Join us

About the job

We are looking for Clinical, Counselling, or Forensic Psychologists and Child or Adult Psychiatrists to join our ethical and trauma-informed Expert Witness service across the South of England.

The family court process can be incredibly stressful and at times re-traumatising for families. We want to do things differently. Our trauma-informed approach to assessments centres a focus on adversity, social determinants of mental health, and cultural competence.

This is a flexible, self-employed role –you can complete as many or as few assessments as you choose, to suit you!

We pride ourselves on the support and development we offer to our Experts – free monthly peer supervision, ongoing CPD opportunities, mentoring for those who are new to court work, as well as quality assurance and proof-reading support.

‘As a social enterprise, MCTS is the partner of choice for clinicians who value giving back as well as making a living.’

The role:

• Your primary task will be completing complex psychological or psychiatric assessments of children and families and writing reports for pre-proceedings or family court.
• This could include a range of complex assessments depending on your experience and expertise, e.g. cognitive, domestic violence, attachment and trauma etc.
• All assessments will be completed in line with our Attachment and Trauma-Informed policy and processes.
• Assessments are usually a blend of virtual and face-to-face, depending on the clinical needs of the family.

How does it work?

• This is an affiliate, self-employed role.
• You can pick and choose how much work you take on at any time with no pressure or minimum commitment.
• Our dedicated referrals co-ordinator will get to know your experience and availability and send you referrals that we think might suit – you let us know whether you’re interested and available.
• For a standard psychological assessment, we pay up to 25 hours for an assessment of 1 adult or child, with an additional 10 hours available for each additional family member, at a rate of £65 per hour. As an example, this means that you could be paid up to £1625 for an assessment of 1 parent or child, £2275 for 2 people, or a family of 4 would be £3,575, plus travel time and expenses in each case.
• Psychiatric assessments are paid at £85 an hour with up to 15 hours for an adult assessment (£1,275) or 25 hours for a child or adolescent (£2,125).
• When you’re ready to submit your report, we have a robust quality assurance process to support you and ensure the highest quality and consistency which includes support from a clinician as well as proof-reading and formatting support from our admin team.
• We pay you within 30 days of filing your report, so you don’t have to worry about chasing payments from referrers!

Added extras:

• For experienced clinicians who are new to expert witness work, we can pair you up with a mentor to support you through your first couple of assessments.
• We offer a free monthly peer supervision session for all our affiliates so you have access to ongoing support no matter your experience level.
• We also have a lots of opportunities for you to maintain variety in your workload through activities like direct therapy, group work, delivering teaching or training, participating in CPD, research activity, or publishing articles.
• As well as subsidised training and CPD opportunities e.g. Therapeutic Care training, Story Stem Assessment Training, Clinical Trauma Specialist Certification.
• And free access to our secure clinical management software for managing appointments, keeping records and storing files.

Role requirements:

• HCPC registered Psychologist, e.g., Clinical, Counselling or Forensic Psychologist or GMC and RCP registered Psychiatrist (child or adult)
• Desirable: Previous Expert Witness or court experience.
• Essential: Experience of delivering psychological or psychiatric assessments for children, adults and/or families, including the use of specialist assessment tools.
• Essential: Experience compiling professional reports and making clinical recommendations.

For more information about this role, please contact Hannah or Kelly, via email – hello@mcts.org.uk

Don’t meet every single requirement?

Studies have shown that some people, including women and people of colour, are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At MCTS we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every specification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway – you may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

About MCTS:

We are specialists in trauma, therapeutic care, and organisational culture. First and foremost, MCTS is a social enterprise – we believe in reinvesting to improve services for children, young people, and families who have experienced trauma and adversity, in an innovative and socially conscious way.

Within the United Kingdom there is a devastating lack of effective, specialist services to meet the needs of children, young people and families impacted by trauma, abuse, and neglect. Our mission at MCTS is to share our expertise and experience in the field to develop and deliver specialist psychological services that are ethical and trauma-informed.

Our services currently include Expert Witness Services, integrated Therapeutic Care packages for independent care providers, consultation and training.

Reasons to join us:

1. We walk the talk

As a trauma-informed employer, we apply the same values, principles and approaches to staff and organisational culture as we do with every child and family. That means a strong emphasis on staff wellbeing, collaboration, connection and integration, and an open, curious and reflective ethos.

2. Support and supervision

We pride ourselves on going above and beyond when it comes to supporting our team, whether you are a permanent employee or self-employed affiliate. Although we are a small team, we have a strong sense of community and we work hard to maintain connection and integration across our service.

