Senior Clinical/Forensic/Counselling Psychologist | East London NHS Foundation Trust

We are seeking an experienced and dynamic senior psychologist to join our large and thriving psychology department in the forensic service at ELFT. This post will be based on a newly opened medium secure men's admission ward. The successful candidate would join a newly formed multidisciplinary team to provide psychological care to service users to promote their recovery, reduce the risk of harm to others, and to support their progression and discharge back to the community. They would also act as line managers and supervisors to colleagues, contribute to service development, and be part of our large psychology department with access to good quality supervision and CPD opportunities. Our links with doctoral programmes also means there are opportunities to supervise trainee psychologists and contribute to taught content on clinical and forensic psychology doctoral courses.

Based in the heart of East London, we provide services to a very diverse local population, and we are therefore particularly keen to hear from candidates who represent these communities that we serve.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• To provide specialist psychological assessments based on the integration of complex qualitative and quantitative data from a variety of sources.
• Includes selecting, administering, scoring and interpreting appropriate standardised psychometric assessment tools.
• Drawing on a broad theoretical knowledge of psychology, including taking into account theoretical and therapeutic models, historical, developmental and cultural processes and systems which have shaped the individual, family or group, to consider and evaluate different treatment options, and formulate and implement plans for the specialist psychological treatment and/or management of patients’ mental health and related problems.
• Implement a range of specialist psychological interventions for individual patients and groups, and where appropriate for carers within the forensic service, co-working with psychologist and non-psychologist colleagues as appropriate.
• Responsible for providing and receiving highly complex, sensitive, distressing and emotional information in relation to mental health and forensic issues both verbally and in writing.
• Responsible for communicating across language and cultural barriers with patients or carers, using interpreters when necessary.
• Spend sustained amounts of time with patients or carers who may be verbally or physically aggressive and hostile, who may have poor communication and/or self-care skills and special physical and/or mental needs.
• Exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the psychological care of service users.
• To incorporate risk assessment and management into all aspects of clinical work; to comply with security policies and procedures; to notify management of breaches in security and to make suggestions for improving security; to undertake breakaway training.
• To provide specialist psychological advice, supervision and consultation to members of the multidisciplinary team and others contributing directly to the formulation of patients’ care plans, including advice on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
• To co-ordinate and supervise the work of assistant psychologists, and trainee clinical psychologists on placement in the forensic service.
• To supervise the work of less experienced clinical, forensic, or counselling psychologists or other healthcare staff as required.
• Draw on a broad theoretical knowledge of psychology and specialist clinical or counselling psychology skills to develop and support the psychological skills of assistant psychologists, trainee psychologists, and other non-psychology staff through developing and delivering teaching, training and supervision.
• Provide a psychological perspective and a highly specialist psychologically-based framework for understanding clinical care, service/team dynamics, or service/team organisational systems in various teams and groups of which the psychologist is a member, to benefit the patients served by the service/team.
• Contribute to the delivery of reflective practice within the forensic service.
• Develop and maintain knowledge of local resources and relationships with relevant statutory, voluntary and community groups and organisations.
• Develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision.
• Maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to forensic and general mental health services and the criminal justice system.
• Maintain and use knowledge and understanding of the work and approaches of other key disciplines, professions and agencies involved in the care and management network, including knowledge of medication and physical health issues, education, vocational training, employment, and social care systems.
• Maintain the highest standards of clinical record-keeping including electronic data-entry and recording, report writing, and dissemination of relevant information appropriately to other professionals.
• To monitor, record and report on clinical and other activities as required. To protect confidentiality in compliance with professional and Trust policies and procedures.
• Advise service and psychology management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/organisational matters need addressing.
• Identify and propose potential changes to work practices and procedures in own area of work, which may impact on the wider service and contribute to discussions relating to psychology service and forensic service issues.
• To represent psychology on a service wide operation/working group, to undertake tasks arising from the group’s work, and to be responsible for providing a specialist psychological perspective to the work of the group.
• To offer line management supervision to qualified and unqualified staff in the psychology department as required.
• Participate in the recruitment of new staff as required in line with current human resources policies and procedures.
• Develop and maintain the highest professional standards of practice by continuing to gain additional highly specialist experience and skills; by participating in regular clinical and professional supervision and appraisal; by active participation in internal and external CPD activities; and by updating knowledge of current developments in psychology and related disciplines relevant to the practice of forensic psychology, through a personal development plan agreed with psychology management.
• To exercise professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the Health Professionals Council and Trust policies and procedures.
• To identify areas of need and propose innovative responses to address unmet need in own area or in the wider service, in consultation with senior colleagues and head of service including contributing to Quality Improvement projects.
• To ensure consultation and collaboration with service users, carers and other stakeholders when planning service improvements.
• Has personal duty of care for the use and protection of restricted psychology equipment and test materials.

This advert closes on Friday 24 Jul 2026.