South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Practitioner Psychologist, Psychotherapist & Psychological Therapist

The closing date is 05 January 2026

Job summary

Croydon Early Intervention Service (COAST) Highly Specialist Clinical/Counselling Psychological practitioner, Systemic Psychotherapist Psychological Therapist or Psychotherapist.

We are looking for an experienced psychological practitioner to join our psychological therapies team within the Croydon Early Intervention Service (COAST). They must be passionate about engaging our diverse local communities to improve accessibility and acceptability of therapies provided by COAST, particularly for families.

You will join a large psychology team within the MDT providing therapies for adults (18-65) experiencing their first episode of psychosis and their families. We are particularly interested in someone who is experienced and committed to working with families affected by psychosis, who could support our family interventions therapist to increase the offer and uptake of family work in line with NICE Guidelines and our annual national EI standards audit.

In Croydon we have been developing Open Dialogue informed network meetings, in addition to other family intervention approaches. We would welcome applications from candidates who share this interest and would like to be involved with developing it within COAST.

The Croydon Psychosis Therapies pathway work closely together to share opportunities for training, development and leadership across services. We collaborate to run some groups across the pathway e.g. siblings group, compassionate resilience group.

Main duties of the job

To provide a highly specialist psychology service to service-users and their families experiencing a first episode of psychosis including specialist assessment, treatment, planning, implementation and monitoring of outcomes.

To support the ongoing development of family support provided by the team.To oversee mechanisms in place to monitor offer and uptake of family interventions in the team and to work and develop and evaluate innovations to improve referral and uptake rates.

To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.

To provide clinical supervision and consultation as appropriate, functioning as a lead specialist in psychological interventions in psychosis.

To undertake service evaluation, audit and research.

To work as an autonomous professional within professional and trust guidelines and codes of conduct, and guided by principles and policies or procedures of the service, taking responsibility for interpreting policies within defined parameters.

To agree outcomes/results with clinical/professional lead and to decide how they are best achieved.

About us

COAST is a well established early intervention service providing support to adults aged 18-65 and their families experiencing a first episode of psychosis in Croydon. Part of the Croydon directorate with strong links across services in the borough as well as with the EI services across the trust. COAST is a large, busy service with an MDT staff group of around 35 staff, supporting a hugely diverse local population.

The postholder will be well supported within the psychology team and with support from colleagues across the Croydon Psychosis Therapies pathway. You will be encouraged to develop your own leadership opportunity relating to service development and your own experience and skills.

Date posted

24 December 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8a

Salary

£61,631 to £68,623 a year per annum incl. of HCAs pro rata

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Part-time, Flexible working

Reference number

334-CLI-7594118

Job locations

Croydon Early Intervention Service (COAST)

Queens Resource Centre, 66a Queens Road

Croydon

CR0 2PR

Job description

Job responsibilities

Ideally the postholder would be experienced at working therapeutically with families affected by psychosis and be keen to have family work as a primary focus in the role. All senior therapists in the team provide both individual and family based therapies. The proportion of the family focus for this role can be discussed based on experience, so should not put off an experienced therapist from applying.

Key Responsibilities:

KR 1 Clinical and Client Care

To provide highly specialist psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for clients in the COAST Early Intervention Service and community psychosis pathway including their families at levels expected of a psychologist who has achieved the equivalent of a PG Diploma-worth of post-qualification specialist development.

To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.

To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.

KR 2 Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

To contribute to the effective working of the team or service and to a psychologically informed framework for the service.

To contribute to the team or services delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.

To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.

To advise other members of the service on specialist psychological care of clients.

To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.

To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

KR 3 Policy and service development

To implement policies and procedures in own area of work, and to propose improvements or beneficial changes.

To contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.

To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.

KR 4 Care or management of resources

To take care of, and use carefully, the Trusts equipment and physical resources.

To ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.

To ensure the cleanliness and safe functioning and use of equipment that will be used by clients or other persons.

To monitor and advise clients on the safe use of materials and processes.

To ensure adequate confidential and safe storage for artefacts produced during the therapy process in line with professional guidelines.

To be responsible for obtaining, storing and maintaining all materials and equipment for the provision of therapy in work setting within budgetary constraints.

To ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.

KR 5 Management and supervision

To be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of more junior psychologists or family interventions therapist with support from a more senior psychologist.

To supervise trainee applied psychologists within own area of specialism.

To contribute to the appraisal of more junior psychologists, as appropriate.

To contribute to the recruitment of more junior psychologists, as appropriate.

To provide supervision for the psychological work of other multi-disciplinary staff as appropriate.

KR 6 Teaching and Training

To undertake occasional teaching and training of pre and post- qualification psychologists and specialised training to other professions as appropriate.

To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the community psychosis pathway by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychology and psychosis and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.

To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.

KR 7 Record-keeping and Information Governance

To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.

To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.

KR 8 Research and development

To initiate, undertake, support and supervise regular complex service evaluation and audits.

To initiate and carry out appropriate research

To provide expertise in a specialist research area which will contribute to the development of the psychosis pathway.

To initiate and implement the development of outcome measurement and assessment and assist other staff in the implementation of same.

KR 9 Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior psychological therapist according to professional body and Trust guidelines.

To maintain own Continuing Professional Development in line with professional body and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and professional Standards for Continuing Professional Development.

To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.

To comply with professional body Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics/Standards of Proficiency.

KR10 General

To travel to home visits, community placements, psychology meetings as appropriate and across the Trust when required.

To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group, and follow trust policies relating to its management.

To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations such as challenging behaviour, abuse etc and to support others involved in such situations.

To work flexibly which may include offering some regular commitment to late clinics or Saturday working, within the overall Job Plan.