About Us

EPUT provides community health, mental health and learning disability services to support more than 3.2 million people living across Bedfordshire, Essex and Suffolk. We have also been running the COVID-19 vaccination programme across mid and south Essex and Suffolk and north east Essex. 

The Trust is a large employer in the East of England region, with more than 10,000 staff working across more than 200 sites. We also provide services in people’s homes and in community settings.

EPUT was formed on 1 April 2017 following the merger of North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (NEP) and South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (SEPT). A new leadership team was established at the Trust in 2020.

CQC says we’re still GOOD and now we’re OUTSTANDING for caring!

Our vision and values

Our Vision

“To be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care”.

Our Purpose

“We care for people every day. What we do together, matters”.

Our Values

• We Care
• We Learn
• We Empower

Our strategic objectives

• We will deliver safe, high quality integrated care services.
• We will enable each other to be the best that we can.
• We will work together with our partners to make our services better.
• We will help our communities to thrive.

Our services include:

Mental Health Services – We provide a wide range of treatment and support to young people, adults and older people experiencing mental illness both as inpatients and within the community.  This includes; including treatment, in secure and specialised settings.  A number of our specialist services have achieved accreditation from the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Community Health Services – our diverse range of community health services provide support and treatment to both adults and children. We deliver this care in community hospitals, health centres, GP surgeries and in our patients’ homes.

Learning Disabilities Services – we provide crisis support and inpatient services and our community learning disability teams work in partnership with local councils to provide assessment and support for adults with learning disabilities.

As part of our a commitment to driving up quality in services for people with learning disabilities we are proud to say that we have signed up to the Driving Up Quality Code. Our self -assessment contains the full details of our commitment.

Social Care – We provide personalised social care support to people with a range of needs, including people with learning disabilities or mental illness, supporting people to live independently.

Find out more about the services we offer in our service directory.

In return we can offer exceptional education, training and development opportunities as well as a wide range of benefits, which include flexible working opportunities, salary sacrifice schemes and the opportunity to buy or sell up to one week of annual leave to support a healthy work-life balance. In addition to this the Trust also offers a generous relocation package where applicants meet the eligibility criteria.

Job overview

The post-holder will provide a high quality specialist Clinical/Counselling Psychology service for people with personality disorder and other complex mental health needs across the service, working autonomously within professional guidelines, and the overall framework of the Trust’s policies and procedures, whilst exercising responsibility for the governance of psychological practice within the service.  Our bases are in Harlow, Uttlesford and Epping and serve the West locality of the Trust.

The post holder will be responsible for the supervision and support of the psychological assessment and interventions provided by other psychologists (newly qualified and trainees) and other clinical members of the teams who provide psychologically based care and treatment. Where required, they will contribute specialist psychological skills and advice with regards to the design and implementation of strategic planning, organisational and service developments, staff training and otherwise support initiatives within the service.

Main duties of the job

• To develop and lead the implementation of specialist clinical psychology services to clients within community and primary care teams who present with personality disorder and complex needs, with the support of the Trust-wide Specialist PD&CN Multi-disciplinary Team.
• To provide a range of assessments, from initial screening assessments (including an aspect of risk assessment), through to more specialised psychological assessments (including specific cognitive, behavioural and interpersonal factors). Most assessments will aim to gather information about the development of difficulties (internal or external) and the client’s interpretations of and reactions to current triggers. Social factors are also assessed (including relationships, finances and housing).
• To provide compassionate formulations and brief therapeutic interventions and/or management plans based on appropriate conceptual frameworks, applying evidence-based approaches, taking into account National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines for complex conditions and National Health guidance on managing SMI.
• To ensure the systematic provision of a high quality, responsive and accessible psychology service to the community clinical teams.

For further information please refer to the job description 

Working for our organisation

EPUT are looking for motivated staff who shares our Trust values of Care, Learn and Empower. In return, EPUT can offer you a range of benefits and development including;

• Season Ticket Loans
• NHS discounts for staff
• Excellent Training facilities and opportunities
• Buying and Selling annual leave scheme
• The opportunity to work bank shifts and expand knowledge and experience in other areas
• Salary Sacrifice schemes including lease cars and Cycle to Work
• Day One Flexible Employer

The Trust supports and actively encourages flexible working for all employees. We offer many options and you are encouraged to ask the recruiting manager what is possible for this role. If appointed, you will have the opportunity to apply for a flexible working request from the first day of your employment

Join our Staff bank

What is Staff Bank?

Our EPUT NHS staff bank is an entity managed by the trust that hires clinical and non-clinical healthcare professionals to take on shifts at our trust hospitals and community settings. Here at EPUT we maintain our own bank of specialist staff to ensure that we are able offer safe and effective care at all times.

All our permanent staff are automatically enrolled onto the staff bank however this does not mean you have to work any additional shifts, but the option is there for you if you wish.

