Job vacancy: Highly Specialist - Research Clinical Psychologist, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford

Job summary

Main area

Psychology

Grade

Band 8a

Contract

12 months (fixed term contract linked to research funding)

Hours

Full time
Part time

37.5 hours per week (full time)

Job ref

267-CS7238384

Employer: Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type: NHS
Site: Department of Experimental Psychology
Town: Oxford
Salary: £53,755 - £60,504 per annum | pro rata
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 19/06/2025 23:59
Interview date: 11/07/2025

Highly Specialist - Research Clinical Psychologist

Band 8a

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has been rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

We are a responsive and innovative Foundation Trust that places our values of Caring, Safe and Excellent at the heart of everything we do. We take great pride in our staff and believe that investing in you is key to us achieving our vision of outstanding care delivered by outstanding people.

We work with a wide range of partner organisations to deliver care and support to people in their own homes and from a number of hospitals and community bases. We focus on delivering care as close to home as possible for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.

We actively support anti-racism, equality, diversity, and inclusion so, if you’re excited about this job opportunity and you meet our Trust values, but feel unsure about applying, then please get in touch and we will be happy to have a conversation with you.

We are also committed to increasing diversity in the workforce, that is why we actively encourage applications from those groups of people who are currently under-represented, which include amongst others: people with disabilities; men from all socio-economic backgrounds; people from diverse ethnic backgrounds; and people from the LGBTQIA+ community.

Good luck and we hope to hear from you.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

You'll be joining the Oxford Cognitive Approaches to Psychosis (O-CAP) clinical research group based in the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford. We are a large clinical research team working to understand why mental health problems happen and how they can be best treated psychologically. The O-CAP team comprises approximately 40 people, including clinical psychologists, project coordinators, peer support workers, VR computer scientists, research assistants, DPhil students, and administrators. It is a thriving and supportive clinical research group that aims to carry out work to the highest standards for patients.

The focus of this post is delivering specialist psychological therapy for young people at risk of psychosis in the context of a major new clinical trial for early psychosis. There are also supervision, teaching, and publication opportunities.

The position will suit a clinical psychologist keen to apply cognitive theory and therapeutic techniques to improve treatment outcomes. This is a fixed term 12month post in the first instance, but there are likely to be opportunities to extend. We are keen to develop the post-holder in a clinical academic career. The post-holder will be supervised by Dr Felicity Waite and Prof Daniel Freeman, and we welcome discussions with potential candidates.

To lead the delivery of a specialist, remote psychological therapies clinic for young people at ultra-high risk of psychosis, building on the SleepWell clinical trial.
To deliver highly specialist psychological therapy to treat sleep problems in young people at risk of psychosis as part of a large clinical trial: Sleeping Better. The postholder will maintain a caseload of approximately 15 patients seen remotely.
To help support the day-to-day management of the project at the local site, ensuring milestones are achieved and the work is carried out to the highest standards.
To contribute to the supervision of assistant psychologists and graduate mental health workers in the delivery of psychological interventions.
To contribute to the supervision of research assistants in the recruitment and assessment of trial participants.
To work closely with the clinical teams in the collaborating NHS mental health trusts. This will include delivering new treatments to patients in these trusts as part of the clinical research and supervising and training others in the delivery of treatments.
To provide regular reports on the progress of the study. This will include providing information needed by the funder.
To work closely with other members of the O-CAP research group, helping to ensure the success of studies conducted within the group.
To ensure excellent working relationships with collaborators across the project.
To conduct good record-keeping and report writing.
To work to standard operational procedures for the projects.
To attend supervision and research team meetings.
Administrative duties related to the projects.
To undertake research supervision, teaching, and contribute to publications.
Treatment is provided in a number of NHS trusts. This means there will be travel across the large geographical area both to clinical teams and patient homes, which would be facilitated by having a valid driving licence and access to own or other independent means of transport.
The projects include large multi-site clinical trials across the UK and therefore occasional travel between sites will be necessary.
To work within the guidelines set out by the Data Protection Act, the Code of Ethics, Trust policies and procedures, and with full understanding of confidentiality issues
Other duties appropriate to the grade as directed.

Please see the job description and person specification attached to this advert for more information on the job role.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (or equivalent). Qualification required by time of taking up the post – therefore applications are welcomed from those in the final year of doctoral clinical psychology training.
Registered with HCPC

Experience

Essential criteria

Experience of conducting individual therapy sessions with patients who are experiencing difficulties related to psychosis.
Excellent cognitive therapy skills - to enable treatment delivery and treatment development.
Experience of delivering clinical interventions with young people.
Experience of clinical research.
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 specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature.
Experience that supports working with and addressing issues of diversity within local communities.

Desirable criteria

Experience of providing supervision.
Experience of clinical trials.
Experience of working with individuals with lived experience in the development of psychological research or practice.
Experience of authorship of publications.

Knowledge

Essential criteria

Knowledge of the theory, evidence base, and practice of specialised psychological assessments and interventions for people with psychosis
Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health issues, child and adult protection, and equalities.
Knowledge of clinical trials
In-depth understanding of the theoretical and empirical foundations of cognitive approaches to mental health disorders.

Skills

Essential criteria

Excellent skills in engagement of patients in psychological intervention.
Ability to communicate sensitively and skilfully (oral and written).
Ability to supervise psychology graduate research assistants.

Desirable criteria

Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.

All new starters have a thorough induction process, both local and Trust wide, which aims to create a positive supportive working environment allowing new employees to learn key elements of their role over a reasonable timescale.
Appointment to this post is subject to the trust receiving satisfactory references covering 3 years of employment or study. Please ask your referees to respond promptly to reference requests.
We’re advocates of flexible working and many of our roles offer a range of employment options to help you balance your work and personal life.
Employees are expected to undertake mandatory and statutory training related to their role.
We are ambitious in our pursuit of excellence, driven by the belief that a fair, just and fully inclusive organisational culture enables our teams to deliver the best quality of care and services possible and we work hard to ensure that our diverse workforce reflects the communities that we serve.
We welcome applications from all sections of the community, are an Equal Opportunities employer with a number of internal networking groups to support our employees and where possible will always look to make reasonable adjustments in order that you can fulfil the role to recognise your full potential. All our employees are committed to demonstrating through their behaviour our core values – safe, caring and excellent.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, we expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
Oxford is a world-renowned centre of excellence for research. Oxford Health works closely with the University of Oxford department of Psychiatry and the Department of Primary care, has a Biomedical Research Centre dedicated to improving mental health and the NIHR Clinical Research Facility at the Warneford site. The Trust also hosts the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) which carries out applied research that directly impacts patient health and wellbeing

Mindful employer. Being positive about mental health.

Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) - Gold

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 Felicity Waite

Job title

Consultant Clinical Psychologist

Email address

[email protected]

Telephone number

01865 618192

Additional information

At Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust we want to employ people not just with experience, but with the aptitude and motivation to succeed and whose values resonate with our own.

Therefore, if you don’t meet all the requirements of the role and are unsure about applying but are excited about the opportunity, please do get in touch. We will be happy to discuss the requirements in more detail ahead of making a written application.

List jobs with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust in Allied Health Professions or all sectors

Job summary

Employer heading

Highly Specialist - Research Clinical Psychologist

Band 8a

Job overview

Main duties of the job

Working for our organisation

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Experience

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Knowledge

Essential criteria

Skills

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

Documents to download

Further details / informal visits contact

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