Clinical Psychologist

Moreways Healthcare

Premier Care

Support & Enablement Worker

London

Posted 5 years ago

Psychological Practice • Forensic Step-Down • Supported Living

Bring specialist psychological expertise into Moreways Healthcare’s supported living and forensic step-down services, helping us understand complex presentations, strengthen psychologically informed practice and support people to make safer, sustainable progress towards greater independence.

Professional Requirement HCPC registration as a Practitioner Psychologist

Practice Focus Complex mental health, formulation and forensic recovery

Service Model Supported living, step-down and community reintegration

About the role

Moreways Healthcare provides supported living and community-based support for adults with mental health needs, learning disabilities, autism, complex emotional needs and other conditions requiring structured or intensive support.

A significant element of our work involves people progressing through forensic and step-down pathways. This can include individuals moving from hospital, secure services or other highly structured environments into supported living, with the longer-term aim of achieving greater independence and sustainable community living.

As Clinical Psychologist, you will bring specialist psychological expertise into this environment. Your role will include assessment, formulation, consultation, psychologically informed intervention, staff development and contribution to complex risk and support planning.

Moreways Healthcare is not seeking to duplicate the role of an individual’s treating NHS or statutory clinical team. Instead, you will help bridge specialist psychological understanding with the realities of everyday supported living, translating formulation and clinical recommendations into practical approaches that staff can apply consistently.

Understand

Develop psychologically informed understanding of complex behaviour, trauma, mental health, cognition, relationships and risk.

Formulate

Help teams move beyond labels and incidents towards coherent formulations explaining what may maintain distress, risk or disengagement.

Translate

Convert specialist psychological thinking into practical support strategies that can be used consistently in everyday living environments.

Key responsibilities

Provide specialist psychological assessment for individuals with complex mental health, behavioural and forensic presentations.
Develop and review psychological formulations using information from the individual, support staff, records and relevant professional sources.
Contribute psychological understanding to individual support plans, risk-management arrangements and recovery goals.
Undertake psychological assessment of factors associated with distress, disengagement, behavioural escalation or offending-related risk where appropriate to the role.
Provide evidence-based psychological interventions within your competence and agreed clinical remit.
Undertake cognitive or neuropsychological assessment where clinically indicated, appropriately commissioned and within your competence.
Advise staff on psychologically informed approaches to engagement, emotional regulation, distress, trauma and challenging behaviour.
Support the development of relapse-prevention and coping strategies alongside individuals and the wider professional network.
Contribute specialist psychological perspectives to complex case reviews and multidisciplinary discussions.
Provide consultation where there is concern about deterioration, behavioural escalation, disengagement or changing risk.
Support positive behaviour support approaches where relevant to an individual’s needs.
Promote trauma-informed, person-centred and least-restrictive practice.
Support staff to understand the function and context of behaviour rather than responding solely to its immediate presentation.
Provide reflective practice, consultation or psychologically informed supervision to staff within an agreed governance framework.
Contribute to training and professional development across Moreways Healthcare services.
Maintain high-quality clinical documentation and appropriate professional records.
Recognise and respond appropriately to safeguarding concerns, poor practice and significant changes in risk.
Work within HCPC standards, professional ethics, organisational governance and the limits of your competence.

From formulation to everyday support

Psychological work within supported living has greatest value when specialist understanding changes what happens in everyday interactions.

You will therefore be expected to work collaboratively with operational teams and help translate formulation into approaches that are practical, proportionate and understandable to support staff.

Assessment

Understand psychological functioning, history, strengths, vulnerabilities and the factors affecting current presentation.

Formulation

Develop an evidence-informed understanding of how experiences, beliefs, relationships and context may interact.

Application

Translate formulation into practical engagement, support, risk-management and recovery strategies.

Review

Evaluate progress and update psychological understanding as the person’s needs, risks and independence change.

Forensic mental health and step-down pathways

Some individuals supported by Moreways Healthcare have significant forensic histories or are moving from secure and inpatient settings into community-based supported living.

Depending on the individual, their pathway may include Section 37/41 conditional discharge, Section 117 aftercare, MAPPA arrangements, forensic community-team involvement or other professionally agreed risk-management requirements.

Your psychological contribution may include helping teams understand offence-related or relapse-related patterns, emotional and interpersonal triggers, cognitive vulnerabilities, trauma, substance misuse, treatment engagement and protective factors.

You will contribute to psychologically informed risk management while recognising the respective responsibilities of treating clinicians, responsible clinicians, statutory agencies and other professionals.

The aim is to support progression without losing sight of public protection, individual safety or the person’s own longer-term recovery.

