NHS

Senior Psychologist/Psychological Practitioner


Pay53,755.00 - 60,504.00 / year
LocationGloucester/England
Employment typeFull-Time

This job is now closed

  • Job Description

      Req#: C9327-25-0624?language=en&page=311&sort=publicationDateDesc

      Job summary

      1x Fixed Term contract/secondment opportunity for up to 6 months

      Internal applicants who wish to be considered for a secondment opportunity should discuss with their line manager the suitability of a possible secondment

      An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced psychological practitioner to join the Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub, known as The Wellbeing Line.

      This is a psychology led service funded by the NHS to support staff working in health and care organisations across Gloucestershire. You would join a supportive, creative and dynamic team, committed to the ongoing development and delivery of this innovative service.

      The delivery model of The Wellbeing Line is currently being reviewed as part of a system-wide evaluation of staff well-being support and the successful candidate would be expected to support the service Lead to ensure ongoing day-to-day delivery, whilst also contributing to continuous service development. The role therefore requires an enthusiastic and adaptable team member, who has excellent organisational skills and the ability to use their own initiative. Due to being a home-based service, we have proactively developed an excellent system of connection and support within the team, which obviates the sense of working in isolation and allows for flexibility within core working hours.

      Main duties of the job

      We are seeking a practitioner who is experienced in delivering support to groups and/or teams (e.g. reflective practice, compassion focused or mindfulness-based support, psycho-education, post-incident debrief) and who is interested in working alongside other colleagues (e.g. HR/OD and Occupational Health) to influence culture change in relation to staff wellbeing at work.

      The Wellbeing Line focus is on preventative and proactive interventions and the successful candidate will provide consultation and training to clinical and non-clinical staff working in a range of settings (e.g. hospital, community, care homes, GP surgeries). Other duties include providing supervision to junior staff, collating, analysing and presenting data and helping to develop bespoke projects. Experience of providing support using virtual platforms is essential.

      The postholder would be required to deliver primarily team and group-based interventions, as well as offering 1:1 consultation support to team leads, supervision to assistant psychologists and to be involved with the development of new projects and the ongoing evaluation and review of the service. The post would be of particular interest to individuals who are experienced in working with staff groups/teams and who have a good understanding of compassion focused approaches, trauma-informed practice and neurodiversity.

      About us

      We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people's homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

      Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:

      • 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
      • 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
      • 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust's priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.

      This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.

      Details

      Date posted

      02 July 2025

      Pay scheme

      Agenda for change

      Band

      Band 8a

      Salary

      £53,755 to £60,504 a year per annum (pro rata)

      Contract

      Fixed term

      Duration

      6 months

      Working pattern

      Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working, Home or remote working

      Reference number

      327-25-541

      Job locations

      Edward Jenner Court

      Pioneer Avenue

      Gloucester

      GL3 4AW


      Job description

      Job responsibilities

      Whilst this role is home-based, there will be a requirement to attend bases across Gloucestershire for the purposes of attending meetings or carrying out in person appointments with staff and teams, as appropriate. The successful candidate will therefore need to be available to travel, as required, and will be entitled to claim for business mileage accordingly.

      The post holder will work to ensure the highest standards of psychological support is provided to individual colleagues and teams who access the service, linking with other agencies and sources of support and developing innovative ideas for the provision of psychologically informed initiatives where there are gaps in services.

      The service is grounded in compassion focused approaches, therefore knowledge and experience of CFT and the Compassionate Mind model is desirable, as is an understanding of trauma informed formulation. The ideal candidate would also have an interest in neurodiversity and contributing to the development of a neuro-inclusive culture at work.

      Specifically, the role includes:

      To be responsible for promoting the psychological health and well-being of health and social care colleagues across Gloucestershire ICS

      To support and promote psychologically informed care across designated teams and services.

      To work alongside HR, OD and OH colleagues to develop an integrated staff well-being offer and act as subject matter expert

      To ensure the safe and effective provision of evidence based psychological interventions to health and social care colleagues across Gloucestershire ICS if indicated

      To supervise others in providing assessments and basic formulations and to directly provide highly specialist psychological assessment to colleagues as indicated, using a variety of applied psychology models.

      To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development

      Job description

      Job responsibilities

      Whilst this role is home-based, there will be a requirement to attend bases across Gloucestershire for the purposes of attending meetings or carrying out in person appointments with staff and teams, as appropriate. The successful candidate will therefore need to be available to travel, as required, and will be entitled to claim for business mileage accordingly.

      The post holder will work to ensure the highest standards of psychological support is provided to individual colleagues and teams who access the service, linking with other agencies and sources of support and developing innovative ideas for the provision of psychologically informed initiatives where there are gaps in services.

