Counselling Psychologist jobs in United Kingdom

We are looking to recruit a Practitioner Psychologist to clinically lead and oversee psychological practice in the Mental Health Integrated Network Teams (MINTs) in Inner City and East Bristol. Bristol is a vibrant, multi‑cultural city and this post provides opportunities for close working with diverse local communities. As part of the Community Mental Health Framework, we are delivering an exciting transformation programme to support people with mental health needs who can fall thought the 'gaps' of current pathways to get the personalised help they need efficiently, and close to home.

We will consider 7 to 8a preceptorship for candidates with previous experience of the client group including community outreach and engagement work with marginalised populations.

To provide clinical leadership alongside the MINT team manager to the Mental Health and Wellbeing Integrated Network Team (MINT), including (but not limited to) guiding principles of the clinical framework, the delivery of a psychologically informed service, psychological interventions, and Quality Assurance of those interventions.

To use specialist psychological knowledge and skills to provide a formulation‑based care service to inform effective work with service users, families and carers.

To provide leadership and direction to the MINT in line with the Community Transformation Framework and Trauma‑Informed Care, delivering a service dedicated to reducing oppressive practice and addressing structural inequality in mental health‑care.

To provide highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy to service users and carers as appropriate to the service.

To provide highly specialist advice and consultation on clients' formulation and psychological management to non‑psychologist colleagues.

To clinically supervise/line manage trainee clinical psychologists, assistant psychologists, Clinical Associate Psychologists (CAPs) and less experienced psychology staff, and other professionals where indicated.

To contribute to audit, research, policy and service development within the areas served by the MINT and the Psychological Therapies Service/CPI.

To develop and deliver training to multidisciplinary staff.

We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust): a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community‑based mental health care.

We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.

Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person‑centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.

AWP is committed to support and create a positive research and evidence‑based environment and culture, which can have a beneficial impact on everyone who works for the organisation and the care we provide to those who use our services.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

To lead and deliver a high quality and largely autonomous and systematic clinical/counselling psychology service to the MINT in line with best practice and National guidelines.

To hold clinical responsibility for the MINT service alongside the MINT Team Manager.

To undertake highly specialist assessments, including neuropsychological assessment, risk assessment and assessment for suitability for specialist psychological therapies with clients and their carers (as appropriate to the role).

To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of clients mental health issues, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients experiences, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.

To be responsible for providing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers 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 provide at least one specialist evidence based psychological intervention as dictated by the needs of the service.

To provide highly specialist consultation to members of the various teams in the MINT and beyond regarding formulation and psychological management of clients of the MINT.

To be involved in the development and delivery of training to multidisciplinary staff in the MINT and other services in the local area.

To use highly specialist psychological knowledge and skills to contribute to the more effective management of service users by teams.

To participate in clinical and caseload supervision arrangements provided by the Service.

To maintain accurate records and to monitor clinical workload using agreed systems.

To support the full implementation of Your Team, Your Conversation, Your Plan or equivalent including acting as keyworker as appropriate to the needs of the service.

To enter data as requested by the Trust in a timely manner.

Capacity and demand of direct clinical intervention of the Psychologist is expected to work flexibly depending on the need of MINT and access to additional psychological roles (such as CAPs, Assistant Psychologists, etc).

To develop and facilitate a lead role across BNSSG for MINTs in one of the following areas: Interventions, Evaluation, Supervision, Training, Service User Involvement or External Networks.

Delegated caseload supervision.

Represent the service at specialist meetings as requested.

The co‑ordination of small scale projects as requested.

Support the MINT manager in daily operational activities.

To fully adhere to the Policies and Procedures of the HCPC. To fully observe the BPS (2009) Code of Conduct and the BPS Practice Guidelines for all Applied Psychologists (2017).

To be aware of, adhere to, and where appropriate, contribute to the formulation and review of Trust, Area, clinical/counselling psychology policies and procedures. Copies of Trust Policies can be accessed via the staff intranet or from your manager.

To participate in local psychological therapy and psychology meetings and Trust wide meetings as appropriate.

To maintain and develop high standards of clinical/counselling psychology practice by engaging in continuing professional development and co‑operative working/networking with other practitioner psychologists.

To participate in an annual performance appraisal.

To participate in clinical supervision.

To participate in service governance processes in the profession and in the LDU to maintain a safe, effective service which responds to Service User feedback.

To support and participate in multidisciplinary clinical audit.

To liaise with other disciplines and agencies to ensure that best practice is shared.

To promote the use of effective interventions in the service.

To provide supervision for clinical/counselling psychology trainees from regional training courses and Clinical Associate Psychologists (CAPs) and elsewhere as appropriate.

