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Job summary

Main area
Consultant Clinical Psychologist
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 8c
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref
196-SMT1805M
Employer
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, Education Centre
Town
London
Salary
£88,250 - £100,355 per annum inc HCA
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
29/04/2026 23:59

Employer heading

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust logo

Head of OH Psychology & Consultant Clinical Psychologist

NHS AfC: Band 8c

Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.

Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.

Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions. 

Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.

In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.

We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.

Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’. Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’.

The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.

We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.



Job overview

This is a fast‑paced and varied role, and we are seeking a proactive, expert practitioner and collaborative leader to ensure effective operational delivery and performance of the Occupational Health (OH) Psychology Service. Supporting the operational leadership of the mental health strand of the Trust’s staff health and wellbeing programme (5 Ways to a Healthier YOU), the post‑holder will lead the development, delivery and evaluation of a high‑quality, evidence‑based psychological service for staff.

The post-holder will oversee the establishment of the restructured Service, ensuring efficient use of resources, identifying new opportunities, and maintaining equitable access. Responsibilities include operational management, clinical governance, performance monitoring, risk management and service improvement.

Excellent communication skills will be essential for building productive relationships and strategic partnerships across the Trust, championing staff mental wellbeing and strengthening the Service’s visibility.

The post‑holder will act as a strategic lead and clinical role model, providing expert guidance, supervision and performance management to Practitioner Psychologists, alongside delivering psychological expertise to multidisciplinary initiatives and Trust‑wide leadership forums.

We are looking for a motivated professional who is passionate about staff mental health and wellbeing, committed to best practice and confident in leading change.

 

Main duties of the job

Are you motivated by the opportunity to further develop your leadership and people management skills?  We need a highly experienced senior Clinical Psychologist and exceptional people manager to effectively drive forward our restructured OH Psychology Service.  

The post holder will be a strategic decision-maker, working closely as a member of the OH Senior Management Team to help shape the future direction and sustainability of the Service.  

With extensive experience of managing psychological services and teams the post-holder will provide leadership, supervision and performance management for senior psychologists and other disciplines within the Service.  

An expert practitioner, with broad clinical experience, the post-holder will provide and role-model evidence-based psychological interventions across a wide variety of client groups, exercising full clinical responsibility for patients' care and management.

The post-holder will actively participate in service improvement projects/initiatives, design/lead research activities and able to provide effective psychological concepts training.

With very effective communication skills, the post-holder will need to form excellent working relationships and strategic partnerships both within Therapies and across multi-disciplinary teams, ensuring expert consultation and Service promotion cross-Trust.

Working for our organisation

 The Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Service (OHSWB) brings together specialist services including occupational health, health and safety, manual handling, staff wellbeing, psychological support and research.  Part of the Workforce Directorate, OHSWB also leads the Trust’s staff health and wellbeing programme.  Research is supported through the London Centre for Work and Health, led by the OHSWB Research Team, with contribution to approved local and national projects.

The Showing we care about you programme offers a wide range of benefits across work, personal and family life. Its HWB strand, 5 Ways to a Healthier YOU, provides self‑referral for physiotherapy, dietetic and smoking‑cessation support, as well as access to specialist psychological services. The wider offer includes mindfulness and stress‑awareness training, the employee assistance programme, physical‑activity initiatives, lunchtime walks, fitness classes, the Workplace Challenge and wellbeing roadshows.

The OH Psychology Service provides psychological therapies for staff referred via OHSWB, plus Trust‑wide support, preventative initiatives and expert advice. Improving staff psychological wellbeing strengthens health, engagement and patient care. The Service offers both reactive support (therapy, debriefs) and proactive interventions (organisational insight, reflective practice, psychoeducation).

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The OH Psychology Service maintains a strong emphasis on inclusive, high‑quality support, evidence‑based practice and robust clinical governance.

Drawing on their leadership, service‑management experience and significant clinical expertise, the post‑holder will lead, develop and support the restructured OH Psychology Service. They will oversee operational delivery and performance, reviewing systems to ensure timely access to a range of evidence‑based interventions and resources for staff.

The post-holder will be responsible for developing, delivering and evaluating a safe, effective and high‑quality psychological service, monitoring outcomes and audit data, sustaining the psychoeducation offer and establishing processes to support staff following traumatic events.

Working collaboratively, the post‑holder will oversee and advise Lead Practitioner Psychologists to ensure appropriate prioritisation and coordination of clinical and corporate group initiatives, supporting the development of sustainable systems of psychological care across service areas.

As an expert practitioner and communicator, they will role‑model effective therapeutic practice, foster multidisciplinary collaboration and champion joint staff health and wellbeing initiatives across the Trust.

Further details are available in the job description, person specification and functional requirements.

Person specification

Knowledge/Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • BSc (Hons) Psychology
  • Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, Counselling Psychology or Health Psychology
  • HCPC Registration as Practitioner Psychologist
Desirable criteria
  • Eligible for UKCP or BABCP accreditation
  • Post-doctoral training in 1 or more additional specialist areas of psychological practice
  • Qualification in occupational psychology

Previous Experience

Essential criteria
  • Extensive experience of setting up, delivering and planning/managing psychological services
  • Significant experience of leadership and professional management of teams and services
  • Experience of application of psychology in different cultural contexts
  • Experience of leading, supervising and managing senior Psychologists and other disciplines
  • Experience of teaching/training a wide range of professionals in psychological concepts
  • Experience of developing, implementing and applying qualitative and quantitative evaluation to support funding cases and team performance
  • Experience of service planning and performance management
  • Experience of setting up new services
Desirable criteria
  • Experience in occupational psychology
  • Experience of representing the profession in local and national policy forums
  • Track record of authoring and publishing of peer reviewed publications
  • Experience participating in service improvement projects/initiatives including health and wellbeing projects
  • Experience liaising with service commissioners
  • Experience in delivering service Occupational Health settings

Skills

Essential criteria
  • Ability to maintain high degree of professionalism in face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and threat of physical abuse
  • Ability to supervise psychologists across grades and professional divisions using strong conceptual basis tailored to their professional, clinical and developmental needs
  • Advanced knowledge of psychological interventions, application and supervision of others particularly CBT and behaviour management
  • Proven strong leadership skills and ability to work effectively as a resource and role model for the service and multidisciplinary OH department
  • Highly skilled communicator at both a written and oral level imparting complex highly technical and clinically sensitive information to patients, their families, and carers and a wide range of lay and professional people within and outside the NHS
  • Ability to translate and integrate evidence-based research/guidelines into the development of a pathway of care
  • Ability to form excellent working relationships both within Therapies and across multidisciplinary teams
  • Advanced skills providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
  • Knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management
Desirable criteria
  • Highly developed knowledge of theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies
  • Have advanced skills in research methods including highly developed knowledge and expertise in research design and methodology as appropriate for the field of clinical health psychology
  • Commitment to service evaluation enthusiasm for both multi-professional and uni-professional audit

Additional Information

Essential criteria
  • Must be capable of identifying and employing, as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice
  • Extensive experience of working within a multi-cultural environment
  • Ability to regularly carry out clinical work with moderate / intense effort involved
  • Ability to work in an environment where the work patterns are disrupted by frequent demands and competing priorities

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Timewise helps businesses to attract and develop the best talent through flexible working.Care quality commission - GoodDisability confident employer

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
Helen Kay
Job title
Director of Nursing and General Manager
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
02071884147
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