Job summaryThe role is based in the Neighbourhood Teams (Family Help/Social Work) and is uniquely positioned to provide specialist adult mental health consultation, direct work and training in a multidisciplinary team including: Family Help Keyworkers, Primary Mental Health Specialists from CAMHS, Independent Domestic Violence Advocates (IDVAs) Employment Advisers from DWP and Social Workers in Bristol City Council's Children's Services.
As an Adult Mental Health Specialist in this team, you will have excellent communication and therapeutic skills. You will facilitate and provide assessment services on the psychological/ emotional health of adults. You will lead and participate in multi-agency meetings and consultations with professionals. You will engage in some direct therapeutic work with adults and will contribute to presentations and training events for other professionals and carers / parents as required. As part of the team, you will be well-supported within the Bristol service to provide this work with regular managerial and clinical supervision and clinical team/CPI meetings.
Key features of this role:
- The development of emotional and mental health outreach services and systemic practice for adults and their families in Bristol's national Supporting Families Programme.
- To have a highly specialist lead role for adult mental health, supporting the development of wellbeing of parents/carers and forming links with adult mental health services.
Main duties of the job- To provide highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy to patients and carers as appropriate to the service.
- To provide highly specialist advice and consultation on clients' formulation and psychological management to other non-psychologist colleagues.
- To use highly specialist psychological knowledge and skills to contribute to the more effective management of patients by the various teams in the area and where appropriate outside of the area.
- To clinically supervise/line manage trainee clinical psychologists, assistant psychologists, CAPs and less experienced psychology staff, and other professionals.
- To contribute to audit, research, policy and service development within the areas served by the Family help/ Social care Service.
- To develop and deliver training for multidisciplinary staff.
About usWe are the lead provider of healthcare for people with serious mental illness, learning disabilities and autism across Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES), Swindon and Wiltshire, and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
We aim to provide High Quality, Compassionate Care everywhere, every day. This means our services will be safe, clinically effective and provide a positive all round experience for our patients, families and carers. And we believe passionately in treating everyone with kindness, respect and empathy.
Key to this is providing a supportive and safe environment for our 4,000 staff where we all feel welcome and able to do the best we can for those we support. Our staff and teams work incredibly hard delivering services across more than 90 locations, covering 2,200miles, to more than 1.8million people.
At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.
DetailsDate posted: 18 September 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 8a
Salary: £57,528 to £64,750 a year pro rata
Contract: Fixed term
Duration: 6 months
Working pattern: Part-time
Reference number: 342-BR141-0926
Job locations: Symes House, Peterson Square, Hartcliffe, Bristol, BS13 0BE, United Kingdom
Job responsibilitiesCLINICAL- To provide a high quality and largely autonomous and systematic service including consultancy, training and casework to a specified Family Help/Social Care Team, including one to one casework supervision, advice and support.
- To undertake highly specialist assessments, risk assessment and assessment for suitability for specialist psychological therapies with clients and their carers (as appropriate to the role).
- To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of clients mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
- To be responsible for providing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
- To provide at least one specialist evidence based psychological intervention as dictated by the needs of the service.
- To provide highly specialist consultation to members of the various teams in the area and beyond regarding formulation and psychological management of clients of those teams.
- To use highly specialist psychological knowledge and skills to contribute to the more effective management of patients by teams.
- To be involved in the development and delivery of training within the Trust.
- To participate in clinical and caseload supervision arrangements provided by the Service.
- To maintain accurate records and to monitor clinical workload using agreed systems.
- To participate in generic team duties as agreed by the Family help team Manager and AWP CPI Supervisor, as appropriate to the needs of the service.
- To enter data as requested by the Trust in a timely manner.
MANAGEMENT- Delegated caseload supervision.
- Represent the service at specialist meetings as requested.
- The co-ordination of small scale projects as requested.
