Role Purpose:
The Senior Clinical Lead is responsible for clinical quality, safety and supervision across the Community Counselling Service. This is a hands-on senior clinical role: supervising counsellors and student placements, acting as the named Safeguarding Lead, auditing clinical practice, embedding outcome measurement, and carrying a small clinical caseload.
The postholder is the senior clinical authority for the service and works as part of a small leadership team alongside the Director and the Clinical Advisor. They contribute to project management of the clinical workstreams and work closely through the Operations Officer for the day-to-day running of the service.
Location: Birmingham and Solihull, community-based
Contract type: Fixed-term, 2 years initially, then subject to ongoing funding
Hours: Full-time, 1.0 FTE, 37.5 hours per week
Reports to: Director
Direct reports: Clinical supervision of all Women’s Consortium counsellors and student placements
Works closely with: Operations Officer and partner clinical leads
Key Responsibilities:
Clinical Supervision
- Provide monthly individual clinical supervision (minimum 1.5 hours per counsellor per month) for all WC counsellors.
- Provide fortnightly group supervision for student placement counsellors (maximum 1:4 ratio).
- Hold a recognised supervision qualification covering supervision of both qualified counsellors and trainees on placement.
- Maintain supervision records and ensure all counsellors meet BACP or UKCP supervision requirements.
- Provide ad hoc clinical guidance and case consultation for complex or high-risk clients.
- Provide oversight (not direct line supervision) of Kapella and Cruse counsellors, supporting consistent standards across the partnership.
Safeguarding
- Act as the named Safeguarding Lead for the Community Counselling Service.
- Review all safeguarding concerns and ensure appropriate action is taken within 24 hours.
- Liaise with the Birmingham and Solihull Safeguarding Adults and Children Partnerships as required.
- Report safeguarding incidents to the Director and commissioner within required timescales.
- Deliver safeguarding training and refreshers to all clinical staff and maintain the safeguarding log.
Quality Assurance and Outcomes
- Audit clinical records, session notes and risk assessments on a quarterly basis.
- Ensure consistent and accurate use of the service’s validated outcome measures across WC and partner counsellors.
- Monitor paired outcome data to identify trends in client improvement and reliable change.
- Review DNA rates, therapy completion rates and client feedback across all providers.
- Lead quarterly cross-partner reflective practice forums.
Clinical Delivery
- Carry a small clinical caseload, modelling good trauma-informed and culturally responsive practice.
Training and Development
- Identify training needs through supervision and audit, and plan and deliver CPD for counsellors.
- Support the induction of new counsellors and student placements.
- Liaise with university placement coordinators (Aston, BCU) to ensure placement standards are met.
Project Management and Service Leadership
- Contribute to project management of the clinical workstreams as part of the leadership team, with the Director and Clinical Advisor; the Director holds overall accountability for service delivery.
- Support service mobilisation and the establishment of clinical pathways, supervision structures and the student placement pipeline.
- Lead the clinical sub-group and provide clinical performance information to the Partnership Steering Group as required (non-voting, in attendance).
- Escalate clinical, safeguarding, risk or quality issues to the Director and, where appropriate, the Steering Group.
Working Relationships (interface with Operations)
The Senior Clinical Lead owns clinical decisions and quality; the Operations Officer owns operational delivery. The two work closely on shared seams:
- Referrals and triage: the Clinical Lead sets clinical suitability and supports triage decisions; Operations manages the waiting list, bookings and DNA follow-up.
- Outcome data: the Clinical Lead owns clinical meaning and data quality; Operations owns collection and commissioner and MHSDS submission.
- Supervision and reflective practice: the Clinical Lead delivers; Operations schedules, books rooms and tracks attendance.
- Safeguarding: the Clinical Lead is the named clinical decision-maker; Operations supports record-keeping and reporting timelines.
Person Specification:
Essential:
- BACP or UKCP accredited or registered counsellor or psychotherapist.
- Clinical supervision qualification recognised by BACP or UKCP or other therapy body, covering supervision of qualified counsellors and of trainees on placement.
- Minimum 3 years post-qualification Clinical Lead Experience.
- Minimum 1 year of experience providing clinical Counselling Supervision.
- Thorough understanding of safeguarding adults and children procedures.
- Experience using validated outcome measures in therapeutic practice.
- Strong understanding of culturally competent and trauma-informed practice.
- Excellent written communication and report writing skills.
- Enhanced DBS clearance (or willingness to undertake).
Desirable:
- Experience as a named safeguarding lead.
- Experience supervising student or trainee counsellors on placement.
- Experience contributing to service mobilisation or project delivery.
- Experience working in VCSE, community or NHS-commissioned settings.
- Experience working with Global Majority communities.
- Familiarity with MHSDS and DIALOG+.
- Multilingual ability relevant to Birmingham communities.
- Training qualification or experience delivering CPD workshops.
Additional Requirements
- Enhanced DBS check.
- BACP, UKCP or other Therapy Body registration and supervision accreditation maintained throughout employment.
- Willingness to work flexibly across community locations, with occasional evening work for supervision or reflective practice.
Important: this role is contingent on ongoing funding. Continuation beyond the initial contract period is subject to the availability of programme funding.
How to Apply
Please send your CV and a cover letter outlining how you meet the person specification to: hr@womensconsortium.org.uk
Women’s Consortium is an equal opportunities employer. We particularly welcome applications from candidates who reflect the diverse communities we serve, including people from Global Majority backgrounds, multilingual speakers, and those with lived experience of mental health challenges.