Consultation with support teams

A major part of this role is helping frontline teams think psychologically about complex situations. Staff may be working with people who struggle with trust, attachment, emotional regulation, interpersonal conflict, trauma, paranoia, impulsivity or repeated patterns of disengagement.

Reflective practice Help staff think about interactions, emotional responses and patterns that may affect the quality or consistency of support.

Behavioural understanding Explore what behaviour may communicate or achieve rather than relying only on descriptive labels.

Engagement strategies Develop practical approaches for people who are cautious about services, ambivalent about support or difficult to engage.

Consistency Help staff teams maintain coherent responses so that different shifts do not inadvertently reinforce unhelpful patterns.

Positive Behaviour Support Contribute psychological understanding to proactive and least-restrictive behavioural support where appropriate.

Trauma-informed practice Help teams understand the possible effects of trauma without assuming that every difficulty is attributable to trauma.

Working with the wider professional network

Moreways Healthcare works alongside external clinical, social care and criminal justice professionals according to each person’s circumstances.

You may collaborate with:

Community Mental Health Teams

Forensic community mental health services

Psychiatrists and Responsible Clinicians

Social workers and care coordinators

Occupational therapists and other allied professionals

Learning disability and autism professionals

Probation practitioners and criminal justice partners where applicable

Commissioners and placement professionals

Families and carers where appropriate and consent allows

Your role is to contribute Moreways Healthcare’s observations and psychological expertise while supporting clear professional boundaries between provider responsibilities and statutory or treating clinical responsibilities.

Supporting recovery and independence

Psychological practice within Moreways Healthcare should ultimately support people’s ability to build safer, more satisfying and more independent lives.

This may involve helping an individual understand patterns associated with relapse, develop emotional regulation strategies, strengthen motivation, improve interpersonal functioning, tolerate uncertainty, manage distress or increase confidence in everyday decision-making.

Psychological input should also help identify strengths and protective factors. Risk and diagnosis are important, but neither should become the sole description of the person.

Service development and quality

In addition to individual work, the Clinical Psychologist will have an opportunity to influence the psychological quality of our wider service model.

This may include contributing to psychologically informed policy and practice, developing staff learning resources, reviewing recurring themes across services, advising on complex referrals and helping managers identify where specialist psychological input can improve outcomes.

You may also contribute to outcome measurement, service evaluation, audit and quality-improvement activity within the scope of the role.

Essential professional requirements

HCPC registration Current registration with the Health and Care Professions Council in an appropriate Practitioner Psychologist category.

Doctoral-level training Doctoral-level professional training in Clinical Psychology or an equivalent recognised route appropriate to HCPC registration.

Complex mental health experience Substantial experience working with people presenting with complex psychological and mental health needs.

Assessment and formulation Demonstrable ability to undertake specialist psychological assessment and develop clinically useful formulations.

Risk understanding Experience contributing psychological perspectives to complex risk assessment and management.

Multidisciplinary practice Ability to communicate complex psychological information clearly to professionals from different disciplines.

Clinical governance Strong understanding of safeguarding, confidentiality, consent, capacity, professional boundaries and clinical accountability.

Complex engagement Ability to work constructively with people who may be suspicious of services, ambivalent about support or difficult to engage.

Desirable experience

Experience within forensic mental health, secure services, community forensic teams, learning disability, autism, personality disorder services, rehabilitation or psychologically informed supported living would be particularly relevant.

Experience providing consultation, reflective practice, clinical supervision or staff training would also be valuable.

Knowledge of relevant mental health, social care, safeguarding and forensic frameworks — including the Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act and principles relevant to conditional discharge and multi-agency risk management — would be beneficial.

Why join Moreways Healthcare?

Apply specialist psychology within real-world supported living and community environments.
Contribute to complex mental health and forensic step-down pathways where psychological thinking can directly influence everyday outcomes.
Help develop psychologically informed practice across frontline support teams.
Work alongside external NHS, social care, forensic and commissioning professionals while retaining a distinct provider perspective.
Influence formulation, staff development, positive risk management and service quality.
Support people to move beyond diagnosis and institutional dependency towards greater autonomy and community participation.

What good psychological practice looks like here

Success in this role is not measured simply by the number of assessments completed. The psychological input should make the support around the person more coherent, understandable and effective.

A useful formulation should help staff know what to do differently. Consultation should improve consistency. Intervention should connect with real-world goals. Risk thinking should support proportionate safeguards rather than unnecessary restriction.

Most importantly, psychological expertise should contribute to better outcomes for the individual: improved stability, stronger coping skills, safer relationships, increased engagement and greater capacity for independent living.

Could you bring psychological expertise closer to everyday supported living?

If you are an HCPC-registered psychologist with experience of complex mental health needs and an interest in forensic recovery, psychologically informed support and community progression, we would welcome your application to join Moreways Healthcare.