Job summary
Passionate about mental health support for children, young people and the communities they live in? Do you have the clinical creativity needed to support service development? The implementation of Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) is part of the National picture to improve access to mental health care for children and young people. MHSTs are based within education settings, ensuring children and young people receive faster access to earlier mental health support through individual and community interventions. Would you like to be at the forefront of developing MHSTs? Suffolk MHSTs currently support around 50% of the education settings in the county and we will be expanding to reach all children and young people in Suffol over the comin years. We are excited to be recruiting a Clinical Psychologist to join the exisiting team members, which includes clinical psychologists. You will provide psychological expertise and clinical supervision to the team and will work closely with the Clinical Team Managers and Clinical Lead to support the clinical delivery and development of the service.This role will be based across our Central and East Suffolk teams.Whilst we are hoping to recruit a full-time psychologist, we are happy to have conversations about flexible working hours and the possibility of part-time/job shares.
Main duties of the job
In this role you will be responsible for providing a high-quality service to children and young people (and their families) experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties, through early intervention and offering the right support at the right time. You will work across a range of education settings.You will be responsible for supporting the clinical supervision and clinical development of the Suffolk MHSTs. You will use your clinical skills and experience for direct and indirect delivery of evidence-based interventions to support children and young people in the service. You will need to utilise skills and knowledge of child and adolescent psychological assessment, formulation and intervention. You will also implement whole school/college approaches to mental health through collaboration and coproduction with the school/college community. You will play a key role in supporting the reporting of the impact and outcomes of the MHST to support the team's continual improvement and expansion.
About us
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 ambitious 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.
Job description
Job responsibilities
A job in the Suffolk MHSTs will inevitably be challenging and demanding at times, but it will also be immensely rewarding and provide you with great opportunities to make a genuine difference to the lives of others. You will join a service that has developed a caring, creative and hard-working environment; your ideas about how this new service continues to develop and grow will be highly valued.This is an exciting time of Transformation of mental health services in Suffolk, which MHSTs are at the forefront of. These changes are driven by the needs of local communities, with the aim of embedding mental health services within the community and truly bringing the expertise to where it is needed. NSFT, in collaboration with the Suffolk alliance partners, are striving to deliver services within the Thrive framework. We would welcome any informal conversations about these roles. Please do contact us for more information.Interviews are anticipated to take place in the week commencing 27th October with the successful candidate starting in January 2026. For further details regarding the role, please see attached job description and person specification.
Job description
Job responsibilities
A job in the Suffolk MHSTs will inevitably be challenging and demanding at times, but it will also be immensely rewarding and provide you with great opportunities to make a genuine difference to the lives of others. You will join a service that has developed a caring, creative and hard-working environment; your ideas about how this new service continues to develop and grow will be highly valued.This is an exciting time of Transformation of mental health services in Suffolk, which MHSTs are at the forefront of. These changes are driven by the needs of local communities, with the aim of embedding mental health services within the community and truly bringing the expertise to where it is needed. NSFT, in collaboration with the Suffolk alliance partners, are striving to deliver services within the Thrive framework. We would welcome any informal conversations about these roles. Please do contact us for more information.Interviews are anticipated to take place in the week commencing 27th October with the successful candidate starting in January 2026. For further details regarding the role, please see attached job description and person specification.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Post-graduate degree (or its equivalent if trained prior to 1996) in clinical psychology, accredited by BPS
- Supervisor training, to be a supervisor of doctoral programme clinical psychology trainees or willing to undertake training
- Registered as a practitioner psychologist with the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC)
Desirable
- Evidence of CPD in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice
Experience
Essential
- Experience working as a qualified clinical psychologist (Band 7) and able to evidence appropriate knowledge and experience in practice to enable the post holder to clinically supervise trainee clinical psychologist
Desirable
- Experience of representing psychology within MDT setting (clinical and organisational contexts).
Knowledge
Essential
- Doctor level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis.
Desirable
- Well-developed knowledge of theory and practice of specialised psychological intervention and assessment in specialist clinical service-user groups.
Other
Essential
- Able to identify, provide and promote appropriate support strategies to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and challenging behaviours.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Post-graduate degree (or its equivalent if trained prior to 1996) in clinical psychology, accredited by BPS
- Supervisor training, to be a supervisor of doctoral programme clinical psychology trainees or willing to undertake training
- Registered as a practitioner psychologist with the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC)
Desirable
- Evidence of CPD in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice
Experience
Essential
- Experience working as a qualified clinical psychologist (Band 7) and able to evidence appropriate knowledge and experience in practice to enable the post holder to clinically supervise trainee clinical psychologist
Desirable
- Experience of representing psychology within MDT setting (clinical and organisational contexts).
Knowledge
Essential
- Doctor level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis.
Desirable
- Well-developed knowledge of theory and practice of specialised psychological intervention and assessment in specialist clinical service-user groups.
Other
Essential
- Able to identify, provide and promote appropriate support strategies to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and challenging behaviours.
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.
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.
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).
