Principal Bariatric Clinical Psychologist | East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust
| Posting date: | 18 September 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | Not specified |
| Additional salary information: | £64,455 - £74,896 per annum, pro rata |
| Hours: | Part time |
| Closing date: | 18 October 2025 |
| Location: | Colchester, CO4 5JL |
| Company: | Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 7490444/432-HR719-25 |
Summary
ESNEFT is a large NHS Foundation Trust serving a population of approximately 1 million people in the Suffolk and North Essex area.
ESNEFT is starting a new Complex Obesity Service which will deliver bariatric/metabolic surgery, endoscopic and medical weight management treatments to the Suffolk and North Essex population. We have designed our service with many innovations to make it fit for purpose for the current obesity landscape.
We have combined the traditional Tier 3 and Tier 4 into a single comprehensive service (Tier 4 PLUS) and will offer all treatments including IWMP, GLP-1 medications, endoscopic and surgical bariatric procedures.
A national BOMSS survey of bariatric psychologists in 2022 found that there was a significant disparity between what activity bariatric psychologists wanted to be delivering within Specialist Weight Management Services and the activity they were actually carrying out. Psychologists spent most of their time assessing patients for bariatric surgery or other treatments whereas they would prefer to focus on psychological treatment of patients who need it.
We have allocated funding and created outline pathways for psychological assessment and treatment to provide a quality psychological element to the service. We are keen to recruit a psychologist who can continue to innovate and develop these assessment and treatment approaches using the latest evidence and quality standards.
This post would be available full or part time and options for flexible working hours and remote working will be considered by mutual agreement.
The role within the Weight Management Service will involve both direct 1:1 patient care, service development, advice to other MDT members and the potential for group patient sessions. You will be a core member of the Multidisciplinary Team meetings and discuss each patient’s suitability for treatment to agree with other members of the MDT a shared decision for treatment for each patient.
We are recruiting Bariatric Psychologists to develop and deliver this new service and currently seeking an experienced psychologist looking to progress their career in a Band 8b Principal Clinical Psychologist position. Supervision will be provided by experienced Consultant Bariatric Psychologists.
This post would be available full or part time and options for flexible working hours and remote working will be considered by mutual agreement.
Any psychologists interested in discussing more about these roles and the Complex Obesity Service are invited to contact Mr Hywel Room, Consultant Bariatric Surgeon - Hywel.room@esneft.nhs.uk
We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients’ own homes.
We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff.
We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options.
Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.
Our philosophy is thatTime Mattersto everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients.
We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what’s widely regarded as the world’s best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients.
If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge, then we want to hear from you.
Find out about living and working here -www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkPu7HphU8A
For full details of the responsibilities and duties of this role please see the attached job description.
This advert closes on Thursday 9 Oct 2025