Consultant Psychiatrist for People with Intellectual Disability | East London NHS Foundation Trust

This is an established consultant post in the psychiatry of Intellectual Disability and has become vacant as the current postholder is moving on to a different role. Throughout the Learning Disabilities Service, we focus our efforts on maximising people's independence and delivering the targets of the Valuing People White Paper.

The Consultant Psychiatrist plays a key role in the delivery of these aims, ensuring that people with Learning Disabilities and Mental Health Problems are supported to live in the community and are able to receive excellent treatment when they need it.

The Consultant also has a crucial liaison role to play with the small number of out of borough healthcare placements, in supporting clinical and care management staff to facilitate discharge to appropriate community placements.

The Consultant Psychiatrist is also a key member of the service's senior management team and as such is expected to contribute to service development and clinical governance.

The successful candidate will work with multidisciplinary colleagues in the Luton and Bedford Learning Disabilities Service, to provide a specialist mental health service to adults with learning disability in the Bedford county.

The post-holder will provide consultant leadership to the service and will assume consultant psychiatrist responsibility for a defined caseload, including that of one of the junior doctors. As appropriate, this may include taking a lead on compliance with the Mental Health Act and CQC requirements. They will participate, directly and indirectly, in the assessment of patients referred to the service and in drawing up care plans which will address the patients' psychiatric, physical and social needs. For patients subject to the care program approach and for these patients the interventions provided by team will be under the supervision of the post holder. Good communication will be undertaken with the patient's care coordinator and with other consultant psychiatrists involved in the care of the patient. When a review of the care plan is indicated, the post-holder will participate in such reviews and include the GP, carer or any other relevant professionals.

The post-holder will forge good working relationships with other mental health services in the directorate and beyond in order to encourage appropriate referrals to the service and to assure a cooperative approach to the care of patients accessing those services.

The post-holder will participate in service evaluation and information-gathering exercises designed to gain a better understanding of the functioning of the service in order to monitor performance, quality and underpin future service developments.

Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve.

Our values are

We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

QUALIFICATIONS

Essential

• Fully registered with the General Medical Council
• Eligible for inclusion in the GMC Specialist Register (or Specialist Registrar within 6 months of gaining CCT at time of interview).
• Membership or Fellowship of the Royal College of Psychiatrists or equivalent qualification (in accordance with Royal College of Psychiatrists guidelines)
• Eligible for Section 12 Approval (Mental Health Act )/ Approved Clinician or willing to apply for such approval once in post

Desirable

• A higher degree such as MD or PhD

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE

Essential

• Excellent clinical skills using bio-psycho-social perspective and wide medical knowledge
• Excellent working knowledge and experience of the application of the Mental Health Act

Desirable

• Experience of service development and introducing new services in mental health

ORGANISATIONAL SKILLS/ ABILITIES

Essential

• Leadership skills
• Ability to work as a part of multidisciplinary, multi-model team
• Ability to manage complex workloads and support others to do that

Desirable

• Formal leadership and management training
• Experience of team /service leadership

This advert closes on Friday 2 Oct 2026