Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
Consultant Psychologist: Whole Systems – Adult Mental Health
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Job Overview
Harrow’s internationally recognised trauma-informed adult mental health services are seeking a Consultant Psychologist to provide whole-systems psychological leadership across an agreed portfolio. The post will focus mainly on acute services, including two inpatient wards, the Home Treatment Team, Mental Health Emergency Assessment Centre and Psychiatric Liaison, alongside operational management and clinical responsibilities within the community adult mental health hub.
Working across acute and community pathways, the post-holder will promote continuity of psychological care and embed psychologically informed, trauma-informed and evidence-based practice throughout the service-user journey. They will provide strategic, professional and operational leadership to psychology and psychological therapies staff, influence multidisciplinary care and service development, and support high-quality assessment, formulation and intervention for adults with complex mental health presentations.
The post-holder will lead the continued development and implementation of Harrow’s Trauma-Informed Approaches model across adult mental health services. They will build on established published work across acute and community settings (Nikopaschos et al., 2023; 2025) that has informed national policy, including NHS England’s Guidelines for Acute Inpatient Mental Health Care for Adults and Older Adults (2023).
Main duties of the job
The post-holder will provide consultant-level clinical, professional, strategic and operational leadership across the agreed portfolio, with primary responsibility for the leadership and development of psychology within acute adult mental health services. They will also hold defined operational management and clinical responsibilities within community adult mental health services, supporting an integrated whole-system approach.
As a senior leader, the post-holder will work closely with service and clinical leads and the wider multidisciplinary workforce to shape psychologically informed pathways, improve continuity between acute and community care, and contribute to service planning, quality improvement, governance, workforce development and evaluation. They will provide highly specialist assessment, formulation, consultation and intervention in relation to complex presentations and systems, alongside supervision, teaching, training and expert advice.
The post-holder will provide professional leadership to psychology and psychological therapies staff, support safe and effective practice, and develop the capability of the wider workforce to deliver psychologically informed care. They will play a central role in embedding Trauma-Informed Approaches, strengthening the learning culture, supporting research and audit, and ensuring that service development is informed by evidence, outcomes and service-user experience.
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.
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Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities
KR 1: Clinical and client care
- To lead, plan and ensure the delivery of a highly specialist psychology and psychotherapy service across the adult mental health pathway, while maintaining effective psychological interfaces with community services.
- To provide expert psychological assessment, formulation, consultation and intervention for service users with severe, complex and high-risk presentations, including psychosis, trauma-related difficulties, emotional dysregulation, self-harm, interpersonal difficulties and co-occurring substance use or neurodevelopmental needs.
- To offer expert advice where clinical information is incomplete, contradictory or contested, integrating psychological, social, cultural, developmental and risk information to support complex decision-making.
- To provide culturally responsive and accessible interventions with service users, carers and families when indicated.
- To ensure that assessment and intervention are proportionate to the acute context and support stabilisation, relational safety, recovery, discharge planning and continuity of care.
- To assess and monitor risk, contribute to formulation-based risk management plans and support multidisciplinary decision-making in situations involving significant uncertainty or potential harm.
- To undertake direct clinical work where this adds specialist value, while balancing clinical activity with strategic leadership and operational responsibilities.
- To ensure that pathways facilitate timely transfer, discharge and follow-up between inpatient, crisis and community teams.
KR 2: Leadership for team and service clinical functioning
- To be the senior psychology lead for the agreed whole systems adult mental health portfolio (predominantly acute adult mental health services with additional community adult mental health responsibilities) and provide visible, accessible and authoritative professional leadership.
- To ensure that all adult mental health teams work within a coherent psychologically informed and trauma-informed framework, promoting psychological safety, relational practice and least restrictive care.
- To chair or contribute to relevant service, governance and psychology meetings and ensure agreed actions are implemented and reviewed.
- To provide defined operational management support and oversight to community psychology provision, including advice on capacity, demand, prioritisation, caseload systems, access, quality and complex staffing matters.
- To support effective clinical and operational interfaces between acute and community psychology services, reducing fragmentation and promoting continuity across transitions.
- To advise senior managers and multidisciplinary colleagues on the psychological dimensions of service delivery, workforce wellbeing, team functioning and complex clinical care.
- To lead approaches that improve access, experience and outcomes for diverse local communities and proactively challenge discrimination and inequity.
- To support teams following serious incidents, highly distressing events or sustained operational pressure, within the boundaries of the role and Trust processes.
KR 3: Policy, strategy and service development
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- To interpret national, Trust and divisional policy and guidance and lead its implementation within the post-holder’s area of responsibility.
- To lead the strategic development of acute psychology provision and contribute to the development of adult mental health pathways across inpatient, crisis and community services.
- To identify service gaps, develop business cases and options appraisals, and lead agreed improvement programmes that may affect more than one service area.
- To ensure meaningful involvement of service users and carers in service design, delivery, evaluation and improvement.
- To participate in, and lead where appropriate, Trust, divisional and borough committees, working groups and transformation programmes.
- To establish standards, pathways and operating procedures that clarify the contribution of psychological professions across acute and community care.
- To monitor the impact of developments through agreed quality, experience, outcome and equality measures.
Please see attached JD for full details.
Person specification
Qualifications And Registration
Essential criteria
- Professional doctorate in Clinical or Counselling Psychology, or an equivalent qualification accepted by the HCPC for registration as a Practitioner Psychologist.
- Current HCPC registration as a Practitioner Psychologist and evidence of continuing professional development.
- Advanced post-qualification training in one or more specialist areas relevant to adult mental health, equivalent to postgraduate diploma level through formal study or an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice-based learning
- Completed training in clinical supervision
Desirable criteria
- Formal leadership, management, quality improvement or organisational consultancy qualification.
- Additional training relevant to acute care, trauma informed practice, psychosis, complex emotional needs, neuropsychology or systemic practice.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Substantial post-qualification experience in adult mental health, including significant experience in acute inpatient, crisis or closely related services.
- Demonstrable experience as a senior clinical specialist with service-level leadership responsibilities.
- Experience of expert assessment, formulation and intervention with adults presenting with severe, complex and high-risk mental health needs.
- Experience of leading psychological provision within multidisciplinary and multi-agency systems.
- Experience of operational and people management, including supervision, appraisal, recruitment, workload allocation and management of performance or conduct concerns.
- Experience of supporting or overseeing services across more than one team or pathway, including managing interfaces and transitions.
- Experience of developing and implementing service changes that have impact beyond a single team.
- Experience of clinical governance, incident learning, audit, quality improvement and outcome measurement.
- Experience of teaching, consultation and supervision across professional groups and levels of seniority.
- Experience of working with and addressing issues of diversity, inequality and accessibility within local communities.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of community mental health hub leadership or operational oversight.
- Experience of budget management, business-case development or workforce modelling.
- Record of publication or presentation in academic, professional or service settings.
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