If you are joining our Trust in a fixed term role, please indicate on your New Starter Paperwork that you wish to join our staff bank.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

A huge transformation programme in Essex has opened up a number of exciting opportunities for psychological services professionals who have an interest in championing the treatment and management of personality disorders and complex needs (PD&CN).  The new model of service delivery for people who might attract a diagnosis of personality disorder and/or have complex needs has been co-produced with service users, and retains the term ‘personality disorder’ on the basis of service user preference, but the contentious nature of the term is recognised by the service.     

The newly developed integrated care pathway for people with PD&CN will support the aspirations identified in the NHS Long Term Plan and Community Mental Health Framework.  It diminishes the traditional demarcation of primary and secondary care, adopting a whole system approach that provides for the range of complexity of presentation observed from least to most severe.  This represents the first phase in planned growth in the integrated management of people with complex needs, embedding trauma informed care across and throughout services.

We are passionate about co-producing service developments with experts with lived and living experience, and seek to engage services users and their families/carers through a robust and active Service User Network, developed across Essex in partnership with stakeholders and partner providers as part of our service transformation.  We have strong relationships with partner agencies across Essex.

We are looking to recruit an enthusiastic and dedicated Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to a permanent, 0.5 WTE post in our Adult Community Psychological Services team.  This post will play a key strategic role in championing our local PD&CN services, in collaboration with our Trust-wide Specialist PD&CN Multi-disciplinary Team.  This is a new post and is an exciting opportunity for those wishing to develop clinical and strategic leadership skills and further consolidate supervisory responsibilities.   

We will support and invest in further clinical and leadership training as appropriate to service need, established skills and career-path aspirations, and the system-wide service transformation also provides exciting opportunities for service evaluation, audit and research.  

The role will include assessment, formulation and provision of evidence-based psychological therapies for people with a wide range of mental health difficulties, and the post holder will take the lead in championing the treatment and clinical management of the needs of people with personality disorders and complex needs.  This will include the provision of specialist supervision, consultation and training to multidisciplinary community teams.  

The Adult Community Psychological Services team is undergoing some considerable restructuring itself as part of a wider service transformation, and it is an exciting time for the post holder to join a team serving 3 locality mental health treatment teams in the towns of Harlow, Uttlesford and Epping.  There are 9 Clinical/Counselling Psychologists (part-time and full time), and three Assistant Psychologists currently in post, and the team offers a number of therapeutic models including CBT, CBT for Psychosis, Cognitive Analytic therapy, Behavioural Family Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, EMDR and Systemic Family Therapy.  Supervision will be provided by a senior psychologist and the post holder will also benefit from access to the wider professional network of psychologists within EPUT.

Psychologists working in the Trust enjoy close academic and training links with the University of Essex as well as Hertfordshire University Doctoral Training Course in Clinical Psychology and the post holder will be expected to provide placements for trainees and contribute to teaching.

Person specification

Education/ Qualifications

Essential criteria

• HCPC registered, and eligible for registration with a professional clinical body (BPS)
• Post-graduate doctoral level training in Clinical or Counselling Psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS. To include models of psychopathology, neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology, as accredited by the BPS.

Desirable criteria

• Evidence of CPD in Personality Disorder and Complex Needs.

Work experience
Essential criteria

• Significant experience of working within NHS mental health services and multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience of supervision

Desirable criteria

• Specialist experience of Personality Disorder and Complex needs service provision.
• Experience of teaching and training

PLEASE ENSURE THAT AS PART OF YOUR APPLICATION YOU INCLUDE PROFESSIONAL REFERENCES WITH BUSINESS CONTACT INFORMATION COVERING YOUR LAST 3 YEAR EMPLOYMENT HISTORY.

WE ARE UNABLE TO ACCEPT PERSONAL OR CHARACTER REFERENCES

As a newly appointed employee you are responsible for incurring the cost of your initial DBS check relevant to your post, the amount will be deducted from your first salary with the Trust.

Applications for Job Share are positively welcomed

Our Trust is an Equal Opportunities Employer. We particularly welcome applications from people with experience of using mental health services. We also hold the Disability two tick symbol and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with learning disabilities, we encourage people with a disability to apply. If you require this application form in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape etc, please contact the Recruitment Department on 01375 364513 or email epunft.recruitment.adverts@nhs.net and we can arrange for this to be dispatched to you.

The Trust has the right to expire vacancies prior to the closing date if they so wish. The Trust makes every attempt to contact all applicants and we strongly advise that you check the email account which is registered with NHS Jobs regularly, we would advise however due to the high number of applications we receive that if you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults, and expect all staff to undertake this commitment. Applicants will be subject to robust safer recruitment processes.

Covid Vaccination

Although Covid vaccinations are no longer a mandatory requirement within the NHS we continue to encourage and support the vaccination uptake as this remains the best line of defence against Covid19. The safety of our staff and patients is a top priority for us at EPUT.

If you would like to book a Covid vaccination or would like more information please contact us by emailing epunft.cv19hr@nhs.net.