Psychology & Psychotherapy Workforce Lead

Psychology & Psychotherapy Workforce Lead

8b

Main area Applied Psychology Grade 8b Contract Permanent Hours

• Part time
• Job share

22.5 hours per week (N/A) Job ref 334-CLI-8230222

Site Maudsley Hospital Town London Salary £75,328 - £86,114 per annum inclusive of HCAs (Inner) pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 07/09/2026 23:59

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.

We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’.

We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone’s potential as change makers.

The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role.We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.

Our Values

We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I’m going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you’ll be part of something special.

As a Trust we are happy to talk flexible working.

Job overview

Are you passionate about shaping the future of the psychology and psychotherapy workforce?

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an experienced and innovative senior psychological professional to join our Corporate Psychology & Psychotherapy team as a Principal Psychology & Psychotherapy Workforce Development Lead.

This is a unique opportunity to influence the development, wellbeing and professional growth of one of the largest psychology and psychotherapy workforces in the NHS. Working closely with the Director & Deputy Director for Psychology & Psychotherapy and a wide range of internal and external partners, you will lead strategic workforce development initiatives that strengthen capability, support staff wellbeing and promote excellence in psychological practice across the Trust.

This post is offered on a job-share basis, working 22.5 hours per week across Monday to Thursday, alongside the existing postholder who works Thursdays and Fridays.

Main duties of the job

• Lead the development, coordination and delivery of psychology and psychotherapy workforce development programmes across SLaM.
• Design and deliver a broad portfolio of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunities, including training events, mentoring schemes, leadership development and action learning programmes.
• Lead workforce projects, funding bids and collaborative initiatives with partner organisations and professional bodies.
• Support recruitment, retention and career progression across the psychology and psychotherapy workforce.
• Contribute to Trust-wide staff wellbeing and staff support programmes, helping to create psychologically safe and inclusive workplaces.
• Provide expert consultation, supervision and leadership to psychological professionals across multiple services.
• Champion equality, diversity and inclusion and support the development of culturally responsive services and workforce practices.
• Lead and contribute to service evaluation, audit, quality improvement and research activities.

This role combines strategic leadership, workforce development, clinical expertise and professional leadership, making it an ideal opportunity for an experienced practitioner seeking to influence psychological services at organisational level.

Working for our organisation

At South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, you will join one of the world's leading mental health organisations. Working in partnership with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London and as part of King's Health Partners, we are internationally recognised for excellence in clinical care, research and education.

Benefits include:

• Access to extensive professional development and leadership opportunities.
• Opportunities to contribute to innovative workforce and service transformation programmes.
• Hybrid and flexible working arrangements.
• Opportunities to engage in research, quality improvement and academic collaborations.
• Staff wellbeing support and learning opportunities.

Our Commitment

South London and Maudsley is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued, respected and empowered to thrive. We actively encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and communities, particularly groups currently underrepresented in our workforce.

We are dedicated to promoting equality, tackling discrimination and creating psychologically safe environments for our staff, service users and carers.

Join Us

If you are an experienced senior psychological professional who is passionate about workforce development, leadership and creating opportunities for others to flourish, we would welcome your application.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The postholder will lead a small dedicated P&P Workforce Development team including

• Deputy Workforce Lead
• Assistant Psychologists
• Trainees

as part of the wider Corporate P&P Team. The Corporate P&P Team provides professional leadership for the P&P workforce across the Trust as well as a range of Staff Support services for all Trust staff such as Schwartz rounds, post-incident support, Emotional Emancipation Circles as an in-house Staff and Counselling Well-being service.

Together with their job share they will set priorities for P&P Workforce Development with the Deputy Director and Director for Psychology & Psychotherapy and they will lead on the development and implementation of a range of projects to address those priorities. This will range from ensuring we support a wide range of people to join the P&P Workforce including those who are disadvantaged or under-represented in the workforce, to developing and maintaining effective relationships with partner training organisations, providing CPD to support staff to provide quality inclusive clinical services and maintain their professional registrations as well as support career development at all stages including leadership development for minoritised staff.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Accreditation as a Practitioner Psychologist (HCPC), Psychotherapist (APC, UKCP, BACP, BPC) or Art Therapist (HCPC)
• Level 7 Qualification as a Practitioner Psychologist, Psychotherapist or Arts Therapist
• Supervision training
• CPD

Experience

• Experience of working with, and addressing issues of, diversity, including experience of working within a multicultural framework.
• Experience of leading workforce initiatives, service improvement projects or change programmes
• Experience of building effective partnerships and influencing across professional groups, services or organisations
• Experience of providing teaching and training to psychological professionals or other professional groups and experience of designing, coordinating and delivering workforce development or CPD programmes.
• Experience of leading large-scale organisational change programmes.
• Experience of securing external funding or leading complex partnership projects across organisations.
• Experience of influencing workforce strategy at organisational, regional or national level.

Knowledge, abilities and skills

• Knowledge of racial and other diversity issues and factors affecting access to mental health care.
• To plan allocation of tasks to assistants/trainees and junior staff as appropriate
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological assessments and interventions relevant to this post
• Ability to manage highly complex situations involving multiple difficulties, and competing/conflicting views about those difficulties; and to help create contexts that develop systemic engagement, and harness the strengths and abilities of those involved in order to work towards solutions

The Trust is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect and dignity and in promoting equality and human rights. We aim to put this commitment into practice by:

• Embedding our commitment to tackling inequality, eliminating discrimination and harassment; promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good relations in our everyday practice
• Ensuring that all our services and all staff understand and support our commitment
• We believe that people who use our services, their carers and our staff, should be treated with compassion, respect and dignity

SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion , Stonewall is the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans (LGBT) rights charity in Europe’

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.

Name Jo Cook Job title Deputy Director for Psychology & Psychotherapy Email address jo.cook@slam.nhs.uk Telephone number 07759718888