Job summary
- Main area
- Psychological Therapist
- Grade
- Band 7
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 363-FOR7511497
- Employer
- East London NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- East London Community Forensic Service
- Town
- London
- Salary
- £56,276 - £63,176 per annum Inc HCAs
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 31/10/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Psychological Therapist
Band 7
ELFT has long been recognised as a centre of excellence for mental and health care, innovation and improvement. So it is a very exciting time for you to come and work for us. Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.
Job overview
We are excited to advertise a senior post in ELFT forensic directorate’s Drug and Alcohol Service. We are looking for an enthusiastic psychological therapist who has experience of working with people with substance use problems and/or experience of working with complex mental health presentations in a community, inpatient, or forensic setting. We are especially keen to hear from applicants who are representative of the diverse population we serve.
The post holder will work across two community forensic services, one specialising in supporting people with learning disabilities and autism, and the other supporting people leaving mainstream inpatient forensic services. These community teams cover seven East London localities. The post holder will offer specialist assessment and psychosocial intervention to forensic service users with historical or current problems with substance use who are either in the community or approaching discharge from our inpatient services. The post holder will also provide consultation and training to other professionals across the service, and be responsible for the management and clinical oversight of two Drug and Alcohol Service team members working across the community teams.
The post holder will be embedded within the forensic directorate’s Drug and Alcohol Service, a multidisciplinary, specialist team, with access to rich supervision and CPD opportunities.
Main duties of the job
- Provide specialist assessment and psychosocial interventions to forensic service users with historical or current problems with substance use who are either in the community or approaching discharge from our inpatient services
- Provide specialist consultation and advice to multidisciplinary colleagues
- Management and supervision of junior staff
- In collaboration with the Head of Drug and Alcohol Service, provide leadership to the community parts of the team
- Contribute to the development and implementation of effective governance frameworks, and to the audit and evaluation of services
- Contribute to the development and delivery of training to a wide range of staff across the forensic directorate
Working for our organisation
Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
For full details of the job please refer to the attached Job Description and Person Specification files
Person specification
Education/ qualification/ training
Essential criteria
- • Relevant clinical qualification as a psychological therapist within health or social care professions
- • Accreditation and registration with the relevant clinical body
Desirable criteria
- • Other relevant CPD qualifications, pre- or post-training. Especially training in working with people with trauma presentations, research methodology, staff training, and/or other fields of applied psychology
Experience
Essential criteria
- • Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care, and 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, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
- • Experience of working with clients from a range of cultural and ethnic groups and within a multicultural framework
- • Experience working with those with a diagnosis of severe and enduring mental illness, personality disorder and/or a history of self-harm and/or trauma.
- • Experience of working with those with histories of problematic substance use
- • Experience of working effectively in multidisciplinary settings.
- • Experience of teaching and training
Desirable criteria
- • Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural and specialist contexts.
- • Experience of working within a criminal justice or forensic mental health service
- • Experience of working with service-users to develop peer facilitated support or treatment initiatives
Knowledge and Skills
Essential criteria
- • Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention, and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- • 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
- • Skills in providing training, advice, and psychological information and consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
- • Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design, and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
- • Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g., personality disorder, co-occurring conditions
- • Ability to work intensively with people who present challenges in the complexity of their problems and needs including self-harming and suicidal behaviours and violent offending.
Desirable criteria
- • High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
- • Knowledge of legislation in relation to this client group and mental health.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
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
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Dr Matt Charles
- Job title
- Head of Drug and Alcohol Service
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 020 8510 2421
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