Lead Clinical Psychologist (Eating Disorders) in Cheltenham

Lead Clinical Psychologist (Eating Disorders)

Band 8b

Main area Clinical Psychologist Grade Band 8b Contract Permanent: or a secondment for internal applicants Hours

• Full time
• Part time

37.5 hours per week (Full-time or part-time) Job ref 327-26-786

Site Eastgate House/Brownhill Centre Town Gloucester/Cheltenham Salary £66,582 - £77,368 per annum, pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 12/10/2026 23:59

We love what we do and we think you will, too!

At Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (GHC), we provide joined-up mental health, physical health and learning disability services to people of all ages across Gloucestershire. We run community hospitals and provide care and support in people’s own homes and in a range of other locations across the county.

We are on a mission to enable people to live the best life they can and we have a vision to work together to provide outstanding care. We put people at the heart of our services, focusing on personalised care by asking ‘what matters to you ’.

We’re passionate about making sure that everyone can contribute to achieving our mission and w e are continually working to support healthy and happy high-quality team s in all areas of the Trust.

Our application process aims to understand each candidate’s knowledge, skills and experience. We have found that candidates that use AI to generate their answers can lack specificity and fail to address key criteria outlined in the job description.

It is really important to personalise your application to convey your individual skills, knowledge, and experiences effectively and for us to understand why you are applying for this role with GHC. We discourage over reliance on AI-generated applications as it will lessen your chances of success in securing an interview with us.

Job overview

This role is offered on a permanent basis or a secondment opportunity for internal applicants. The successful applicant will be able to negotiate a set working week of between 22.5 hours to 37.5 hours.

Are you an experienced and creative Clinical Psychologist who is passionate about service innovation, development, and supporting multidisciplinary teams to deliver outstanding care? We are seeking an enthusiastic, compassionate, and collaborative Clinical Psychologist with experience in Eating Disorders services to join a new multidisciplinary team of professionals.

This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in the continued development of the Gloucestershire Eating Disorders Service. While contributing to service transformation and recovery following the pandemic, the post holder will have a strong focus on supporting, developing, and empowering colleagues across the multidisciplinary team. Working alongside clinical and operational leaders, you will help shape service improvements, enhance psychological practice, and ensure staff have the skills, confidence, and support needed to provide safe, effective, and recovery-focused care.

You will demonstrate strong and compassionate leadership skills, with extensive experience of multidisciplinary and multi-agency working and service development. You will be committed to supporting and developing others, fostering a positive team culture, and enabling colleagues to deliver high-quality psychological interventions.

Main duties of the job

The service is engaged in an ambitious transformation programme, providing the successful candidate with opportunities to support the implementation of new psychological interventions and treatment initiatives, contribute to workforce development, and help build a sustainable and resilient service for those accessing Eating Disorders care.

You will play a leading role in ensuring this forward-thinking service remains psychologically informed, providing expert consultation, training and supervision, while championing psychological thinking across the multidisciplinary team. A key aspect of the role will be supporting and developing colleagues to enhance psychological practice, build confidence and capability, and promote excellent patient outcomes.

The post holder will be expected to role model and promote the Trust's values in all aspects of their work, fostering a culture of compassion, respect, collaboration and continuous improvement. Through supportive leadership and a commitment to staff wellbeing, you will help create an environment where colleagues feel valued, empowered and able to deliver the highest standards of care.

The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.

Working for our organisation

We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people’s homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:

72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust’s priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.

This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key responsibilities include:

• Promoting the psychological health and wellbeing of individuals accessing the Eating Disorders Service within the Trust.
• Ensuring the systematic provision of a high-quality specialist clinical psychology service across all areas of the service and care pathway.
• Providing clinical leadership, supervision and support to psychologists and other members of the multidisciplinary team delivering psychologically informed assessment, care and treatment.
• Supporting the professional development of colleagues through consultation, training, reflective practice and supervision, helping to foster a positive and collaborative team culture.
• Working autonomously within professional and
• organisational guidelines, exercising delegated responsibility for the governance and quality assurance of psychological practice within the service.
• Using research, audit and evaluation skills to inform service development, quality improvement and evidence-based practice.
• Contributing to the development and implementation of policies, procedures and initiatives that enhance service delivery and patient care.
• Playing a key role in service transformation, redesign and recovery programmes, supporting the team to embrace innovation and implement sustainable improvements.
• Working collaboratively with clinical and operational leaders to develop the service, strengthen workforce capability and ensure the delivery of safe, effective and recovery-focused care

Please refer to the Additional Information attachment before submitting your application.

The Trust is required to work in line with the Government’s UK Visa and Immigration Rules and Regulations. For more information about sponsorship for certain roles, please visit -

• Post Graduate doctoral level training in Clinical Psychology or other relevant Applied Psychology as accredited by the B.P.S and conferring eligibility for HPC Registration as a Practitioner Psychologist.
• Registration with the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC) as a Practitioner Psychologist
• Evidence of formal post graduate learning within an Eating Disorders Service
• Relevant child focused therapeutic training.

Length and/or Nature of Experience

• Demonstrate broad range of post qualification experience working at an expert level in an autonomous capacity, with extensive experience of providing clinically expert, high quality, safe and effective assessment, formulation and interventions for children and young people.
• Receipt of at least 50 hours clinical supervision while working at a highly specialist level in an Eating Disorders context or other directly relevant area and in an increasingly autonomous capacity
• Demonstrate extensive experience and clinical expertise in delivering evidence based/best practice clinical interventions within an Eating Disorders Service
• Experience of service development and strategic work including complex audit and service evaluation to support development of service provision
• Experience of facilitating group work with young people

Professional /Managerial/ Specialist Knowledge

• Expert knowledge of lifespan developmental child and adolescent psychology (including psychometrics) including current evidence-based practice.
• The knowledge may have been developed in a variety of ways. Appropriate evidence could include relevant research, publications or outcomes of previous work in the specialism.
• Demonstrate clinical expertise and expert clinical formulation and reasoning regarding a range of evidenced-based professional interventions, including current best practice related to psychological care in an Eating Disorders context
• Significant experience of providing clinical supervision and supporting the work of other clinical staff
• Experience of supporting the recruitment, selection and development of new staff.

When joining us, as well as becoming part of a team that makes a difference, we also offer:

• Free car parking at many of our sites
• 27 days leave plus bank holidays, increasing up to 33 days with long service
• A broad range of training and development opportunities, including apprenticeships up to Level 7 qualification.
• A multi-professional preceptorship programme for all Newly Qualified; Nurses, Nursing Associates, Internationally Educated Practitioners, Allied Health Professionals and Return to Practice Practitioners.
• Generous NHS pension and enhanced pay when if you work unsocial hours
• Flexible, family friendly and agile working opportunities
• Recognition and long service awards
• Fast Track physiotherapy
• Access to discounts and salary sacrifice schemes; including Cycle to Work, Car scheme and discounts on travel, leisure and retailers.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.

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