Principal Clinical/ Counselling Psychologist

Job Overview

Harrow Adult Mental Health is looking for a highly motivated and passionate Principal Psychologist to join our established therapies team. This post is offered within our innovative Adult Community Mental Health Hub (CMHH, Bentley House) which provides intervention to adults presenting with a range of secondary care mental health difficulties; including psychosis, Complex Emotional Needs and PTSD.

Working for our organisation

There’s a place for you at CNWL. We’re passionate about delivering first-class patient-centred, safe and effective care, whether it is in a hospital setting, in a community clinic or in the patient’s own home. Patients are at the heart of everything we do. Providing top quality care depends on our ability to employ the best people. We’re always looking to recruit outstanding people who will go the extra mile to support our patients, colleagues, teams and the Trust. With every new employee we’re hoping to find our future leaders and we’ll support our staff by providing opportunities to develop your career. With a diverse culture and equally diverse range of opportunities across mental health, community services, addictions, eating disorders, learning disabilities and more – whatever stage of your career you're at, there's always a place for you at CNWL.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will play a leading role in supporting the psychology team to provide highly specialist psychological assessment, collaborative formulation with service users, and consultation to the wider team – to support the development of creative, personalised and multi-disciplinary care plans that help individuals under the care of the CMHH to move forward. They will also support the provision of specialist psychological intervention drawing on a range of evidence-based modalities. The post-holder will take a leading role in the ongoing development of Harrow’s Trauma-Informed Approaches (TIA) model for adult mental health services. Over the last year, our CMHH has rolled out TIA and trained the full MDT in Power Threat Meaning Framework formulation and Psychological Stabilisation interventions. This project builds on Harrow’s innovative TIA work in acute services over the last six years; now published (Nikopaschos et al. 2023; 2025) and influencing National Policy (see NHSE Guidelines for Acute Inpatient Mental Health Care for Adults and Older Adults, 2023). Bentley House CMHH works closely with the rest of the Harrow mental health system (including the Home Treatment and Inpatient teams) to provide holistic intervention to adults with severe and enduring mental health difficulties. The post holder will join an expanding therapies team, committed to providing highly specialist and trauma-informed psychological care. They will work closely with the full range of MDT professionals, including psychiatry, nursing, occupational therapy and peer support. They will play a key leadership role in supporting the psychology team to provide assessment and formulation, creative multi-disciplinary care plans, and psychological intervention that follows service users across the Harrow system. The post-holder will be expected to work as a senior member of the MDT, including the provision of consultation, co‑working, teaching, training, supervision and research as well as developing specific training to enhance the systematic provision of psychological interventions offered to service users by all members of the team within a ‘stepped‑care’ framework. They will make a leading contribution to the learning culture of the team and wider service, and play an integral role in the further development and embedding of TIA. Specialist supervision is offered in EMDR, DBT, NET, CBT, Open Dialogue, CAT, systemic and psychodynamic models.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

Job Purpose:

• To develop, co-ordinate and ensure the systematic provision of a psychology service to service users of Bentley House Community Mental Health Hub (CMHH) and personally provide highly specialist clinical input.
• To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.
• To provide clinical supervision and consultation as appropriate, functioning as a lead psychology specialist
• To ensure that systems are in place and working effectively for the clinical and professional supervision and support of other psychologists within Bentley House CMHH.
• To undertake service evaluation, audit, research and policy development.
• To work as an autonomous professional within BPS and HCPC guidelines and codes of conduct, and guided by principles and policies or procedures of the service, taking responsibility for interpreting policies within defined parameters.
• To agree outcomes/results with clinical/professional lead and to decide how they are best achieved.

Key Responsibilities:

KR 1 Clinical and Client Care

• To develop, co-ordinate and ensure the systematic provision of a highly specialist psychology service to service users of Bentley House CMHH.
• To provide highly specialist psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for clients in CMHH.
• To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.
• To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
• To act as a named worker and take responsibility for initiating planning and reviewing care plans and associated tasks to support the wellbeing of service users of the CMHH.

