Clinical/Forensic/Counselling Psychologist in Swindon

Be U Swindon is a children and young people's emotional wellbeing service delivering early intervention, prevention, and targeted mental health support across Swindon. The service works with young people and families to promote resilience, improve emotional wellbeing, and prevent escalation to higher-tier mental health services.

Main duties of the job

The postholder will provide strong clinical oversight and leadership across the service, ensuring the safe, effective, and high-quality delivery of all elements of the Be U Swindon model. This includes overseeing the Single Point of Access (SPA) to ensure robust triage, risk management, and appropriate referral allocation, as well as maintaining the clinical quality and governance of all interventions to ensure they are evidence-informed and outcome-focused. You will offer leadership and guidance to the Haven Service, supporting the delivery of low-intensity interventions and urgent care, while ensuring consistent clinical decision-making across the service, particularly in relation to risk, safeguarding, and escalation pathways. The role also involves supporting staff through case consultation, supervision, and reflective practice to uphold high standards of care, promoting consistency and alignment across all service pathways, and ensuring all activity operates within established clinical governance frameworks, including safeguarding, data quality, and outcome monitoring.

About us

ABL is an exciting fast-paced, growing community health organisation. As an experienced, CQC registered, provider of community health services, we are passionate about delivering evidence-based, innovative, effective, and relevant health care services in partnership with individuals, communities, and stakeholders.

Job responsibilities

The service holds the Single Point of Access (SPA) for all children and young people (CYP) mental health referrals within Swindon, ensuring all referrals are screened, triaged, and directed to the most appropriate support in a timely and safe manner. Be U Swindon delivers a blended, stepped-care model, including low-intensity psychoeducational interventions, counselling provision, and Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) operating within education settings. The service works collaboratively with schools, primary care, and wider partners to provide an integrated system of care.

Service Model

• Single Point of Access (SPA): Centralised referral management, including screening, triage, risk identification, and onward allocation
• Pre-Assessment and Triage: Initial contact to establish suitability, goals, and identify safeguarding or risk
• Low-Intensity Interventions: Psychoeducational support aligned to the 5 Ways to Wellbeing
• Haven Delivery: Time-limited, goal-focused guided self-help interventions and urgent care support
• Counselling Provision: Targeted therapeutic support delivered by qualified practitioners
• Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs): Early intervention support within schools, including direct work, consultation, and whole-school approaches
• Outcome Monitoring: Routine tracking of progress to ensure effective, measurable delivery
• Safeguarding: Robust identification, management, and escalation of risk in line with local procedures
• Partnership Working: Integrated working with education, health, and community services

Role Responsibility

The postholder will provide clinical oversight and leadership across the service, ensuring safe, effective, and high-quality delivery across all elements of the Be U Swindon model. This includes:

• Providing clinical oversight of the Single Point of Access (SPA), ensuring robust triage, risk management, and appropriate allocation of referrals
• Overseeing the clinical quality and governance of all interventions, ensuring interventions are safe, evidence-informed, and outcome-focused
• Providing leadership, guidance, and clinical oversight to our Haven Service delivering low-intensity interventions and urgent care support
• Ensuring consistent clinical decision-making, particularly in relation to risk, safeguarding, and escalation pathways
• Supporting staff with case consultation, supervision, and reflective practice to maintain high standards of care
• Promoting coherence and consistency across the service model, ensuring alignment between SPA, Haven, and all intervention pathways
• Ensuring all aspects of the service operate within clinical governance frameworks, including safeguarding, data quality, and outcome monitoring

Overall Aim

To ensure the delivery of a safe, effective, and integrated CYP mental health service, where all referrals are appropriately triaged and managed, and children and young people receive the right support at the right time, supported by strong clinical oversight and leadership.

Key Responsibilities

Grounded in Safety, Driven by Excellence: As the Clinical/Forensic/Counselling Psychologist within the Be U Swindon leadership team, you will play a vital role in safeguarding client wellbeing, driving service quality, and embedding clinical best practices throughout our operations. This is a varied and rewarding role with a strong focus on clinical leadership, collaboration, and service development. Your core responsibilities will include:

