Work for us

Thank you for thinking about working at the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

We are a leading, values-based organisation that prioritises delivering a great staff experience.

We work to support psychiatrists, and other members of the mental health multidisciplinary team, to deliver excellent patient care in the NHS and services delivered by other healthcare providers.

We have 20,500 members – with 3,800 members based in nations outside of the UK.

Over the last few years, we have created a positive, empowering and inclusive workplace – with equality, diversity and inclusion being at the heart of all we do.

All our 290 employees and 150 patient and carer representatives live out our values of Courage, Innovation, Respect, Collaboration, Learning and Excellence – meaning that everyone has a shared understanding of what is expected and how to engage with their colleagues.

Over the last few years, we have transformed and modernised the College and we are now widely recognised for being a cutting-edge membership sector organisation.

• In 2019, we won Charity of the Year in the European Diversity Awards.
• In 2020, we won Best Campaign of the Year for our Choose Psychiatry campaign at the ‘memcom’ UK membership sector awards.
• In the same year, our Chief Executive Paul Rees MBE won the Louis Armstrong CEO Leadership Award.
• In 2021, we were Highly Commended for Best Member Support During COVID-19 at the ‘memcom’ UK membership sector awards.
• In 2022, we won the Best Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Campaign at the ‘memcom’ UK membership sector awards. We also won Best Recruitment/Retention Campaign, and we were Highly Commended for Best Member Support During COVID-19, Best Website/Podcast and Best Member Event.
• In February 2023, we were ranked in the top 100 UK employer bodies for creating an LGBTQ+ inclusive workplace – and, as a result, won a Stonewall Gold Award. We have also achieved Level Two in the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.

Along with our competitive salaries, we have a generous employee benefits package – with more than 600 listed benefits.

Our benefits include a generous flexi-leave scheme, full end-to-end mental health support for all employees, and enhanced maternity and paternity pay. A fuller list of benefits is below.

We operate a hybrid working model, with the vast majority of people working at least two days a week in the office, and up to three days a week from home.

We regularly survey our staff team to find out what they think of working at the College and the feedback we get is always very positive.

We hope that you decide to apply for a role with us.

Staff benefits

To help we offer a range of excellent staff benefits including:

• up to 25 days of annual leave, depending on length of service (exclusive of public and bank holidays)
• up to six College closures days (during May, August and December)
• generous flexi-time and time off in lieu (TOIL) schemes
• enhanced maternity leave (eight weeks at full pay, 18 weeks at half pay, 13 weeks lower rate SMP, 13 weeks unpaid leave)
• enhanced paternity leave (two weeks at full pay, rather than at statutory level)
• interest-free season ticket loan
• subsidised café at our London Head Office
• health and wellbeing package (including up to £160 for complementary therapies)
• money towards annual eye tests
• 24/7 health and stress-related helplines
• management support helplines
• Group Income Protection Scheme
• generous pension and life assurance schemes