PROFESSIONAL- To fully observe the BPS (1996) Code of Conduct and the DCP Guidelines for the Professional Practice of Clinical Psychology (1995), or the equivalent for the professional body you are registered with To be HCPC registered, or registered with other equivalent regulatory body.
- To be aware of, adhere to, and where appropriate, contribute to the formulation and review of Trust, Area, Clinical Psychology and Bristol City Council policies and procedures. Copies of Trust Policies can be accessed via the staff intranet or from your manager.
- To participate in local psychological therapy and psychology meetings and trust wide meetings as appropriate.
- To maintain and develop high standards of psychological therapy practice by engaging in continuing professional development and co-operative working/networking with other psychological therapists.
- To participate in an annual performance appraisal.
- To participate in clinical supervision.
SERVICE GOVERNANCE- To participate in service governance processes in the profession and in Bristol City Council to maintain a safe, effective service which responds to Service User feedback.
- To support and participate in multidisciplinary clinical audit.
- To liaise with other disciplines and agencies to ensure that best practice is shared.
- To promote the use of effective interventions in the service.
TRAINING AND STAFF DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT- To provide supervision for clinical psychology trainees, or other trainees from regional training courses and elsewhere as appropriate.
- To provide training, supervision and consultation in psychological approaches to other staff in the Service Co-ordinator Team. This is to include support with client engagement, joint assessment, formulation of psychological problems and planning of interventions to be implemented by Service Co-ordinators.
- To contribute to the development of a psychologically based framework of understanding and care across service settings through providing teaching, training, consultation and supervision.
- To participate in peer supervision arrangements for psychological therapists in the area.
- To collaborate with colleagues to develop and offer training courses, workshops and supervision groups to develop psychological skills for staff in the area.
- To contribute to the teaching of students and trainees in psychology, medicine, nursing and other health care disciplines.
- To agree a plan of personal development with the line manager and professional lead for the service.
- Provide inclusive, compassionate and effective adult mental health leadership for your team by setting clear vision and direction.
- Develop a culture and environment in which members of staff are encouraged and supported to deliver high- quality services and are supported to innovate and improve services where appropriate.
- Encourage your team to feel able to raise concerns openly and safely.
- Promote equality of opportunity in service delivery and employment, ensuring that no person receives less favourable treatment than another on the grounds of gender, marital status, race, religion, creed, colour nationality ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation or disability.
- Consider the individual needs of team members for a healthy work-life balance and think about how their needs can be supported by providing flexible ways of working.
Person SpecificationEducation and QualificationEssential- Doctorate Level training in Clinical/ Counselling Psychology or equivalent professional qualification for other professions.
- Registered with the HCPC or other equivalent regulatory body.
- Post qualification and further specialist training in specified specialist intervention
DesirableExpereince and KnowledgeEssential- Care Co-ordination or equivalent role.
- Training others in MH services topics.
- Clinical supervision/consultation with other professionals.
- Evidence based therapeutic interventions with client group.
- Experience of risk assessment and management.
- Experience of working with a diverse population and the ability to consider issues of diversity, accessibility and equality of access to services.
Desirable- Relevant R&D or clinical audit work post qualification.
- Experience of working with families, and particular mental health issues for this service user group.
Skills and abilitiesEssential- Ability to work collaboratively and successfully in a multi-disciplinary team environment across sectors and agencies
- Well organised with good administration skills
- Self-awareness and emotional resilience
Disclosure and Barring Service CheckThis 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 SponsorshipApplications 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 RegistrationApplicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Employer detailsEmployer name: Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
Address: Symes House, Peterson Square, Hartcliffe, Bristol, BS13 0BE, United Kingdom
Employer's website: http://www.awp.nhs.uk/about-us/working-for-us/ (Opens in a new tab)
Employer contact detailsFor questions about the job, contact: Clinical Psychologist, Head of CPI, Beth Perry, Beth.perry@nhs.net, 01179195680
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).Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window). 
