Job summary
Lead Practitioner Psychologist (Band 8b)Neighbourhood Mental Health Teams (Complex Needs Service Line)

This is an exciting time to join Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust as we continue to transform adult community mental health services through our innovative Neighbourhood Mental Health Teams. We are seeking experienced and compassionate Clinical or Counselling Psychologists who are passionate about delivering high-quality psychological care and shaping the future of community mental health services.

We are recruiting several Lead Practitioner Psychologists across a range of localities within our Waverley Complex Needs Service Line. These are influential senior leadership roles for highly skilled Clinical or Counselling Psychologists who are motivated to drive service development, champion psychologically informed care, and support multidisciplinary teams to deliver outstanding outcomes for people experiencing complex mental health difficulties.

These posts will be supported and supervised by the respective place-based Consultant Psychologist.

Main duties of the job
As the senior psychological professional within your Neighbourhood Team, you will provide strategic and operational leadership for psychological practice while maintaining a meaningful clinical caseload. Working alongside experienced multidisciplinary colleagues, you will help shape innovative models of care, embed evidence-based interventions and ensure that psychological thinking is at the heart of service delivery.

Please see JD for full key responsibilities, some of them included the following:

• Provide professional leadership and governance for a highly specialist psychology service, ensuring safe, effective practice, compliance with legal and professional standards, and high-quality patient care.
• Lead and develop the place-based psychological workforce, including supervision, appraisal, recruitment, workforce development, teaching, mentoring, and supporting students and junior staff.
• Drive service improvement and strategic development through contributing to partnership working, policy and care pathway development and ensuring equity and inclusion for people with protected characteristics.
• Deliver and promote expert psychological practice, including specialist assessment, formulation, intervention and consultation, while leading audit, research, innovation and the implementation of national best practice standards.

About us
Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is transforming adult community mental health care through integrated Neighbourhood Teams, delivering person-centred, trauma-informed support in partnership with primary care, local authorities and voluntary sector organisations.

Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is the leading provider of health and social care services for people of all ages with mental ill-health and learning disabilities in Surrey and North East Hampshire. We also provide social care services for people with a learning disability in Croydon and ASD and ADHD assessment services in Hampshire.

We actively seek to engage people who use our services and our communities in improving the mental wellbeing of the local population. We work closely with other NHS and voluntary sector organisations who provide services and support people who use services and carers.

Surrey is a beautiful county lying just 30 minutes away from Central London and from the South Coast.

Our historic market towns and bustling districts are enveloped in wonderful countryside, and our excellent road and rail networks bring the rest of the country within easy reach.

For international travel, both Gatwick and Heathrow airports are nearby.

Please note that we reserve the right to close posts as soon as sufficient applications are received.

Applicants must have the right to work in the UK for the duration of the role.

We look forward to receiving your application!

Details
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 8b
Salary: £68,852 to £79,638 a year Incl. 5% Fringe HCAS, pa, pro rata.
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Part-time
Reference number: 325-8184500-COMM-L
Closing date: 14 November 2026

Essential qualifications

• HCPC Registration
• Completion of an appropriate clinical supervision course to enable supervision of trainees
• Doctorate in Clinical or Counselling Psychology qualification or equivalent

Desirable qualifications

• Additional leadership/management study
• Additional academic qualification relevant to area of work

Essential experience

• Extensive post qualification clinical experience in relevant clinical setting
• Experience of leading in clinical practice, service development or project work.
• Experience of supervising trainees, assistant psychologists, qualified clinical/counselling psychologists and others providing psychological therapies
• Experience of implementing change following audit and service evaluation
• Demonstrable experience of developing complex formulations drawing on multiple psychological models
• Experience of advising other professionals on complex psychological issues and risk

Contact: Consultant Clinical Psychologist Dr Lynsey Hart, lynsey.hart@sabp.nhs.uk

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. Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website. Apply through our website.