Main area Mental Health Grade Band 8b Contract Permanent Hours
- Full time
- Flexible working
37.5 hours per week (The postholder will need to have the ability to work flexibly, as IRS is a 24/7 service, where peak demand is expected to be outside of normal working hours.) Job ref 246-CEN8211142-B
Site County Hall Town Norwich Salary £66,582 – £77,368 gross per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 11/10/2026 23:59 Interview date 21/10/2026
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust provides child and adult mental health services, learning disability, wellbeing, older people’s and eating disorder services across Norfolk and Suffolk.
We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and want to reflect the diversity of our local communities within our teams. We welcome applications from all talented individuals with the relevant qualifications, skills, knowledge and experience.
Please note due to the nature of our roles and patient demographic, you will be required to undertake physical intervention training and remain trained, as required by your role.
Job overview
Are you ready to lead transformation at the front door of mental health care?
We are seeking an experienced and innovative 8b clinical psychologist to play a key leadership role in our Initial Response Service (IRS) – a 24/7 single point of access service. The role focuses on psychologically informed triage; formulation; risk management; staff support and service transformation, to ensure people receive the right help at the first point of contact.The postholder will need to have the ability to work flexibly, as IRS is 24/7, where peak demand is expected to be outside of normal working hours.
Main duties of the job
- Provide psychological leadership within IRS, CRHT and NHS 111 mental health option services.
- Lead psychologically informed triage, formulation, risk assessment and risk management for complex, urgent and crisis presentations.
- Deliver expert clinical consultation regarding managing crisis presentations.
- Provide structured consultation and supervision to IRS staff.
- Support NHS 111 clinicians with formulation, risk assessment and psychologically informed decision-making.
- Develop and align psychological practice across IRS, CRHT and NHS 111 to evidence-based and best-practice standards.
- Provide training, reflective practice sessions and post-incident reflections to multidisciplinary teams.
- Support the delivery of trauma-informed, autism-informed and psychologically informed care.
- Contribute to patient safety processes, after-action reviews and the production of reports.
- Provide one day a week of direct clinical work.
- Develop integrated pathways with system partners including NHS 111, primary care, crisis services and acute care pathways.
- Lead and support urgent care service transformation, pathway development and continuous quality improvement initiatives.
- Promote a standardized approach to safety planning, clinical decision-making and risk formulation across services.
Working for our organisation
As an employer, I and Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust are particularly committed to enabling our staff to do the very best they can through support and training, as well as opportunities for progression. We are confident, therefore, that the right candidate will have a real chance to make a positive impact to the lives of young people in Norfolk.
Here at NSFT we pride ourselves on being a welcoming, talented, friendly and supportive team who like nothing better than sharing experiences and learning from each other. In addition to ongoing training and development opportunities, we are committed to providing an environment in which you can thrive.
Why work for us? We have challenges as a Trust, but we have ambition aspirations, are pushing ahead with exciting transformation work and we need dedicated individuals to support us on our journey. We have strong, established professional networks coupled with an exceptional leadership team who will ensure you are truly cared for and cared about.
Why Norfolk and Suffolk?The people here are warm and welcoming, you’ll never be far from the beautiful coastline or Broads National Park. We’re an hour and a half away from London and have an international airport in Norwich too. Our villages, towns and cities are packed full of history, independent cafes, shops and theatres. We have excellent shopping, eating out, top ranking schooling and affordable house prices too.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
We are seeking an experienced and innovative principal clinical psychologist to play a key leadership role in our Initial Response Service (IRS) – a 24/7 single point of access service. The role focuses on psychologically informed triage; formulation; risk management; staff support and service transformation, to ensure people receive the right help at the first point of contact. The postholder will need to have the ability to work flexibly, as IRS is 24/7, where peak demand is expected to be outside of normal working hours.
Please find attached our Job Description and Person Specification for more detail on your Key Accountabilities, then if you feel you have what it takes to make a difference in your local communities,
Some of the benefits you can expect:
- a comprehensive in house & external training programmes
- career progression
- starting annual leave of 27 days per annum increasing to 33 days pa based on length of service (plus paid bank holidays)
- NHS discounts and many more.
Interview dates are yet to be set; you will be contacted via email and invited to book a time. These emails may go to your SPAM, so please keep checking all your emails if applying.
Please visit our Facebook and Twitter page @NSFTjobs
Person specification
Qualifications
- Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology, or its equivalent, including eligibility for chartered status with the BPS
- Further post-qualification, post-graduate training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice
- Registered as a practitioner psychologist with the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC)
- Evidence of CPD in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice
Experience
- Specialist complex psychological assessment and treatment of people with a wide range of mental health problems, of varying severity and complexity.
- Extensive experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist and evidence of specialist knowledge gained through practice and ongoing training.
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups and presenting problems including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems.
- Representing psychology within MDT setting (clinical and organisational contexts).
- Experience of clinical work in a setting relevant to the post
Skills
- Use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management.
- Assessment, evaluation and management of risk associated with mental ill health and related psychopathology.
- Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively complex, highly technical and clinically highly sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
- Production of reports suitable for public presentations and presentation in medico-legal setting.
- High level knowledge in the assessment and evaluation of psychological therapies.
Knowledge
- Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnosis, people with additional disabilities etc.)
- Practitioner level knowledge of at least two models of psychological therapy.
- Legislation and its implication for clinical practice and the appropriate management of people presenting with mental health problems
Other
- Commitment to continuing professional development, to partnership working and to reflective clinical practice.
- Able to identify, and employ appropriate clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice.
- Ability to travel Independently
- Undertake physical intervention training and remain trained in techniques, as required by role
- Experience of working within a multicultural framework.
- Experience of providing specific support intervention and strategy for staff.
Please be aware that, due to the high number of applications for certain roles, this vacancy may close earlier than the advertised closing date. We encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible.
YOUR APPLICATION
We can provide all our job application materials in alternative formats so that these are accessible to everyone. Should you require any documents within this job pack in an alternative format, please do not hesitate to contact us at recruitment@nsft.nhs.uk.
PLEASE NOTE: If you use a hotmail, msn or yahoo e-mail account, you will need to check your “junk” mail regularly as these email providers will divert any communication from this Trust/NHS JOBS straight into your ” junk” inbox.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIESApart from its legal duties in relation to equality and diversity, the Trust recognises and actively promotes the benefits of a diverse workforce and is committed to treating all employees with dignity and respect regardless of race, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief.
As a part of the Disability Confident Employer Guaranteed Interview Scheme we interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the job vacancy (outlined in the Person Specification).. We encourage you to indicate your eligibility through TRAC jobs when applying.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post may be 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.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
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