Senior Clinical/Counselling Psychologist
The closing date is 21 July 2026

Job summary
We are excited that our prison services are transforming in partnership with other healthcare providers across our London Prisons and are looking for candidates who are interested in working in prison mental health to come and work with us in our Mental Health Hub in HMP Wormwood Scrubs.

The mental health provision at HMP Wormwood Scrubs is a specialist mix of psychological therapies, speech and language therapy, forensic psychiatry, nursing, and occupational therapy.

We are looking for an experienced psychologist, ideally with prison experience, to join our rich MDT and lead on embedding trauma-informed care at HMP Wormwood Scrubs. This is an exciting new post providing an opportunity to lead on changing the prison culture and will rely on strong relationship, clinical, leadership and creative skills.

The post holder will work with the therapies team within the Mental Health Hub, offering a high standard of care and an integrated triage, assessment and intervention for individuals within our prison settings who are presenting with mental health problems.

The successful candidate will benefit from a supportive team and opportunities for continued professional development - for example, this year we have supported staff to complete their EMDR and ADOS training and have an ongoing commitment to staff training and wellbeing.

Potential to move to full-time

Main duties of the job
This is an exciting opportunity to provide a qualified specialist psychology service to service users under the care of the Mental Health team and Therapies Service at HMP Wormwood Scrubs. The role includes providing specialist psychological assessment and therapy, at the same time as offering advice and consultation on service users' psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues. The post holder will also provide supervision to unqualified and qualified psychology staff and support senior staff to further develop the service. They will utilise research skills for audit, policy, service development and research within the area served by the team/service.

Unfortunately, due to security restrictions and vetting requirements, we are not able to accept applications from overseas individuals without a National Insurance number. B7/ 8a preceptorships will also be considered.

About us
North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people. Our Five-Year Strategy:

• We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home.
• With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all
• We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care.
• We will be more effective as an organisation by pioneering research, quality improvement and technology.

Why NLFT?

• We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities.
• We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
• NHS Discounts, generous annual leave and NHS pension scheme
• Excellent internal staff network

The postholder will be aligned with our Values:

• We Are Kind
• We Are Respectful
• We Work Together
• We Keep Things Simple
• We Empower
• We Are Proudly Diverse

Details
Date posted: 10 July 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 8a
Salary: £66,274 to £73,496 a year per annum including HCAS (pro rata)
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Part-time
Reference number: 455-NLFT-0975
Job locations: HMP Wormwood Scrubs Prison, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0AE, United Kingdom

Job description
Job responsibilities
Please see Job description and Person Specification for detailed description of the main responsibilities.

Person Specification
Qualifications/Training
Essential

• Doctoral level training in Clinical / Health / Counselling psychology.
• Post-graduate doctoral level qualification in Clinical, Health or Counselling psychology as accredited by the British Psychological Society, or British Psychological Society Statement of Equivalence.
• Current registration with the Health and Care Professions Council as a practitioner psychologist
• Completion of further post-doctoral post-qualification specialist training in one of: ADOS, EMDR, Trauma informed CBT, ACT or CFT.

Skills
Essential

• Skills in the use of a range of methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management for the full range of problems of severity and complexity presented in adult mental health, particularly with regards to trauma and neurodiversity
• Ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, with service users, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Skills in providing consultation to other mental health professional and non-mental health professional groups.
• Skills in providing training to other mental health professional and non-mental health professional groups.

Experience/Knowledge
Essential

• Experience of psychological assessment and treatment of adult service users in a Tier 3 setting, ideally within a forensic setting or prison establishment
• Experience of working with a wide variety of service users, across the whole life course and presenting problems.
• Significant post-qualification experience working with service users with depression, anxiety and trauma and its comorbidities.
• Significant experience in working with service users with neurodiverse needs.
• Experience of teaching, training and offering effective consultation and supervision services.
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of psychological therapies, with demonstrated competence in the delivery of effective, evidence-based psychological interventions
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and data analysis as practised within the clinical fields of psychology.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the service user group and mental health.

Personal Qualities
Essential

• An ability to form good working relationships with colleagues in a multi-disciplinary setting.
• Understanding of the importance of reflective practice, self-awareness, self-care and use of supervision and support provisions to maintain safe and effective working practice. An ability to seek help when needed and communicate effectively with supervisors and managers.
• An ability to respond professionally and sensitively to service users who are anxious, angry, or distressed.
• A positive attitude towards continuous improvement programmes and audit in forensic health
• An ability to prioritise workload, support with monthly data and meet deadlines in-line with service needs.
• Excellent organisation skills and an ability to work safely, independently and reliably within the time constraints of the role.

Other requirements
Essential

• Excellent IT skills and confidence using multiple devices across different locations and organisations.

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship
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).

Employer details
Employer name: North London NHS Foundation Trust
Address: HMP Wormwood Scrubs Prison, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0AE, United Kingdom
Employer's website: https://www.northlondonmentalhealth.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact:
Therapies & Specialist Health Psychologist Lead
Dr Avni Chauhan
avni.chauhan@nhs.net
02085883389