About this role
Job summary
Band 8b MHST Clinical Lead (Practitioner Psychologist)Shape the future of children and young people's mental health in Norfolk & Waveney.
We are looking for an exceptional and experienced Clinical Lead / Practitioner Psychologist to join our forward-thinking Mental Health Support Teams (MHST) service as a Lead Psychologist. This is a pivotal leadership role for someone who is passionate about early intervention and ready to make a lasting, system-wide impact.
As a senior leader, you will provide clinical, strategic, and professional leadership and supervision across the MHST service, ensuring that children and young people in schools and colleges receive high-quality, evidence-based care where and when they need it most.
You'll play a key role in shaping how mental health support is delivered in educational settings, driving innovation, consistency, and excellence.
You will lead and inspire a skilled multidisciplinary workforce, championing clinical supervision, professional development, and workforce growth. Working collaboratively with partners across health, education, and the wider system, you will help steer service transformation aligned with national priorities and local needs.
Should we receive a high number of applications we reserve the right to close this vacancy at any point after 8th June 2026.
Main duties of the job
A central focus of the role will be to lead the expansion of MHST provision across Norfolk & Waveney, supporting the national goal of reaching 100% school and college coverage by 2030. This will place you at the forefront of strategic planning, partnership working, and service design at scale.
This is an exciting opportunity for a values-driven leader to:
Influence and shape early intervention services at a system level
Drive innovation and continuous improvement in CYP mental health care
Lead a passionate workforce committed to making a difference
Contribute to a nationally significant programme of transformation
If you are a dynamic, compassionate leader with a strong clinical background and a vision for transforming children and young people's mental health services, we would love to hear from you.
Join us and help build a future where every child can access the support they need to thrive.
About us
Rated 'Outstanding' by the Care Quality Commission, we are proud to provide high quality innovative services across most of the east of England that enable people to receive care closer to home and live healthier lives.
There's one reason why our services are outstanding - and that's our amazing staff who, for the seventh year running, rated us incredibly highly in the national staff survey.
If you share our passion for innovative and high-quality care delivery, then please submit your application and join us on our exciting journey as a leading-edge specialist community provider. All are welcome to apply and our promise to you is a culture which prioritises staff engagement and development.
Job description Job responsibilities
Responsible for the clinical work of MHST across Norfolk and Waveney. To exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of therapeutic practice within the service, delivered by regulated, registered and unregistered staff groups.
To provide regular supervision for a variety of roles across MHST and including Clinical Associate Psychologists within EEC.
Reporting to multiple commissioners and stakeholders, including the Department of Education, Health Education England, NHSE, the Integrated Care Board,
Lead on the roll out, expansion and delivery of the MHST program to 100% schools coverage by 2030.
To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies, contributing to and shaping as appropriate.
Propose, devise and implement clinical policies, pathways and reports for the service that embed best clinical practice
Be responsible for clinical supervision structures for staff, ensuring safe and effective service delivery.
Co-production: develop and implement a co-production plan, ensuring the voice of the child/young person is pivotal in all aspects of clinical practice and development.
Collate and report feedback for the service from a range of stakeholders, including children and young people, implementing findings.
Promote a culture of incident reporting, leading Serious Incident investigations when appropriate and ensuring learning takes place to affect appropriate change.
The post holder must adhere to the Trust risk assessment and risk management processes and ensure adherence within the Team.
Ensure accessible management information is regularly used for service improvement and reporting via SystemOne data sets, suitable technology/systems development and in compliance with Trust Information Governance (and all relevant legislation) standards.
To present reporting of impact, outcomes and feedback as well as service productivity and lead clinical and other audits as required.
Registration and maintenance of registration throughout employment with an appropriate professional body.
Undertake mandatory training and any other training relevant to the role as required by East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust including regular safeguarding training.
To participate in safeguarding children supervision as required within the remit of the role.
Provide patients and their families / carers with information on standards they should expect from the team.
Participate in clinical supervision on a regular basis according to professional and Trust guidelines. To actively consult and obtain relevant management and or clinical support and supervision where necessary to carry out duties.
Participate in relevant emergency preparedness process for their team.
Ensure staff within the MHST are aware of and execute their responsibilities with regard to the safeguarding children and adults agenda, confidentiality, Trust and professional training requirements, data protection and sharing, information governance, risk management and reporting and all relevant legislation and Trust and local policy.
Strategic development of the service within the local landscape working with multiple partner agencies to identify gaps and determine the best use of resources to meet needs.
Please refer to JD and PS for detailed responsibilities.
Person Specification
Qualifications and Training Essential
Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (or equivalent for other practitioner psychologists) Regulated by the HCPC Evidence of continuous professional development Extensive management and leadership experience
Desirable
Relevant clinical supervision training and experience. CBT diploma / further specialist CBT training
Experience Essential
Clinical leadership experience in a CYP setting Demonstrate experience of implementing specialist clinical practice and knowledge and demonstrating effect on clinical outcomes Undertaking a clinical role at a specialist level including multidisciplinary working, safeguarding, undertaking complex assessments, planning and evaluating care packages, and responsibility for the management of a caseload. Experience of working and engaging with a variety of senior staff Experience of working in partnership with partnership agencies Demonstrable management and understanding of clinical governance
Desirable
Understanding of education pathways for professional development
Knowledge and Skills Essential
Ability to develop a new service in a complex multiagency landscape Ability to respond to multiple and at times conflicting demands when designing a new service Autonomous working at a high strategic level, with the responsibility to make complex decisions that shape the direction of working Assessment, signposting, advice and limited / brief intervention skills Clinical/safeguarding risk assessment skills
Desirable
Experience supervising staff from different clinical backgrounds
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 East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust (Cambridge)
Address Woodlands House
Norwich
NR2 3TU
United Kingdom
Employer's website https://www.eastofenglandcommunityhealthandcare.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)