Main area Mental Health Grade NHS AfC: Band 7 Contract Permanent
* Full time
* Part time
37.5 hours per week (Between 22.5 (min) and 37.5 (max) hours per week) Job ref 333-G-HM-0749
Site Beaufort House, Uxbridge Town Uxbridge Salary £53,751 - £60,651 per annum inc HCAS (pro rata P/T) Salary period Yearly Closing 01/01/2026 23:59
CNWL (Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust) has almost 8,000 staff providing integrated healthcare to a third of London's population, Milton Keynes and areas beyond. We involve service users, carers, the public, staff and partner organisations in the way that we are run.
We are committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We follow safe recruitment practices to protect children and vulnerable adults.
Job overview
Applicants must be fully accredited and on the Accredited register of the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). This covers Accredited Counsellors / Counselling Psychologists registered with the UKCP, BPC, HCPC or an equivalent professional bodies and/or Accredited with the BACP. Please provide correct details of registration to confirm Accreditation by search of number and not name, on the PSA or BACP 'Find an Accredited Therapist', for shortlisting.
Main duties of the job
Our counselling service works to a brief model, offering between 8 and 10 sessions of generic counselling or around 16 sessions for therapy within one of the specialist relational modalities. Clinicians offer 5 sessions within each working day of 7.5 hours, with adjustments to accommodate service meetings, paid CPD and training and generous paid holiday leave. Our post-holders work between 3 days (22.5hrs) and 5 days (37.5hrs) a week, one day of which must be a Tuesday. Individual supervision is provided fortnightly with additional supervision for modality clinical work.
Staff currently work to a mix of home- and site-working in order to meet the demand for face to face work and for team cohesion and wellbeing.
Clinicians currently offer either video or face to face sessions, dependent on patient choice and clinical need. Service hours are between 8am and 6pm and clinicians are expected to provide some later working hours within their week. Our primary hub is at Beaufort House in central Uxbridge. There is no on-site parking. CNWL offers flexible working to meet staff wellbeing for a health work-life balance.
You will join a friendly, highly experienced and diverse team of clinicians and have opportunities to work in innovative areas of the service including our perinatal and Long Term Conditions provisions.
Working for our organisation
The Hillingdon Talking Therapies Service is an innovative and progressive Talking Therapies service provided by Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust. We work in close partnership with our local GP Confederation within North West London, with other mental health services, with CNWL Community physical healthcare teams and with voluntary sector and other specialist services delivering primary care support and treatment, including the primary care eating disorders team STRIDES, services for Young Adults, outreach initiatives supporting those suffering healthcare and economic inequalities and building relationships with community connectors.
We are a supportive, friendly and experienced group of clinicians with core training in psychodynamic or integrative counselling models, working within a busy and creative service.
The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Accredited Counsellors without modality training enter preceptorship positions at band 6 including outer London weighting, to undertake funded training for a further year in one of the relational modality trainings with advancement to band 7. Those qualified as practitioners in a Talking Therapies modality join at band 7 with outer London weighting.
Person specification
Education and qualifications
* A Counselling Diploma approved by the BACP or equivalent.
* Accredited with the UKCP, BACP, BPC, HCPC or PSA equivalent professional accreditation
* Critical understanding of the relevance of studies of human development, psychopathology, psychology, social issues and evidence-based practice.
* Supervisor qualification from a substantial Counselling and/or IAPT modality supervision course, as a supervisor for Counselling, CfD, DIT, IPT, Couples Therapy, EMDR or CBT
* Additional training in specialist areas related to primary care mental health eg LTC, Perinatal, CBT principles, clinical risk assessment
* Qualified/Registered Mental Health Professional
Previous Experience
* Experience of working as a qualified counsellor with specialist post-qualification experience in the NHS, including substantial post-qualification experience within primary care.
* Experience of professional management and supervision of qualified and pre-qualified counsellors in the NHS in a primary care setting.
* Experience of working with a wide range of clients over the age of 18 years and including older adults presenting with mild to moderate degrees of severity of mental illness.
* Experience of working in the NHS or an IAPT service or other primary care setting, providing specialist expertise in the field of brief Counselling interventions.
* Experience of assessing clinical risk in the context of common mental health problems.
* Specialist experience acquired through having conducted 450 hours of supervised assessment and Counselling therapy during training.
* Specialist psychotherapeutic working experience.
* Experience of the application of psychotherapy in different cultural and diversity contexts.
* Experience of working within a primary care/community setting
* Experience of managing an independent and specialist caseload.
* Research skills and knowledge and aptitude.
Skills and Knowledge
* Qualification as practitioner in a specialist brief model of psychotherapy a Talking Therapies modality
* Ability to work independently and manage a caseload, with freedom to act and take decisions about patient care, under supervision.
* Skills in providing professional and clinical supervision, management and training to qualified and pre-qualified counsellors.
* Experience of carrying a high patient caseload
Other
* To demonstrate emotional resilience and stability. Ability to establish and maintain working relationships under pressure
The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.
* Due to the high response levels we receive for some vacancies, we may expire any of them prior to the advertised closing date and advise you to submit your application as soon as possible.
* Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Before submitting your application and to avoid disappointment please check that you are eligible under the UKVI points based system
* Our Agenda for Change employment contracts are subject to a contractual 13 week probationary period.
* If you are offered a job, information will be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.
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.
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