Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
Job summary
Clinical/Counselling Psychologist (Band 8a) or Preceptorship (Band 7)
Permanent Post 0.9 (33.75 hours) opportunities for flexible working.
We are seeking to recruit a skilled, innovative and compassionate Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to work across the acute in-patient and community mental health services in the London borough of Greenwich.
Psychology’s contribution in these settings is well established, and the link that this post provides for older people who are transferring between the in-patient and community setting has been shown to be effective and highly valued.
This role involves 2.5 day based in the Older People CMHT at Memorial Hospital, Greenwich, and 2 days on Shepherdleas, the Older People acute ward at Oxleas House, Queen Elizabeth Hospital. This post would suit someone who has a genuine interest in working therapeutically with this varied and rewarding client group.
The post holder will join well established multi-professional teams and benefit from close working relationships with other on-site psychological therapists. This is an exciting opportunity to improve the service user’s experience of the interface between hospital and community services and to provide innovation and leadership in the development of the transitional pathway for older people.
Main duties of the job
The CMHT part of the post will include providing a specialist clinical service to clients and families, supervising both qualified and trainee psychologists, as required. You will join a dynamic and integrative team, in which different models of therapy are used creatively and according to our service users’ needs.
The ward provides an assessment and intervention service to older people with a range of mental health needs including dementia. This offers stimulating and fulfilling opportunities of working in a multi-modal trans-diagnostic approach with people with a wide variety of presentations and their families and carers.
On the ward, you will have a pivotal role in supporting the wider inpatient team to think more psychologically and reflect on the wider organisation of care. There is a strong focus on indirect work through team formulation, reflective practice and staff training.
We will support you to learn the skills you need to thrive in this role. Specialist clinical supervision will be provided. The post sits alongside other highly skilled and motivated psychological therapies staff who meet regularly to provide peer support, and develop/review the psychological service across the Acute and Crisis Pathway.
Person Specification
Training & Qualifications
Essential
- Doctoral level training in clinical psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology, as accredited by the BPS
- HCPC registration
Desirable
- Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology
Experience
Essential
- Experience of working in older people’s mental health services, including with people with dementia and their carers
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient, and assessment and intervention with patients with a wide variety of neurological deficits
Desirable
- Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision
- Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts
Knowledge & Skills
Essential
- Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings
- 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
Desirable
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities, dementia etc).
Effort & Environment
Essential
- Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and able to contain the stress of others.
- Ability to concentrate intensively for substantial periods of time during service user contact, teaching/supervision sessions, team meetings, preparing written work etc.
Desirable
- Genuine interest in working with Older People
Closing Date: 11 October 2026
To apply for this job please visit apps.trac.jobs.