3. Socially conscious

We pride ourselves on practicing in ethical and socially conscious ways. Our aim is to reinvest into much-needed psychological services for children, young people and families impacted by adversity. We are passionate about social reinvestment and feel that this makes us unique in the independent expert assessment sector.

4. Lifelong learning

We are strengths-focused and believe in lifelong learning. Every member of our team has completed or is working toward certification as a Certified Clinical Trauma Specialist (individual and families), as well as Therapeutic Care Training and Story Stem Assessment Training. We place high importance on developing our staff team and ensuring that we provide opportunities for career progression and leadership.

5. Staff wellbeing

We all need to feel ok in order to thrive, reflect and learn. Working with trauma and adversity can have an impact on any of us, at any time, regardless of how experienced we are. We are all human beings that bring our own lived experiences, strengths, learning needs, blind spots, biases, feelings, beliefs and values into the work. At MCTS, we celebrate and respect our individual, social and cultural identities and foster a culture of psychological safety.

6. Fresh thinking

We’re just beginning this journey, and now is a great time to join us! As a new business, developed by a team with considerable expertise and experience in the field, we get the unique benefits of being newly formed and full of big ideas, alongside the background of years of success and experience in developing and delivering independent health and social care services.

Safeguarding and Equal Opportunities

MCTS is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. Applicants must be willing to undergo appropriate child protection screening, including employment references and DBS check.

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation, or age.

Please note: Job applicants must have the legal right to work in the United Kingdom.

Professional qualification: HCPC registered psychologist or UKCP registered psychotherapist
Working Pattern: Full time – you will work from home 2 days per week and be on site across the South of England 3 days per week.
Benefits: 25 days’ holiday + 8 bank holidays, pension scheme, enhanced DBS check and update service, ongoing clinical and professional support and supervision, extensive training and continued professional development opportunities, peer buddy allocated at induction, monthly reflective practice space for all clinicians and fully-funded team development events.

Are you a skilled and therapeutic leader who can champion and embed our Attachment and Trauma Informed Care model across residential services?

We need you to lead a group of talented psychologists and psychotherapists in supporting young people and the organisations that care for them, across the South of England.

This role suits a clinician who would like to apply their therapeutic knowledge systemically across a service and who enjoys business development and leadership strategy as well as clinical work.

This is a new and highly specialist role for a clinician with strong leadership skills to provide professional leadership of the MCTS Therapeutic Care Service.

We provide clinical and psychological support to independent residential, fostering and education providers who want to deliver specialist therapeutic care. In your role as Clinical Service Lead for the Therapeutic Care division, you will bring our Attachment and Trauma Informed Care (ATIC™) model to life in a range of settings, ensuring quality delivery and resource management.

You will be crucial in expanding the provision of the service, identifying new business opportunities to increase the numbers of organisations we help and support. This will involve engaging with key stakeholders and creating opportunities for customer engagement.

As our Clinical Service Lead, you will assume responsibility for:

• Professional leadership of the MCTS Therapeutic Care Service
• Oversight of work and service delivery across multiple sites, including regular on-site visits
• Representing the Therapeutic Care Service to the Senior Leadership Team and Board of Directors.
• Development of the business strategy for the Therapeutic Care Service, with support from the Senior Leadership Team.
• To manage the service budget ensuring resources are deployed effectively and financial targets are met.
• To take a lead on long-term strategic planning and development of the Service to meet agreed targets and requirements and to increase the number of homes we support.
• To be professionally accountable for service provision.
• Lead the management of Governance & Risk within the Therapeutic Care Service, ensuring adherence to policy and procedures.
• To line manage and provide clinical supervision to the Therapeutic Care practitioners and support staff, ensuring the robust clinical management of specialties within the service, including recruitment, retention through career development and appraisal, management of poor performance and sickness absence.
• To take a lead role in workforce planning and career structure design within the Therapeutic Care Service to inform recruitment and retention within the services.
• To work in collaboration with the other Service Leads to ensure effective senior leadership when the Head of Service is not present e.g. annual leave etc
• Currently we support sites in London, Reading, Salisbury and Kent. Regular travel will be required to these sites and any future sites in the South of England

In order to be successful in this role it is essential that you can demonstrate:

• You are a HCPC registered Practitioner Psychologist or a UKCP registered Psychotherapist
• Substantial experience of delivering evidence based therapeutic supports, systemic consultation and advice in inpatient mental health settings or a children’s services context – local authority, CAMHS, or services for looked after children

It would be great if you had:

• Experience of leadership and management
• Experience in representing psychology within a multi-disciplinary service and offering supervision, training and support to clinicians and non-clinicians
• Knowledge and experience in Attachment and Trauma-Informed Care principles

There is much scope for evolving and expanding the clinical role within the team and we are proud to have a dynamic and creative approach to implementing meaningful change within the services we support.

