG training in Mental health scores 1, no PG training in MH scores 0 (2)
Experience
* Post-graduate experience (voluntary or paid) of psychological assessment and/or treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs in people with complex mental health difficulties to be able to develop towards working clinically under close direct supervision.
* Experience of conducting research projects or audits.
* Experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities. This may have been gained through work, research, volunteering and / or lived experience.
* Experience of developing/supporting and or implementing groups
* Experience working with the electronic patient journey system
Skills
* Psychological assessment skills
* Verbal and written communication skills - including communicating complex information to complex context
* IT and data skills
The Trust is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect and dignity and in promoting equality and human rights. We aim to put this commitment into practice by:
* Embedding our commitment to tackling inequality, eliminating discrimination and harassment; promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good relations in our everyday practice
* Ensuring that all our services and all staff understand and support our commitment
* We believe that people who use our services, their carers and our staff, should be treated with compassion, respect and dignity
Please note:
* That all applications for this post will need to be made online
* That you read and understand the Job Description and Personal Specification attached to the role. Your Statement in Support should reflect the requirements specified as your application will be judged against these criteria
* That the closing date listed is a guide only and that the vacancy may close earlier should sufficient number of applicants have been received. We advise that you submit your application as early as possible
* That once you have submitted your application you agree to your application being transferred to a 3rd party e-recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs
* That should you not have heard from us within three weeks from the closing date your application has not successful
* That priority consideration for applications may be given to at-risk NHS employees
* That should you be successful and appointed, you authorise South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to confirm your previous NHS service via an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process
* That we are a smoke-free Trust
SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion, Stonewall is the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans (LGBT) rights charity in Europe’
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.
Name Hielkje Verbrugge Job title Co-lead Lambeth SCPT Email address hielkje.verbrugge@slam.nhs.uk Additional information
PLEASE BE AWARE THIS POST MAY CLOSE SOONER THAN CLOSING DATE
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