Are you a Clinical or Counselling Psychologist who wants to make a real difference to the wellbeing of our NHS workforce? Do you have experience and expertise in staff support and are you committed to providing effective, accessible and responsive psychologically informed services? If you are ready to lead at scale this post might be for you.
This Consultant role provides clinical, operational and strategic leadership for Wellbeing Matters, the Trust’s staff psychological support service. You will lead a small team and work closely with other clinical leads, teams and managers, as well as Organisational Development, HR, Patient Safety and senior leaders, to shape an inclusive, evidence-based offer that supports staff wellbeing, psychological safety and organisational resilience.
This is a high-impact leadership role combining clinical expertise, strategic working and service development with operational management and clinical delivery. You will influence Trust-wide policy and culture, respond to complex workforce challenges, and play a key role in organisational developments and incident responses.
The role supports your ongoing development in clinical leadership and change management, while enabling you to apply your expertise in supervision, consultation, training and governance.
On site working and Berkshire wide travel is required but reasonable adjustments are supported alongside hybrid working.
Interviews are due to take place in person on Friday 22nd May.
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This role offers the chance to collaborate across the trust and partner agencies, shaping and advancing psychological care. You’ll lead the evolution of our Wellbeing Matters strategy, delivering evidence‑based psychosocial support and expanding holistic staff care. Key duties include:
Continually refine the Wellbeing Matters model to meet local needs and enhance staff support.
Ensure rapid, effective psychosocial assessment, training, and support for all staff and managers.
Operate the service efficiently, meeting financial and performance targets while balancing demand and capacity.
Govern practice, report on performance, and maintain systematic quality standards.
Manage multidisciplinary staff through recruitment, supervision, appraisal, and professional development.
Provide expert advice, training, and consultation on staff wellbeing to internal and external stakeholders.
Coordinate psychological support for staff involved in incidents or investigations, working with directors and managers.
Represent Wellbeing Matters and the trust at local, regional, and national forums, driving initiatives in staff support.
Collaborate with corporate teams to review and shape staff wellbeing policy.
Advise and respond to major incidents, supporting the Director of Psychology and Psychological Therapies.
Resolve complex ethical and organisational dilemmas within the workforce.
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You will have a proven record of developing and delivering responsive and inclusive staff support, with a specialist interest in the area and robust leadership skills, with exceptional influencing skills and commitment to improve services and staff experience.
The ‘must haves’ for this role:
Post graduate doctorate in clinical/counselling psychology (or equivalent) and Health Care Professional Council accreditation.
Post doctoral leadership qualification.
Extensive clinical experience with a strong staff support background.
A record of successful clinical leadership, service development, and strategic working.
Ability to work autonomously and develop effective interpersonal networks.
Ability to travel between sites in Berkshire.
For further information, please see attached job description and person specification.
Also, please don’t hesitate to contact Dr Bridget Gemal, Director of Psychology and Psychological Therapies, for a conversation about the role: Bridget.Gemal@berkshire.nhs.uk.
We have identified that this is a role where we have underrepresentation of ethnically diverse colleagues. As part of our commitment to inclusion and Unity Against Racism we offer guaranteed interviews to candidates who meet the essential criteria and identify as: Asian or Asian British, Black or Black British, Mixed and ‘Other’ Ethnic Groups.
We strongly encourage you to review how you meet the criteria in the person specification and state this point-by-point in your supporting statement.
We’re committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sections of the community. Our commitment to inclusion is reflected in our accreditations: Race Equality Matters Silver Trailblazer, Neurodiversity in Business Corporate Member, Disability Confident Leader, Carer Confident Level 2, and the Armed Forces Covenant Gold Award. Reasonable adjustments will be provided to candidates as needed.
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Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is a specialist mental health and community health services trust. Rated ‘outstanding’ by the CQC, we’re committed to providing the best possible care to people across Berkshire. As an employer, we’re committed to offering an inclusive and compassionate environment where our people share in a sense of belonging and are supported to flourish.
Our values at Berkshire Healthcare are:
Caring for and about you is our top priority
Committed to providing good quality, safe services
Working Together with you to develop innovative solutions
Your wellbeing is important to us. Some of the benefits of working for us include:
Flexible working options to support work-life balance
27 days’ annual leave rising with service + opportunity to buy and sell
Generous NHS pension scheme
Excellent learning and career development opportunities
‘Cycle to Work’ and car leasing scheme including electric vehicles
Access to a range of wellbeing tools and services
Discounts at hundreds of popular retailers and restaurants
Staff networks for race, diversity, disabilities, the environment and armed forces community to support equality
Generous maternity, paternity, adoption and special leave
Free parking across Trust sites
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Person specification
Essential
Post graduate doctoral qualification in clinical/counselling psychology (or approved equivalent for those who trained prior to 1996 or overseas), which provides eligibility for Chartered Membership of the British Psychological Society (BPS)
Registration with Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) as a Practitioner Psychologist (Clinical/Counselling) (Eligibility for) Chartered Membership of British Psychological Society (BPS)
Evidence of post-doctoral specialist training to accreditable level in at least two areas of psychological practice directly related to the clinical requirements for this post.
Evidence of substantial post-doctoral training, experience, and knowledge as a recognised expert in psychological models and approaches in the area of specialism.
Accreditations to reflect post qualification specialist training (e.g. BABCP, UKCP, ACAT, BACP, BPS/ACT, EMDR-UK).
Clinical supervision training for doctorate psychology trainees (BPS Registered course) and other qualified clinicians
Professional leadership qualification or equivalent level of substantial experience
Training and/or proven ability in providing effective education, consultation and coaching to develop and support others.
Extensive experience working as a qualified (Principal) clinical/counselling psychologist in the relevant specialism.
Substantial experience of working in evidence-based ways with service users (and their carers and families) presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the range of care settings, maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems and threatening behaviour.
Extensive experience of managing highly complex situations concerning safeguarding, risk management, clinical governance, complaints and investigations.
Demonstrable experience of applying professional expertise when leading multidisciplinary teams / in multi-agency environments in a relevant clinical setting.
Extensive experience of leading services and teams with complex caseloads requiring the application of evidence-based psychological methods, assessments, formulation, and interventions.
Extensive experience of teaching and professional/clinical supervision as well as experience of developing training and supervisory models.
Substantial leadership experience and a successful record of accomplishment in leading service delivery and delivering service improvement.
Evidence of successfully holding responsibility for, delivering and being accountable for services that meet local and national targets
Experience of managing resources and line managing staff.
Able to manage a demanding and complex caseload while supporting less experienced clinicians and other colleagues.
High level and well-developed ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to service users, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within the Trust and across the system.
Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
Teaching and group facilitation skills.
Exceptional and highly effective interpersonal communication skills with the ability to support, engage and lead patients, clinicians and other stakeholder groups in change, development and improvement.
Advanced IT skills and the ability to navigate various systems and software packages (such as RiO, Outlook, databases, MS office and the internet)
Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings.
Demonstrates the ability to respond to people’s needs sensitively particularly regarding all aspects of diversity
Able to work flexibly as required (including on call where relevant) and to travel independently between locations to fulfil the requirements and duties of the position with reasonable adjustments where needed.