Highly Specialist Practitioner Psychologist/Psychological Therapist

Highly Specialist Practitioner Psychologist/Psychological Therapist We are seeking to recruit an enthusiastic, compassionate and motivated Psychological Therapist for a whole-time post (1.0 WTE) in our Forensic Outreach Service (FOS). The role will be community-based, supporting the safe dischargeof adult forensic mental health service users as they move from secure hospital care into the community, including the Tilt service, a hostel for men with significant mental health needs and forensic risks. You will play a crucial role in the multi-professional approach to working with service users who have severe mental health and interpersonal issues, often co-occurring with substance dependency or neurodevelopmental disorders, all of whom present a risk that warrants support from forensic services.

Within the forensic community services, there is emphasis on improving quality of life and reducing inequalities for service users, and across the psychological therapies department there is a focus on CBT for psychosis, trauma informed and systemic approaches, with expert supervision available.

Travel between the three Oxleas boroughs - Bexley, Bromley, and Greenwich - is essential. This is a clinically focused role.

Candidates are expected to be psychological therapists with a minimum of 12 monthspost-qualification experience in relevant clinical services. For further details please contact: Dr Hazell Bale, Principal Psychologist

Main duties of the job You will offer direct clinical assessment and interventions in complex cases, including individual, group, and family work. In addition, you will provide support to the system around the service user, offering consultation and reflective practice to other professionals, and delivering staff training to clinical and non-clinical staff. There may also be opportunities to supervise trainees, and to undertake audit and research.

You will be the only psychological therapist in the FOS team but will have links to other forensic psychological therapies services, including receiving clinical supervision from a psychologist in the Forensic Intellectual and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (FIND) community team. You will also join monthly psychological therapies department meetings. The Forensic Psychological Therapies department provides a breadth of professional opportunities across community, prison and hospital settings and opportunities for research and career progression through ongoing professional development. The post holder will be encouraged to consolidate and further develop their skills and clinical interests in a friendly and supportive multi-professional and multi-agency context.

About us At Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, we offer a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people living in South-East London and to people in prison across England. Our wide array of services includes community health care, such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies.

Oxleas is a great place to work. In 2025 it was again recognised as one of the Best Places to Work by the Sunday Times amongst very big employers. Our staff survey results show that we are ranked second in England and the highest in London for staff experience amongst similar trusts.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:

• We're Kind
• We Listen
• We Care

Job responsibilities The Forensic Psychological Therapies department is an unusually large, long established and nationally well-regarded specialty. Psychological therapists are highly valued within the wider directorate and trust and occupy a variety of service-wide leadership roles, including as Responsible Clinicians. Staff in the Forensic Directorate report the highest levels of job satisfaction in a Trust recognised for positive employee feedback. The Psychological Therapies team is warm and friendly, whilst also being dynamic and innovative

• To travel to clinical venues, training activities and meetings as appropriate and across the Trust when required.
• To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group and follow Trust policies relating to its management.
• To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations of people in distress or in crisis and who may be abusive and to support others involved in such situations.
• To work flexibly which may include offering some regular commitment to late clinics or weekend working, within the overall Job Plan.
• To be proficient in the use of IT for purposes such as email, electronic calendar, intranet, video calls and electronic clinical records.
• To be familiar with word processing, database, and statistical packages, and to use such packages appropriately as necessary.
• To maintain high standards of clinical record keeping, including electronic clinical records and report writing, in accordance with professional codes of practice and Trust policies and procedures.
• To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues pertaining to the client group.
• To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a senior psychological practitioner according to professional and Trust guidelines and, where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues.
• To attend Reflective Practice reliably.
• To maintain own Continuing Professional Development in line with registered body and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements.
• To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.
• To comply with the registered body Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics/Standards of Proficiency.
• To ensure that all assistant for whom the post-holder has management responsibility maintain professional standards and adhere to all organisational HR policies and procedures.
• Maintaining registration and standards of practice according to the employer and any regulating bodies e.g., the UKCP, BABCP & HCPC etc.
• Ensuring all aspects of confidentiality relating to both the service and individuals are always maintained.
• To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.
• To ensure the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry, in those parts of the service for which the post-holder has management or leadership responsibility.

Management responsibilities

• To provide line management to pre-qualified staff and to supervise students and trainees.
• To support recruitment of psychological therapies staff to the service.
• For staff line managed, to ensure local standards are implemented for the allocation and review of work, job planning, review of performance, sickness management and initial stages of grievance or disciplinary action.
• To oversee quality line management and supervision within the team structure, ensuring that assistant psychologists and trainees acquire the necessary skills, competencies, and experience to contribute effectively to health care, and to contribute to the assessment and evaluation of such competencies.
• To supervise psychological work carried out by other professionals as appropriate.
• To provide highly specialist advice, consultation and training of staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate. This may include work with the Criminal Justice System and Childrens Services.
• To implement clinical governance standards within the service and ensure that these are maintained and improved.
• Ensure that services to clients are of a high quality and are managed efficiently, according to the overall requirements of the Trust, NHS and government guidance and standards.
• To undertake quality improvement projects relevant to the role.
• To ensure the engagement of service users in planning and delivering services.

Leadership

• To support the effective working of the team and a psychologically informed framework for the team.
• Deliver accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
• To be proactive in challenging discrimination.
• To advise other members of the service on specialist psychological care of clients.
• To liaise with the service/s MDT and other professionals including to liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients to develop and review care plans.
• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature, and research.
• Work within the remit of relevant policies and procedures for the safe running of the service.
• To provide and support specialist clinical placements for students and trainees in applied psychological practice.
• To contribute to the delivery of teaching and training to psychological practitioners and other professions.
• To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the service by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychological therapy and risk assessment / management and to implement knowledge gained in practice.
• To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.
. click apply for full job details