The NHS Talking Therapies Gloucestershire is passionate about providing psychological therapies for the population it serves. We offer NICE compliant treatment to patients experiencing mild to moderate depression and anxiety.
We are a busy and expanding service that has four clinical teams. The NHS Talking Therapies team comprises of Clinical leads, Lead Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner, Hi Intensity Practitioners, Senior Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners, Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners and trainees and an assistant Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner. The Service provides evidenced based psychological interventions using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and other NHS Talking Therapies approved therapies. We deliver treatment over the telephone, in groups, face to face and using digital therapy options.
We are looking for motivated, enthusiastic and skilled individuals who will join our team as a high intensity trainee CBT therapist. The role will require you to undertake an intensive one-year PGDip Psychological Therapies Practice (High Intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) at the University of Exeter.
You will need to attend university as required, which will include up to nine blocks of teaching of four days per block. Most teaching will be 2 days per week, with the rest of your working week spent providing high intensity CBT Assessment and CBT Interventions in accordance with NICE guidance. You will receive clinical supervision in the workplace and University to develop your clinical skills.
The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.
We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people’s homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.
Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:
72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust’s priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.
This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.
Successful candidates will either have a BABCP recognised core professional training qualification or will be able to provide evidence that that they have practiced within the mental health BABCP career framework of training in mental health and can produce a completed KSA Portfolio at interview which includes evidence of working in mental health. This will need to be shared with the University ahead of the interview.
The BABCP’s revised KSA requirements can be found at:
Information of relevant core professions, KSA documents and guidance can be found on the BABCP site under: https://babcp.com/core-professions/core-professions-list and https://babcp.com/core-professions/knowledge-skills-attitudes/
As part of your application, please provide a brief statement in support of your application for the post of IAPT HI trainee with reference to the NHS Values in accordance with The NHS Constitution.
When completing this section, please directly address the service user. For your information, there may be a service user representative on the interview panel or involved in the shortlisting process.
Please note that in accordance with national Guidance. Anyone who has received HEE funded training in the last 2 years. cannot be recruited as an HI IAPT trainee until 2 years post qualification, as a minimum. These 2 years of practice commence only at the date of confirmation of the full HEE funded qualification by the University, not at the end of the teaching timetable. Significant mental health experience prior to taking up a funded role will also be expected.
This standard in monitored nationally by the BABCP. Please also refer to IAPT National recruitment guidance available on the NHS
England website at www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/adults/iapt/workforce/ and the HEE website https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/mental-health/psychological-professions/nhs-funding-psychological-professions-training-programmes
KSA applicants: Please see BABCP website for guidance on how to compete a KSA
The university guidance on completing and submitting a KSA Portfolio will be shared with shortlisted candidates.
KSA applicants need to submit a complete KSA Portfolio at interview and
this needs to be assessed as part of the interview process. The KSA Selector will assess the KSA Portfolio provided by the KSA Candidate following the interview. Any job offer would be subject to the KSA portfolio being assessed as satisfactory.
Important dates below:
Joint interviews with the University and the Service will be held between the 13th and 24th July 2026.
Successful applicants will be expected to attend a course induction at the University on November 30th 2026 and the 1st December 2026. and we expect external staff to be in post by these dates.
The course starts with a 4-day block at Exeter on Monday 4th January 2027 and a potential second week block at the University on the Monday 11th January 2027.
You will need to be in a position to take up employment as a Gloucestershire Health and Care Trust employee and attend corporate induction prior to the commencement of the course.
This post is a development role automatically leading to the band 7 HI Intensity psychological therapist role for those who successfully pass the assessments and qualifications. However, should candidates not successfully pass their qualifications or assessments or leave the trust within 2 years of qualifying they would be asked to pay back a proportion of the training fees.
You will be expected to be able to travel and work across the county and work outside of 9-5 hours in line with service opening hours.
This post is being advertised as full time 37.5 hours, but we will consider whether we can offer part time options over 24 months. If part time working is requested and agreed, the successful candidate would be required to attend University days on Monday’s and Tuesday’s each week and block weeks when timetabled during 2027 (which is 0.4wte) and in addition work 0.3wte to 0.5wte hours within the Trust.
‘Flexible’ working arrangements will be considered. Any request will be set against genuine operational requirements and limitations, and it is not obligatory for a manager to accede to the request. The role will include delivering both face to face and remote appointments from one of four bases. Whilst you should be aware that we do consider flexible working patterns, this is dependent on service demands. We would, however, expect candidates to be working from their assigned base for an initial start period and long-term working from base dependent upon the demands of our face-to-face clients.
Please note that all candidates who declare themselves on their application form to be disabled and who meet the essential criteria for the post will be shortlisted in accordance with the Trust’s Two Ticks Pledge on disability.
The Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy when sufficient applications have been received.
If you do not hear from us within three weeks of the closing date you have probably not been shortlisted. We are sorry we are unable to let you know the outcome of your application.
The Trust is a signatory to the Mindful Employer Charter: www.mindfulemployer.net.
Gloucestershire Health and Care is committed to embedding and providing personalised care through all of its services as part of our high-quality care strategy. The purpose of personalised care is to empower people to lead the lives they want to live. Personalised care starts with a conversation with people about what matters to them. It builds on what people can do, as well as addressing their health needs. Including new ways of working and delivering care, emphasising that we need to make effective use of the full range of our people’s skills and experience to deliver the best possible patient care. So we want to know What Matters to You and that you will share our values and join us on this very important journey.