KR 2 Responsibilities for team or service clinical functioning

• To co-ordinate (and chair) meetings to ensure effective functioning, review and quality of the psychology service within Bentley House CMHH.
• To take a lead in ensuring a psychologically informed framework for the CMHH.
• To take a lead in developing the team or service’s delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
• To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.
• To advise other members of the service on specialist psychological care of clients.
• To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.
• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

KR 3 Policy and service development

• To implement policies and procedures in own area of work.
• To identify any aspects of Bentley House CMHH, which could be improved and propose changes to practices or procedures that affect Bentley House CMHH and may also affect other services.
• To initiate and implement service development projects, as agreed with clinical/professional lead.
• To participate in the ongoing implementation of new initiatives (e.g. national guidelines) across relevant services.
• To lead the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.

KR 4 Care or management of resources

• To take care of, and use carefully, the Trust’s equipment and physical resources.
• To ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.

KR 5 Management and supervision

• To provide clinical leadership to more junior psychologists, psychotherapists and other professionals, as appropriate.
• To be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of more junior psychologists.
• To supervise trainee applied psychologists within own area of specialism.
• To contribute to the appraisal of more junior psychologists, as appropriate.
• To contribute to the recruitment of more junior psychologists, as appropriate.

KR 6 Teaching and Training

• To undertake teaching and training of pre and post- qualification psychologists and specialised training to other professions as appropriate.
• To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the CMHH by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychology and adult mental health and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.
• To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.

KR 7 Record-keeping and Information Governance

• To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.
• To ensure the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry, in those parts of the service for which the post-holder has leadership responsibility.

KR 8 Research and development

• To initiate, undertake, support and supervise regular complex service evaluation and audits
• To initiate and carry out appropriate research and service evaluation to support the ongoing development of the service.
• To provide expertise in a specialist research area which will contribute to the ongoing development of the CMHH.
• To initiate and implement the development of outcome measurement and assessment and assist other staff in the implementation of same.

KR 9 Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

• To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior psychologist according to HCPC and Trust guidelines.
• To ensure own Continuing Professional Development in line with BPS and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and the HCPC ‘Standards for Continuing Professional Development’.
• To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.
• To comply with the HCPC ‘Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics’ and ‘Standards of Proficiency’, and ensure professional development in line with these.
• To adhere to the BPS’s Professional Practice Guidelines and Trust policies and procedures.
• To ensure that all psychology and psychotherapy staff for whom the post-holder has leadership responsibility, maintain professional standards and continuing professional development.

KR 10 General

• To travel within the Harrow area for home visits as appropriate and across the Trust when required.
• To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group, and follow trust policies relating to its management.
• To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations and to support others involved in such situations.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Entry-level qualification in Clinical/ Counselling Psychology (professional Doctorate, or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level additional training) that has been accepted by the HCPC for purposes of professional registration as a Practitioner Psychologist.
• Additional training in a specialised area of psychological practice, through formal post qualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent), OR a combination of specialist short courses, or an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice–based learning in a specialist area of clinical practice, assessed by an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma.
• Completed training course in clinical supervision.
• Registered with the HCPC as Practitioner Psychologist, and evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC.

Desirable criteria

• Further training and or qualifications in other fields of applied psychology.

Experience

• Evidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision.
• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature.
• Experience of supervising assistant, trainee and qualified psychologists, and having completed the relevant training.
• Experience of providing teaching and training to psychologists or other professional groups.

Desirable criteria

• Record of publications in either peer reviewed, academic or professional journals/books

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies for adult mental health
• Advanced theoretical knowledge of psychological approaches to mental health difficulties, and the evidence base for the relevant treatment.
• Advanced knowledge of psychological assessment and clinical psychometrics.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health issues, child and adult protection, and equalities.
• Doctoral level knowledge of psychological research methodology and complex statistical analysis.
• Knowledge of factors affecting acceptability and accessibility of mental health care.

Desirable criteria

• Record of publications in either peer reviewed, academic or professional journals/books

Skills

• To deliver psychological therapy across cultural and other differences.
• To select and administer specialist psychological assessments, interpreting and integrating complex data that require analysis, interpretation and comparison, drawn from several sources, on which expert opinion may differ.
• To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues overcoming barriers to communication including sensory, and emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to or rejection of information.
• To plan and schedule assessment and interventions for individual clients and groups and carers, and to organise meetings such as CPAs and case reviews, and joint activities with staff of partner agencies.
• To plan projects and work schedules for groups of psychologists.
• To be expert in the skilled administration of psychometric tests, including skilled manipulation of test materials; and to be able to supervise others in administration of psychometric tests.
• Well-developed IT skills including entry and analysis of research data
• Skills in providing teaching and training to other professional groups (

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