Deputy Head Talking Therapies​/Consultant Psychologist

Go back South West London and St Georges Mental Health NHS Trust

The closing date is 21 January 2026

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Talking Therapies Senior Leadership Team working across the 5 South West London and St George's Talking Therapies (SWStG TT) services. You will join the Head of Psychology and Psychotherapy, Operational Lead and Health Inequalities Lead in providing leadership, governance, service development and strategy across the 5 Talking Therapies Services.

SWLStG services are committed to an antiracist approach and to reducing health inequalities both in access to services and outcomes and there will be opportunities to be involved in this work at both TT and Trust level within this role.

Career Progression pathways and development opportunities:

We are committed to getting the very best out of our staff and support staff in their career aspirations. We have career pathways available, where you will be able to develop your skills and build on your experience to progress into other roles across different specialties. For this role, we offer career pathways to Head of Psychology and Psychotherapy roles. In addition, we offer ongoing training and development in Clinical, Leadership and Managerial skills.

The post holder will work closely with the Head of Psychology and Psychotherapy;
Health Inequalities Lead and Operational Lead for SWLStG TT services to ensure the TT services are run effectively and efficiently and deliver a high quality evidence based and safe service across the 5 boroughs.

The post holder will provide regular clinical supervision, develop and deliver training, and support the senior management teams across the services to meet their performance targets and the needs of patients and referrers. They will have distinct areas of responsibility (as agreed with the Head of Psychology and Psychotherapy for TT), and a small clinical case load providing High Intensity clinical sessions.

Together with the Head of Psychology and Psychotherapy for Talking Therapies, you will hold responsibility for the clinical governance of SWLStG TT services, ensuring that effective systems and pathways are in place, and complete regular audits to provide assurance and identify and implement improvements.

The role will also involve liaison with other services, to ensure smooth pathways with TT services, and with partner organisations to ensure contracts are well managed and clinically effective. The post holder will also have a role in supporting with reporting to the ICB and Trust Board.

Mondays are a core on site days for the SWLStG TT Senior Leadership Team, and Fridays would be a preferred working day for this role.

We are Proud to Belong at South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust.

We have expert services, a rich history and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill-health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good' - we aspire to be 'outstanding'.

This is a great time to join us. We are transforming the way we care for our communities to support our mission of Making Life Better Together. We have built two brand new mental health facilities at Springfield University Hospital, which are amongst the best in the world. More developments are planned across our sites and services as we invest a further £120m to upgrade and modernise our estate by 2027.

We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. We are proud to co-produce and involve our local communities in all that we do.

We offer flexible working, career development and a variety of benefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.

Come and join our inclusive teams and help our patients on their recovery journey.

• Oversee the clinical caseloads of clinical staff working in NHS Talking Therapies, and ensure safe and clinically effective case management of cases. Oversee clinical outcomes and adjust delivery of clinical services to ensure that patients needs are met by the least intrusive intervention necessary to alleviate their conditions according to stepped care model of service delivery in line with NHS Talking Therapies developments in primary care.
• Ensure that clinical staff working in NHS Talking Therapies implement a range of psychological interventions for individuals with common mental disorders, as outlined by NICE, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
• Ensure that clinically qualified staff provide highly developed specialist psychological assessments of clients referred by general practitioners and other primary care staff, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and…