• Provide clinical leadership and oversight across the Be U Swindon service, ensuring safe, effective, and consistent delivery of care across all elements of the service.
• Oversee the clinical governance of the SPA, ensuring robust screening, triage, and risk assessment processes are in place, with appropriate and timely allocation of CYP referrals to the correct level of intervention
• Case Load: To manage own caseload delivering high-quality targeted emotional support to a small specialised caseload. Ensure assessment is provided in a range of settings suitable to meet the needs of the clients
• Clinical Reporting: Provide supervision and quality assurance for any clinical contacts, ensuring robust reporting systems and high-quality care records.
• Assessment, formulation & Intervention Planning: Supervise the development of tailored assessment, formulation and intervention plans, including both client-specific and service-wide outcome measures. When necessary, carry out complex assessments or interventions directly.
• Clinical Supervision: Deliver robust clinical supervision, encompassing both written work and direct practice, to the clinical team across the service.
• Training & Development: Identify training needs and deliver bespoke clinical training to the team and wider system partners. Work alongside operational leadership to maintain and evolve the services training matrix.
• MDT Leadership: Contribute actively to divisional MDTs, ensuring collaborative, multi-agency working.
• Clinician Development: Promote CPD and skills growth among your supervisees, recommending internal or external training opportunities as appropriate.
• Integrated Working: Liaise with internal and external stakeholders to coordinate assessments and interventions. Prioritise clear, ethical communication while navigating consent, capacity, and safeguarding frameworks.
• Consent & Capacity: Champion high standards around consent and capacity practices, supporting both policy development and case-level application.
• Outcome Measurement: Oversee the consistent collection, analysis, and reporting of routine outcome measures, ensuring our interventions are both impactful and measurable.
• Collaborative Culture: Work with operational managers to integrate therapeutic thinking into daily practice, blending clinical insight with service delivery expertise.
• Undertake delegated responsibilities as agreed with the Head of service.
• Risk Management: Contribute to the creation and ongoing refinement of clinical risk assessments, ensuring a proactive approach to client safety.
• Innovation & Service Improvement: Stay abreast of emerging models and innovations in complex case management, championing their integration into both services.
• Effective Communication: Maintain clear, respectful, and timely communication with clients, colleagues, and partner agencies. Proactively manage follow-up actions.
• Service Evaluation: Lead or support service improvement initiatives, with a focus on systems and approaches that drive better outcomes.
• Legislative Knowledge: Maintain a strong understanding of relevant legislation and its implications for practice and client rights.
• Governance Engagement: Contribute to Performance Review Boards and other divisional forums where clinical insight shapes safer service delivery.
• Model Development: Support the evolution of clinical models and processes, helping embed consistent, effective practice across ABL.
• System working: Develop and maintain working relationships with system partners ensuring a presence at relevant forums.

Throughout all activities, you will work within ABL's robust governance systems applying key principles around safeguarding, data protection, incident reporting (Radar), and risk management to protect clients and staff alike.

A Supportive, Forward-Thinking Environment

This is a challenging yet highly rewarding role ideal for someone who wants to shape and elevate a young, evolving service with huge potential. You'll be supported by a highly experienced multi-disciplinary team spanning mental health, social care, governance, data, and leadership. You'll also receive regular supervision from ABL's Professional Lead for Mental Health (Consultant Psychologist), alongside peer support from our expanding network of psychologists across the organisation.

Who We’re Looking For:

• HCPC-registered Clinical, Counselling or Forensic Psychologist
• Demonstrable experience in supervision
• Experience working with children, young people
• Understanding of trauma-informed approaches
• Skilled in multi-agency work with system partners
• Ability to contribute to organisational development and service improvement

Person Specification

Knowledge and Skills

• Knowledge of and expertise of implementing Positive Behaviour Support strategies
• Experience (either pre-training, on training, or subsequently) of working with clients with complex needs that are relevant to the population in the service area.
• Have an up-to-date knowledge of legislation and its implications for the professions and the client groups we work with.
• Knowledge of ongoing debates and discussions around guidelines; for example, regarding various diagnoses

Experience

• Able to assess, formulate and deliver appropriate interventions to afford behavioural change
• Working with and supporting people whose behaviour is described as concerning or challenging
• Evidence of continued professional development
• Experience of working with children and young people with a Learning Disability, Autism, and/or those that may be socially excluded
• Experience of working cross-organisation to achieve outcomes

Qualifications

• Doctorate (or equivalent) in Clinical/Forensic/Counselling Psychology
• Registered with the HCPC
• Qualification and experience in supervising others
• Family Therapist Mental Health Qualification
• Qualifications and experience related to trauma-informed parenting
• Qualification and experience in communication strategies for individuals with additional communication needs (for example, Talking mats)

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.