Head of Psychology, Hillingdon

We want the people of Hillingdon to experience a fully integrated and coordinated mental health system that focuses on individuals' strengths and supports their overall health and wellbeing.

This role is clinical, operational, and strategic in nature, with a strong emphasis on continuous improvement and the transformation of service design across the Adult Mental Health system in Hillingdon.

The post holder will lead, coordinate, and actively contribute to the delivery of high-quality support and services for adults experiencing mental health difficulties within the borough. We are committed to providing the right care, at the right time, to help people thrive, contribute to their communities, and live healthy, fulfilling lives.

We are seeking an exceptional leader who will inspire and empower our teams, fostering a culture of collaboration, inclusivity, and professional growth to ensure that we continue to meet the diverse needs of the people of Hillingdon.

Provide strategic and professional leadership for psychological services across the Hillingdon Community Mental Health Hubs (CMHHs).

Ensure the delivery of high-quality, evidence-based psychological care aligned with NICE guidelines and Trust standards.

Lead on service transformation, design, and evaluation of psychological interventions to improve outcomes for adults with complex needs.

Oversee clinical governance, risk management, and continuous quality improvement through audit, research, and outcome measurement.

Provide professional supervision, leadership, and development for psychologists and psychological therapists.

Support workforce planning, recruitment, appraisal, and wellbeing initiatives to build a skilled and resilient psychology workforce.

Promote a whole-system approach to care, ensuring coordinated support for individuals accessing multiple services.

Collaborate with other professional leads (e.g., Psychotherapy, Arts Therapies, Occupational Therapy) to deliver integrated, person-centred care.

Build strong partnerships with multidisciplinary teams, primary care, voluntary sector, and service users to enhance community mental health provision.

Contribute psychological expertise to senior management discussions and strategic decision-making within the borough leadership team.

Champion research, innovation, and the translation of evidence into effective practice to improve service quality and outcomes.

Hillingdon is an Outer London area with a mixed, diverse population with some of the wealthiest and most deprived areas of London. There is a high mental health morbidity and local commissioners are committed to a high spend on mental health services.

Hillingdon adult mental health service provides a range of mental health services for adults across the age range within the community and in hospital settings.

• Riverside Hospital with 4 inpatient wards; one adult PICU, 2 adult acute wards and one Older Adult ward.
• Community Mental Health Hubs, Health Psychology, Talking Therapies
• Psychology and Psychotherapy Services including Clinical Psychologists which are fully embedded in the CMHHs and inpatient unit, Arts Psychotherapy, and other specialist family and individual psychotherapies
• Early Intervention Service
• Learning Disability
• Home Treatment Team (HTT)
• Liaison Psychiatry
• Memory Service

The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.

Please review the attached job description for more details about the role

• To provide and be accountable for a highly specialist integrated psychology service to people using Westminster Mental Health Services utilising a range of interventions based on sound theoretical principles and research evidence. This would be based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological (and neuropsychological) tests, self-report measures, rating scales direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client's care.
• To take a lead in the effective working of the services and ensure a psychologically informed framework for the service area that is culturally competent, anti-discriminatory and challenges health & social inequalities.
• To support the Westminster Complex Emotional Needs Pathway
• To be expert in the skilled administration of psychometric tests, including skilled manipulation of test materials; and to be able to supervise others in administration of psychometric tests.
• To provide expert psychological reports, including relevant formulation, opinion and interventions, in order to inform referrers and, where appropriate, service users.
• To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing & challenging situations and to support others involved in such situations.
• To select and deliver evidence based psychological treatments, monitor outcome and modify and adapt interventions, drawing on a range of theoretical options.
• To work as an independent and autonomous professional within professional guidelines and Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC) guidelines and the policies and procedures of the service, taking full responsibility for own work including treatment and discharge decisions.
• To travel to various services, home visits, community placements, meetings, as appropriate and across the Trust when required.
• To contribute to the effective working of clinical teams, services in directorate/division and to a psychologically informed framework for the service/directorate. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for all individual clients and to provide both general and specialist advice for psychologists and other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management
• To be responsible for psychological interventions with carers (or families as appropriate) of referred clients.
• To communicate skilfully and sensitively highly complex and sensitive information, taking account of sensory and cultural barriers to communication.
• To act as a named worked taking responsibility for the overall care of service users where allocated.
• To co-ordinate (and chair) team clinical, service meetings to ensure effective functioning and review when appropriate.
• To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group, and follow trust policies relating to its management.
• To provide specialist advice and consultation to other members of teams for their provision of psychologically based interventions
• To ensure appropriate systems for the clinical and professional supervision of psychological professionals across the Borough.
• To ensure the development of the knowledge and skills base within the services by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychology and specialisms and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.
• To provide expert psychological consultation and professional and clinical supervision to colleagues and more junior psychologists and to contribute to a psychologically informed framework within the service/directorate.
• To be responsible for planning, organising, and the delivery of teaching and training of pre and post- qualification psychologists and specialist training to other professions within your service area.
• To ensure systems are in place for the provision of specialist clinical placements for trainee clinical and/or trainee counselling psychologists and others, in the directorate and services.
• To ensure systems are in place for the provision of access to CBT training/supervision for junior doctors undertaking training in psychiatry