To provide training, supervision and consultation in psychological approaches to other staff in multidisciplinary teams. This is to include joint assessment, formulation of psychological difficulties and planning of interventions to be implemented by other team members with service users.

To contribute to the development of a psychologically based framework of understanding and care across service settings through providing teaching, training, consultation and supervision.

To provide training and supervision to assistant psychologists.

To participate in peer supervision arrangements for psychologists in the area.

To collaborate with colleagues to develop and offer training courses, workshops and supervision groups to develop psychological skills for staff in the area.

To contribute to the teaching of students and trainees in psychology, medicine, nursing and other health care disciplines.

To agree a plan of personal development with the line manager and professional lead for the service.

Provide inclusive, compassionate and effective leadership for your team by setting clear vision and direction.

Develop a culture and environment in which members of staff are encouraged and supported to deliver high‑quality services and are supported to innovate and improve services where appropriate.

Encourage your team to feel able to raise concerns openly and safely.

Promote equality of opportunity in service delivery and employment, ensuring that no person receives less favourable treatment than another on the grounds of gender, marital status, race, religion, creed, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation or disability.

Support prompt recruitment by identifying vacancies to the AWP Recruitment Team as soon as they arise and participate in the selection and effective induction and on‑boarding of new joiners to the team.

Ensure that all team members have a very positive introduction to the team and a well‑supported first year.

Take responsibility for encouraging people to stay with AWP, ensuring that you are aware whenever a member of your team is considering leaving, seeking to understand their reasons and encouraging them to stay.

Ensure that key messages are cascaded in your team and that your team are encouraged to put forward suggestions.

Show appreciation to your team when they do good work and support them when they are struggling.

Consider the individual needs of team members for a healthy work‑life balance and think about how their needs can be supported by providing flexible ways of working.

Support all team members to keep their mandatory and statutory training up‑to‑date and identify the learning and development needs of all team members of the team ensuring that everyone has an up‑to‑date personal development plan (PDP).

Ensure that every team member has at least an hour of supervision (one‑to‑one meeting) each month, this may include both managerial and clinical supervision.

Ensure all team members receive a constructive assessment of their performance each year and set SMART objectives for the coming year.

Seek support from the HR Team to tackle any worries regarding matters of discipline, including both conduct and capability concerns, supporting a just and restorative culture. Take prompt action regarding serious concerns and ensure clear plans are in place for problems which are less serious in nature but prove difficult to resolve.

Act as a positive role model at all times, encouraging people to feel equal members of the team whilst working within clear frameworks and policies.

Ensure that you and your team understand all of the agreed key performance indicators for the MINT service, particularly relating to outcomes and essential standards to be met.

Ensure that you and your team understand data quality standards and that all the necessary records for your service are maintained and reported.

Ensure that you and your team understand all of the monitoring, auditing and reporting systems relevant to your services.

Actively seek opportunities for improvement for the MINT by identifying research evidence and best practice elsewhere, interpreting/translating and facilitating adaptation for AWP.

Analyse and interpret data to inform the strategic direction of the services which you and your team provide.

Actively support co‑production and ensure community psychology values are at the centre of the development for the service.

Ensure that you understand all of the key governance requirements, policies and standards for your services and that these are communicated to your team; make sure your team understand the importance of good governance.

Support the development of policies relevant to the MINT, including your team in this work.

To engage in research relevant to service priorities as appropriate.

To participate in audit and service evaluation activities examining the effectiveness of current service delivery and informing the development of services relevant to client needs.

To provide advice, support and consultation to colleagues from other disciplines undertaking research in the area.

• Doctoral Clinical/Counselling Psychology qualification or equivalent.
• HCPC Registration
• Post qualification and further specialist training in specified specialist intervention.
• Supervision Training

• Experience of working alongside multidisciplinary colleagues.
• Training others in MH services topics
• Clinical supervision/consultation with other professionals
• Evidence based therapeutic interventions with client group
• Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge in the specialism. Ability to use this knowledge to think systemically/ organisationally.
• Experience of risk assessment and management
• Relevant R&D or clinical audit work post qualification
• Clinical supervision of clinical/counselling psychology trainees and/ or assistant psychologists
• Understanding of Critical Community Psychology Framework
• Experience of delivering short term individual or group based interventions

• Ability to work effectively and flexibly as an integral member of a team.
• Good communication and liaison skills
• Ability to utilise reflective practice skills
• Empathy/engagement skills with the client group.
• Ability to work independently
• Self‑awareness and emotional resilience

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.

Inner City and East Bristol MINT (The Sofa Project)

Second Floor‑Changing Futures, 48 ‑ 54 West Street, Old Market,