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Job summary

Main area
Senior Clinical or Counselling Psychologist - Early Intervention in Psychosis Service
Grade
Band 8a
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Part time - 22.5 hours per week
Job ref
364-A-9244
Employer
Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Holmer Court
Town
Colchester
Salary
£47,810 - £62,682 per annum pro rata
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
24/08/2025 23:59

Employer heading

Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust logo

Senior Clinical or Counselling Psychologist - EIP Service

Band 8a

Our Trust cares for more than 100,000 patients at any one time across our community health, mental health and learning disability services across Essex and parts of Bedfordshire and Suffolk. 

We want you to be part of our journey of transformation, where our patients and their families are at the heart of everything we do and to achieve our vision to be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care.

You’ll be part of a Trust where you will be supported to be your authentic self and be the best you can be, where we will help you to grow, develop and thrive. 

The Trust is recognised by the University of Essex and is a top provider of apprenticeships for people looking to be an assistant practitioner, senior health care support worker (CAP). Our trailblazing CAP apprenticeship won a national HSJ Award.

We are also recognised as a Veteran Aware Trust and holder of gold accreditation from the Ministry of Defence Employment Recognition Scheme. Our services are highlighted as an exemplar of good practice, producing the best care for more than 3.500 armed forces veterans in the past seven years. 

We have been shortlisted and won national awards. We are an inclusive organisation and Level 3 Disability Confident Leader Trust.

We are constantly innovating and looking for new ways to deliver care, such as using technology to enhance patient care and working with partners to launch new services such as the Basildon Mental Health Urgent Care Department, virtual hospitals and falls response cars.  

Join us and you’ll do the best work of your life – and make a difference to other people’s lives. What we do together, matters.

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join our Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP) Team in North East Essex (Colchester and Tendring).

Our EIP teams across Essex provide specialist services for people aged 14 – 65 years old who are experiencing psychosis for the first time. We support people and their families through what can be a difficult and confusing time, helping them to make sense of what is happening, feel more in control, and work towards their goals.

National standards for EIP highlight the importance quick access to services and we develop a collaborative plan with people within two weeks of referral. These standards also emphasise timely interventions, specifically CBT for psychosis (CBTp), evidence-based Family Interventions (FIp), and psychological support for carers and family members. We have innovative approaches for early access to psychological interventions. Psychologists are supported and encouraged to pursue further training, with people recently trained in CBTp and FIp (including supervision training), and EMDR. Value is also placed on psychologists being involved in service development, including working with our developing At Risk Mental States (ARMS) service.

We also welcome applications from newly qualified Clinical Psychologists seeking a preceptorship opportunity. 

For further information, please contact Dr Claire Wheeler, Principal Clinical Psychologist ([email protected], 01206 334000)

Main duties of the job

The EIP team provides a community based service for people from 14-65 who are experiencing a first episode of psychosis. The psychological therapists in the teams work autonomously within professional guidelines to provide a high quality specialist psychology service to service users, their families, and other professionals/services involved in the life and care of service users.

You would ensure that effective, tailored, evidence based psychological assessments and interventions are delivered to service users and their families and deliver interventions underpinned by evidence based practice, NICE guidance, and DH guidance.

You would be responsible for robust assessment and formulation of a service user’s psychological needs, offering highly skilled care planning in response to the formulation and communicating this accordingly to those involved in the care of the service user.

You would contribute to the management of referrals by attending MDTs and weekly team meetings, assisting colleagues to develop working hypotheses of patients’ presenting needs and informing the next steps in their care.

You would assist in and contribute to the development of services, teams, projects and interventions and contribute to the review and evaluation of these developments, giving expert clinical advice to management.

In delivering your duties you are expected to display behaviours that are aligned with the Trust values and your professional body.

Working for our organisation

EPUT are looking for motivated staff who shares our Trust values of Care, Learn and Empower. In return, EPUT can offer you a range of benefits and development including;

  • Season Ticket Loans
  • NHS discounts for staff
  • Excellent Training facilities and opportunities
  • Buying and Selling annual leave scheme
  • The opportunity to work bank shifts and expand knowledge and experience in other areas
  • Salary Sacrifice schemes including lease cars and Cycle to Work
  • Day One Flexible Employer

The Trust supports and actively encourages flexible working for all employees. We offer many options and you are encouraged to ask the recruiting manager what is possible for this role. If appointed, you will have the opportunity to apply for a flexible working request from the first day of your employment

Join our Staff bank

What is Staff Bank?

Our EPUT NHS staff bank is an entity managed by the trust that hires clinical and non-clinical healthcare professionals to take on shifts at our trust hospitals and community settings. Here at EPUT we maintain our own bank of specialist staff to ensure that we are able offer safe and effective care at all times.

All our permanent staff are automatically enrolled onto the staff bank however this does not mean you have to work any additional shifts, but the option is there for you if you wish.

If you are joining our Trust in a fixed term role, please indicate on your New Starter Paperwork that you wish to join our staff bank.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please refer to the attached Job Description and Person Specification for a detailed list of responsibilities.

Person specification

Education / Qualifications / Knowledge

Essential criteria
  • Professional qualification from an accredited course with relevant (e.g. HCPC) registration
  • Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment and intervention
  • Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in written reports, letters and other health correspondence, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information
Desirable criteria
  • Training in additional specialised areas of psychological practice e.g. CBT, CBTp, EMDR or other.
  • Experience of working in EIP or other specialist mental health services with people experiencing psychosis
  • Formal training in supervision of other psychological therapists

Skills/Experience

Essential criteria
  • Post-qualification experience with psychosis, complex mental health, young adult, or adult populations
  • Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across a range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and/or in-patient settings.
  • Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems
  • Experience of delivering supervision, teaching and/or training
Desirable criteria
  • Demonstrate advanced specialist training and/or experience
  • Experience of delivering evidence-based Family Interventions
  • Training/experience in neuropsychological models

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Apprenticeships logoNo smoking policyMenopause Friendly EmployerPositive about disabled peopleAge positiveDisability confident leaderImproving working livesArmed Forces Covenant Gold AwardMindful employer.  Being positive about mental health.Essex Family Friendly Employers

Applicant requirements

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.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Dr Claire Wheeler
Job title
Principal Clinical Psychologist
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
01206 334000
Additional information

(Working days: Tuesday to Friday)

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