      The service is grounded in compassion focused approaches, therefore knowledge and experience of CFT and the Compassionate Mind model is desirable, as is an understanding of trauma informed formulation. The ideal candidate would also have an interest in neurodiversity and contributing to the development of a neuro-inclusive culture at work.

      Specifically, the role includes:

      To be responsible for promoting the psychological health and well-being of health and social care colleagues across Gloucestershire ICS

      To support and promote psychologically informed care across designated teams and services.

      To work alongside HR, OD and OH colleagues to develop an integrated staff well-being offer and act as subject matter expert

      To ensure the safe and effective provision of evidence based psychological interventions to health and social care colleagues across Gloucestershire ICS if indicated

      To supervise others in providing assessments and basic formulations and to directly provide highly specialist psychological assessment to colleagues as indicated, using a variety of applied psychology models.

      To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development

      Person Specification

      Qualifications

      Essential

      • Post Graduate doctoral level training
      • Professional Registration (e.g. Health & Care Professions Council, HCPC)

      Length and Nature of Experience

      Essential

      • Experience of delivering training and/or facilitating group work
      • Experience of maintaining working relationships and a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems.
      • Understanding of the barriers to access and engagement for individuals who hold protected characteristics.
      • Ability to demonstrate an understanding of the role and impact of cultural perspectives on access and engagement with mental health and wellbeing support
      • Broad range of post-qualification experience, preferably working at a highly specialist level in an increasingly autonomous capacity

      Desirable

      • Extensive working knowledge of the makeup of the wider health and social care community including statutory and non-statutory services and direct experience of multi inter-agency working and collaboration
      • Experience and/or training in group and/or team interventions and/or working with group dynamics/systems

      Personal Skills, Abilities and Attributes

      Essential

      • Ability to adapt style and/or assessment and intervention strategies to meet the challenges of complex clients / situations.
      • Evidence of emotional robustness to frequently work with the intense distress of others.

      Professional/Managerial/Specialist Knowledge

      Essential

      • Evidence of providing clinical supervision to junior members of staff, including for example Assistant Psychologists
      • Experience of contributing to service development initiatives, drawing on skills in evaluation and audit
      • To have gained theoretical and practical knowledge (specific to the relevant area of work) that is significantly beyond the core levels necessary to achieve Registered status.
      Person Specification

      Qualifications

      Essential

      • Post Graduate doctoral level training
      • Professional Registration (e.g. Health & Care Professions Council, HCPC)

      Length and Nature of Experience

      Essential

      • Experience of delivering training and/or facilitating group work
      • Experience of maintaining working relationships and a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems.
      • Understanding of the barriers to access and engagement for individuals who hold protected characteristics.
      • Ability to demonstrate an understanding of the role and impact of cultural perspectives on access and engagement with mental health and wellbeing support
      • Broad range of post-qualification experience, preferably working at a highly specialist level in an increasingly autonomous capacity

      Desirable

      • Extensive working knowledge of the makeup of the wider health and social care community including statutory and non-statutory services and direct experience of multi inter-agency working and collaboration
      • Experience and/or training in group and/or team interventions and/or working with group dynamics/systems

      Personal Skills, Abilities and Attributes

      Essential

      • Ability to adapt style and/or assessment and intervention strategies to meet the challenges of complex clients / situations.
      • Evidence of emotional robustness to frequently work with the intense distress of others.

      Professional/Managerial/Specialist Knowledge

      Essential

      • Evidence of providing clinical supervision to junior members of staff, including for example Assistant Psychologists
      • Experience of contributing to service development initiatives, drawing on skills in evaluation and audit
      • To have gained theoretical and practical knowledge (specific to the relevant area of work) that is significantly beyond the core levels necessary to achieve Registered status.

      Disclosure and Barring Service Check

      This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

      Certificate of Sponsorship

      Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

      From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

      UK Registration

      Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

      Additional information

      Disclosure and Barring Service Check

      This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

      Certificate of Sponsorship

      Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

      From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

      UK Registration

      Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

      Employer details

      Employer name

      Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

      Address

      Edward Jenner Court

      Pioneer Avenue

      Gloucester

      GL3 4AW


      Employer's website

      https://www.ghc.nhs.uk/who-we-are/jobs/ (Opens in a new tab)

      Employer details

      Employer name

      Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

      Address

      Edward Jenner Court

      Pioneer Avenue

      Gloucester

      GL3 4AW


      Employer's website

      https://www.ghc.nhs.uk/who-we-are/jobs/ (Opens in a new tab)

  • About the company

      National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly-funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). The founding principles were that services should be comprehensive, universal and free at the point of delivery—a health service based on clinical need, not ability to pay. Each service provides a comprehensive range of health services, free at the point of use for people ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom apart from dental treatment and optical care.

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