Working with MCTS

First and foremost, MCTS is a social enterprise. We provide clinical and psychological support to independent care providers who want to deliver specialist therapeutic care. We are the partner of choice for clinicians who value giving back as well as making a living.

“I was initially nervous about leaving the NHS, but I’ve found that within MCTS, you have much more scope to make meaningful changes than I had when I was in CAMHS. My caseload is smaller, I feel well-resourced, empowered to work autonomously, and I’m able to be creative when implementing interventions at an individual and service level. It’s been a really refreshing change.” – Clinical Psychologist in MCTS

Do not delay your application – the listing will be closed early if sufficient applications are received.

For more information about this role, please contact Hannah or Kelly, via email – hello@mcts.org.uk

Please note: Job applicants must have the legal right to work in the United Kingdom.

Working Pattern: You will be expected to work from the residential setting 3 days a week and to work 2 days from home.
Benefits: 25 days’ holiday + 8 bank holidays, pension scheme, enhanced DBS check and update service, ongoing clinical and professional support and supervision, extensive training and continued professional development opportunities, peer buddy allocated at induction, monthly reflective practice space for all clinicians and fully-funded team development events.

• Are you a highly qualified and experienced Psychologist who specialises in residential or inpatient care?
• Do you want to work in a truly attachment and trauma informed setting?

Our Therapeutic Care team is expanding and we are looking for someone who can take a lead in delivering specialist therapeutic support within independent residential children’s homes in Sidcup, Kent.

This is a highly autonomous and empathic leadership role to oversee reflective practice, leadership supervision, risk management meetings, psychometric assessment, staff training in trauma-informed practice, and formulation and planning meetings, as well as therapy with a small caseload of young people.

You may also provide supervision to an Assistant Psychological Practitioner who will support on the delivery of both the therapeutic interventions and the systemic team structures that you will lead.

Your primary task will be to embrace and implement our model of Attachment and Trauma Informed Care (ATIC™) within an independent residential setting, for a small caseload of children and young people from a range of backgrounds.

As our Residential Psychologist, you will assume responsibility for:

• Weekly reflective practice group for staff teams
• Quarterly integrated clinical assessment and formulation meetings
• Written assessment reports and integrative therapeutic support plans
• Consultancy and specialist training in trauma-informed approaches, mental health, attachment, and therapeutic parenting approaches for staff teams
• Leadership supervision for home managers, to support the embedding of ATIC at all levels
• Facilitating Red and Amber State risk management meetings as needed
• Direct therapy with the young people and supervision of assistant practitioners
• Consultation, advice and guidance, and organisational and systemic leadership

In order to be successful in this role it is essential that you can demonstrate:

• You are a HCPC registered Practitioner Psychologist
• Substantial experience of delivering evidence based therapeutic supports, systemic consultation and advice in inpatient mental health settings or a children’s services context – local authority, CAMHS, or services for looked after children

It would be great if you had:

• Additional clinical training in specific mental health interventions and/or trauma focused therapy (e.g. DBT, CBT, EMDR, DDP, CAT, family therapy etc).
• Experience in representing psychology within a multi-disciplinary service and offering supervision, training and support to clinicians and non-clinicians
• Knowledge and experience in Attachment and Trauma-Informed Care principles

There is much scope for evolving and expanding the clinical role within the team and we are proud to have a dynamic and creative approach to implementing meaningful change within the services we support.

Working with MCTS

First and foremost, MCTS is a social enterprise. We provide clinical and psychological support to independent care providers who want to deliver specialist therapeutic care. We are the partner of choice for clinicians who value giving back as well as making a living.

“I was initially nervous about leaving the NHS, but I’ve found that within MCTS, you have much more scope to make meaningful changes than I had when I was in CAMHS. My caseload is smaller, I feel well-resourced, empowered to work autonomously, and I’m able to be creative when implementing interventions at an individual and service level. It’s been a really refreshing change.” Clinical Psychologist in MCTS

Do not delay your application – the listing will be closed early if sufficient applications are received.

For more information about this role, please contact Hannah or Kelly, via email – hello@mcts.org.uk

Please note: Job applicants must have the legal right to work in the United Kingdom.