Consultant Psychiatrist in Early Intervention (Aspire) in Leeds

We are delighted to bring to advert the post of Consultant Psychiatrist at Aspire in the city of Leeds - a culturally diverse city with an estimated population of 780,000. Aspire is a city wide, community based First Episode Psychosis Service delivered by a specialist multidisciplinary team with input from the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). The service’s principles are engagement, hope and recovery. It supports people to find their own level of recovery, fostering hope for the future and encouraging individuals to lead an ordinary life in their community. The team works in collaboration with service users, carers and families using a bio-psycho-social model, delivering service at the most appropriate location and environment.

This post has become available due to the most recent postholder moving to another post within the Trust after 7 years as substantive postholder. This post can be applied for as a substantive appointment or as a Trust locum position on a fixed term contract (of up to 23 months) with the same terms and conditions as the Consultant contract.

Main duties of the job

Are you committed to providing high quality patient care? We need you to help us achieve our goals; to live our lives free from stigma and discrimination; and to improve the lives of people with a learning disability and mental ill health. Here at Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT), we are an organisation committed to providing high quality care to improve health and lives which seeks to provide outstanding mental health and learning disability services as an employer of choice while maintaining the values of simplicity, integrity and care for those in need.

The Trust strategy is built upon three priorities:

• Delivering great care that is high quality and improves lives
• Providing a rewarding and supportive place to work
• Using resources to deliver effective and sustainable services

As a medical workforce, we provide outstanding secondary care mental health services that allow our service users to feel that they are safe and receiving the latest, high quality, evidence-based care, delivered by motivated, engaged and compassionate staff, who feel supported and enabled to grow in the workplace and the systems we provide.

Further information can be found here

The Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT) is the main provider of Mental Health and Learning Disability services in Leeds. We also provide specialist inpatient services in York and some highly specialised services across the country. As a teaching trust with strong links to local universities, we are a centre of excellence for teaching, research and development. There are many benefits of working for LYPFT including fantastic employee wellbeing support, 27 - 33 days annual leave, flexible working and remote working arrangements, the NHS Pension Scheme, coaching, support and opportunities for career development and training and education support alongside a range of exclusive discounts and payment schemes including for cars, extra leave days and more NHS Discount Offers.

We also have a bank department, offering variety of roles in nursing, allied health professions, healthcare support worker and administration clerical. Permanent employees are automatically added to bank. Applicants should be aware that individuals requiring a visa to work in the UK, the Trust only provides sponsorship for registered healthcare practitioner roles (this does not include Healthcare Support Workers). This is an essential requirement, and the Trust is unable to offer you a role if you do not meet Trust requirements for sponsorship and Home Office requirements for a visa.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Aspire provides a specialist service to people aged between 14 and 65 in Leeds and has 3 main pathways; full caseload for up to three years, extended assessment for up to 3 months and the new “At Risk Mental State” (ARMS) pathway. As of Jan 2026, the total caseload for the team is 505. The average number of referrals per month (in 2023) was 60 per month and the average number of discharges per month was 15-20. The post holder will work with the MDT, colleagues and other agencies to deliver safe and effective care to patients. The service commitments are divided between the 2 consultants during the job planning process.

The post holder, supported by the MDT, will provide:

• Flexibility to accommodate urgent clinical reviews
• To undertake the duties of Responsible Clinician for those subject to the MHA 1983 care
• Complex prescribing and review
• Effective liaison with local mental health providers, local authority professionals and statutory organisations
• An expectation to work intensively and assertively with the client group
• To contribute to and work as part of the multidisciplinary community team
• To work collaboratively with other services within the Trust
• To provide professional leadership
• To provide one hour a week protected clinical supervision to any trainees in the service for which they are the clinical supervisor
• To work jointly with the Clinical Leadership Structure, Operations Manager and Head of Operations and those in other agencies to ensure the service is delivered successfully
• Support for non-medical prescribers in training and afterwards

LYPFT now offer a revised and increased starting salary for newly appointed consultants to the Trust. All newly appointed will be started on £119,490 at pay point YC72 (point 04). We offer a wide range of benefits to help support a healthy work-life balance and support your overall health and wellbeing including:

• Excellent relocation package (if applicable)
• Annual leave entitlement as per the terms and conditions of Consultant contract
• On-site parking
• Cycle to work & car leasing schemes
• Wide range of Health & Wellbeing benefits

This is a 10 PA post plus a 1% category B availability for out of hours on-call duties. We want to understand what flexibility means to you, do you want to work condensed hours? Do you have caring responsibilities? Is there a certain day which you cannot work for personal reasons? Then talk to us.

What you will get:

• Supportive and friendly colleagues
• Personalised Coaching and Mentoring
• Weekly academic teaching
• Access to NHS Leadership and Development opportunities, including opportunity to become an appraiser and educational / training development opportunities
• Generous study leave allowance (averaging 10 days per year and up to 30 days leave over 3 years with a budget of £1000 per annum)

Person specification

Qualifications

• Full registration with the GMC
• Higher specialist training in WAA Psychiatry with experience in EIP

Experience

• Excellent communication skills and evidence of MDT working
• Track record in QIP work

Values-based

Tell us about a time when you spotted something small going wrong and did something to stop it becoming a bigger issue. Tell us about a time when you realised a colleague or someone you know needed a bit of support and you offered to help. Tell us about a time when you showed someone kindness or understanding.

Applications are welcomed from candidates who wish to apply for a position based on a smarter (Hybrid) or flexible working arrangement. Where candidates are successful at interview, flexible working arrangement requests will be taken into consideration and may be accommodated where the needs of the service allow.

Fixed Term Contracts for existing NHS Employees – temporary contracts for employees of LYPFT, or colleagues joining from another NHS Trust, will be offered on a secondment basis wherever possible. In the event this is not possible, an FTC would be issued and this would require a break in service of two weeks. The purpose of a temporary role could be for maternity cover, temporary funding or some other reason. At the end of which the need for the temporary work will cease. Temporary roles can stop, be extended and/or made permanent at any point during the period of work. Should the role become permanent then the post-holder will be informed of the process to be followed to convert the position to a permanent one.

All new employees are required to subscribe to the DBS Update Service. Patient Safety is a priority at LYPFT with a focus on system-based improvement and creating opportunities for learning. We will ensure compassionate engagement with all those involved in an incident and all incidents are met with a proportionate response. LYPFT is committed to upholding its statutory responsibilities in relation to safeguarding adults and children.

LYPFT is a member of the Disability Confident scheme and is committed to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process. As part of the Trust's commitment to its Gold Standard Armed Forces Covenant status, members of the Armed Forces Community are entitled to a guaranteed interview subject to meeting the role criteria. We welcome applicants with lived experience of providing unpaid care and/or support to a family member or friend with a disability, health condition, frailty, mental health problem, addiction or other health needs.

Please note that the Trust reserves the right to close the vacancy before the closing date if enough applications are received. It is in the candidate’s best interest to apply as soon as possible. In submitting an application form, you authorise Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to confirm any previous NHS service details via the ESR IAT process should you be appointed to the post. In applying for a role please ensure that you only declare qualifications that are relevant to the role itself. We reserve the right to check all declared qualifications on an application form, whether they are directly relevant to the role or not.

Please note: The Trust does not offer reimbursement of interview expenses.