Psychological profession roles

About 

The NHS Long Term Plan, alongside the growth of Mental Health Support Teams for schools, requires an unprecedented growth in the psychological professions. It is anticipated that this workforce of psychologists, psychological therapists and psychological practitioners needs to grow by over 60% from the 2019 baseline by 2024, contributing a third of the overall growth required in the mental health workforce. 

Across NHS mental health services in England, an estimated 27,000 (WTE) new mental health posts will be needed to deliver the NHS Long Term Plan, in addition to increase demand arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and the growth that was already being delivered under Stepping Forward to 2020/21. This includes a significant and rapid expansion in the psychological professions’ workforce, growing not only established professions like clinical psychologists, but also embedding new roles. 

The psychological professions include psychologists, psychological therapists and psychological practitioners and are represented nationally and regionally by psychological professions leadership. Art, drama and music therapists often identify as both allied health professions (AHPs) and psychological professionals. Art, drama and music therapists will continue to be represented by AHP leadership nationally and regionally. Psychological Professions and AHP leadership are committed to working together to ensure these professions thrive. 

Taxonomy  

Psychologists 

• clinical psychologists  
• counselling psychologists 
• forensic psychologists 
• health psychologists 

Associate and Assistant Roles  

• clinical associate in psychology  
• assistant psychologist 

Psychological therapists 

• cognitive behavioural therapists 
• counsellors 
• child and adolescent psychotherapists 
• adult psychotherapists 
• family and systemic psychotherapists 
• psychological therapists (other) 
• art, drama and music therapists with AHP professional leadership 

Psychological practitioners 

• psychological wellbeing practitioners 
• children’s wellbeing practitioner 
• education mental health practitioner 
• mental health and wellbeing practitioner 
• youth intensive psychological practitioner  

New psychological professional roles - 2022 

The psychological profession workforce has seen significant innovation in the past few years, with the creation of a number of new roles, including education mental health practitioners, children’s wellbeing practitioners and, more recently, Clinical Associates in Psychology, Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioners and Youth Intensive Psychological Practitioner roles. 

These new roles are playing a key role in supporting the development and expansion of important new service pathways and numbers of staff in these roles are set to grow rapidly over the next few years. 

Mental health and wellbeing practitioners 

The psychological professions role: mental health and wellbeing practitioner (MHWP) was launched in 2022. MHWPs have salaried and funded training via the education and training activity pathway (ETAP) and contribute to the transformation of adult community mental health services as part of a multi-disciplinary team. For more information visit Psychological therapies for severe mental health problems | NHS England | Workforce, training and education.

Youth intensive psychological practitioners 

Health Education England and NHS England and NHS Improvement have launched a new psychological profession's pilot role: youth intensive psychological practitioner (YIPP).   

YIPPs will have a salaried and funded training pathway while working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, under the supervision of a clinical psychologist, supporting young people (aged 13-17 years old) across both inpatient and intensive home treatment team services.   

Supporting the increase in psychological professions staff required, as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, a small pilot cohort of 29 trainee YIPPs commenced their training programmes in March 2022.  During the one-year postgraduate certificate with the University of Exeter, YIPPs will develop knowledge and skills to provide young people with psychological assessment and psychologically informed interventions aligned with the competence framework for children and young people's mental health inpatient services.   

YIPPs are an additional role and will give experienced senior healthcare professionals more capacity to access higher-level training and deliver complex care to young people with complex mental health needs.  

For more information, visit the Health Careers website or contact mentalhealth@hee.nhs.uk.  

Antonio, Young Adviser, said:     

“Being involved in shaping the YIPP role is a tremendous honour. As an individual with lived experience, I know how much impact the new YIPP role withholds in supporting young people in crisis and recovery with severe and complex needs. I wish it had existed before.  

"From another perspective, as a psychology student, the YIPP role remains firmly on my mind as a potential career option in the future."  

Psychological profession career resources 

Health Careers  

The NHS Health Careers website has a section dedicated to the psychological professions. It informs individuals about the different psychological profession roles, training, latest vacancies, FAQs, pay and benefits amongst other areas. 

Psychological Professions Network career map 

The Psychological Professions Network in England has developed a career map about the career opportunities in the NHS psychological professions. 

HEE Roles Explorer 

The HEE Roles Explorer is a collection of resources to support those responsible for planning and delivering workforce redesign. This resource can now be used when introducing new psychological profession roles, or innovative adaptations to existing roles already being deployed within a service or system. For those delivering workforce redesign, the HEE Roles Explorer is designed to: 

• provide inspiration and alternatives when designing the optimum skill mix 
• explore the capabilities, training requirements and career frameworks for different roles 
• support you to choose the best fit for your service model 
• develop new staffing models to fit new ways of delivering care 
• provide a range of resources to support the introduction of new role