Closing date: 14 July 2026

Job summary
We are seeking an experienced clinical, forensic or counselling psychologist to join a well-established psychology service and multi-disciplinary team in the Forensic Outreach and Liaison Service (FOLS) in Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust (KMMH). The post requires providing specialist clinical/forensic psychological input to adults with complex, severe and enduring mental health difficulties, and offending histories. The service is based in Maidstone, Kent, and has good links with secure mental health and learning disability services within KMMH.

You will be responsible for the systematic provision of specialist clinical/forensic psychology services to adults with complex, severe and enduring mental health difficulties and offending histories. The post is based primarily in the FOLS team but may also involve clinical work more broadly across low secure services and community forensic outreach services as required.

You will undertake high quality direct (assessment and therapeutic) and indirect (consultative, advisory and evaluative) specialist psychology interventions in these services and taking substantial professional responsibility and exercising autonomous judgement in their professional practice.

Main duties of the job

• To provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy to FOLS patients with complex and severe mental health problems and offending histories, utilising information from a broad range of structured psychometric and semi-structured clinical methodologies and integrating it into a psychological formulation of the patient and the psychosocial environment as well as drawing on a range of psychological theoretical perspectives.
• To undertake a range of psychological therapeutic interventions, drawing on a range of psychological models and employing a range of modalities (individual, group).
• To provide support to the existing FOLS team around working with offenders and offering training, consultation and advice.
• To formulate and implement plans of specialist psychological treatment or management of patients' mental health problems based on a multi-factorial psychological understanding and current evidence-based best practice.
• To undertake a range of psychological therapeutic interventions, drawing on a range of psychological models and employing a range of modalities (individual, family and group) adapted and tailored to the needs of the individual and the context and the ongoing evaluation of the outcomes of the intervention.
• To be responsible for providing a specialist psychological perspective in the multi-disciplinary assessment of service users and their families.

About us
We are Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. We care for the mental health and wellbeing of people across Kent and Medway and are rated 'Good' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Our teams support children, young people and adults with a wide range of mental health needs. We also provide specialist services, including all-age eating disorder services and neurodevelopmental assessments for children and young people, such as autism and ADHD.

Because we work across the whole county and across hospital and community settings, we can make care more joined up and easier to access for the people we serve.

Our vision is simple: we are here to help communities not just live with mental illness, but live well. It's why we're passionate about working with communities to make mental health care better for everyone. Everything we do is guided by our values: caring, inclusive, curious and confident.

Join us if you share our passion for better mental health care and want to be part of a team that's working well together.

Details
Date posted: 23 June 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 8b
Salary: £66,582 to £77,368 a year per annum
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 380-FR0693
Job locations: Trevor Gibbens Unit, Hermitage Lane, Maidstone, ME16 9PL, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities
To be regularly responsible for providing training placements for trainee clinical psychologists and forensic trainees and for providing professional support and guidance to newly qualified, band 7 and band 8A senior psychologists in this specialism.

The nature of forensic work requires the postholder to operate within the public arena and have specialist knowledge of, and skills in working with, a wide variety of other professional agencies such as courts, police, prisons, the legal profession, probation and social services.

Please refer to the attached job description for full details and main responsibilities of the role.

We are serious about diversity and inclusion, and we are working hard to build this into our DNA. We warmly welcome applications for any of our roles from people from diverse backgrounds, and we are proactively encouraging applications from under-represented communities for our more senior roles, like this one

Person Specification
Training, Qualifications and Registration
Essential

• Good honours degree in Psychology.
• Post-graduate doctorate in clinical/forensic psychology (or its equivalent) as accredited by the BPS.
• Breakaway training or equivalent if required.

Desirable

• Post-Doctoral Training/qualification in one or more Therapeutic Models e.g: CBT, DBT, MBT, Psychodynamic

Experience
Essential

• Minimum of four years post qualification experience in working in a variety of mental health/forensic settings.
• Experience of working in range of mental health / neuro developmental disability settings with a range of age groups as specified by BPS competencies for clinical/forensic psychologists

Desirable

• Experience of management of staff
• Experience of Conducting audit, service evaluation and Qi

Knowledge and Skills
Essential

• Ability to comprehend and communicate verbally and in writing highly complex and sensitive information in a manner appropriate to a range of settings and audiences, including complex highly emotive situations and those with significantly impaired communication capacities.
• Ability to analyse and manage complex multi-factorial clinical information from a range of sources integrating it into a formulation utilising a variety of psychological perspectives.
• Ability to organise own workload effectively, prioritising a complex range of tasks and responsibilities to meet agreed deadlines.
• Adequate keyboard skills and sound understanding of IT packages.
• Ability to drive.
• Ability to administer complex psychometric text materials.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology.
• Knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group and mental health.

Desirable

• Advanced keyboard skills
• Additional specialist supervised experience in the setting and client group of this post.

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.

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details
Employer name: Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust
Address: Trevor Gibbens Unit, Hermitage Lane, Maidstone, ME16 9PL, United Kingdom
Employer's website: https://www.kentmedwaymentalhealth.nhs.uk (Opens in a new tab)

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact:
Lead for Psychological Forensic&Specialistservices
Andy Inett
andy.inett@nhs.net
01622723100