Applied Principal Psychologist

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT); March; Hybrid; GBP 67,000 - 77,000; Full time

Job summary

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) is recruiting for a permanent, full-time Band 8b psychologist to work at the Fens Service in HMP Whitemoor, March. The post offers specialist trauma-focused therapy in a high-security setting with opportunities for professional development.

The role involves supervision, programme development, and collaboration with commissioners, with some scope for home working and research links with universities.

Qualifications

• Doctoral level training in applied psychology, with registration with the HCPC.
• Specialist training in trauma-focused therapies and psychology.
• Experience in forensic/secure settings preferred.

Responsibilities

• Provide highly specialist psychological therapy to patients at the Fens Service.
• Supervise and support psychological assessment and therapy by team members.
• Contribute to development of new programmes and lead/participate in staff training.

Skills

Clinical psychology

HCPC registration

Trauma treatment

Risk assessment

Supervision

Education

Doctoral level training in psychology

Registered with HCPC

Job description

Main area Applied Psychology Grade Band 8b Contract Permanent: Regional Secure Unit allowance payable of £1293 per annum Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 310-MASMH-8167164

Site Fens Service, HMP Whitemoor Town March, Cambridgeshire Salary £66,582 - £77,368 per annum pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 21/09/2026 23:59

Job overview

The Fen’s is an innovative and challenging service for individuals with chronic histories of trauma who are located in a male high-risk prison.

Our treatment draws on attachment theory and incorporates sensorimotor psychotherapy and schema focused therapy , along with a range of short-term interventions such as EMDR, CBT, CAT etc. Through a combination of individual and group therapies, patients are given opportunities to heal from trauma and neglect, improve wellbeing and reduce risk.

We will support you in broadening your therapeutic skills, management, and working to achieve organisational change in a complex system. There are opportunities to further your research interests through our links with Universit ies .

The role is a permanent, full-time position with scope to complete some work from home .

You will join our diverse clinical team with a rich range of clinical and forensic experience.

“I wanted to change, I was crying out to change. You know, it was a trust element.…letting them see me warts and all….and that was the hard thing. Breaking down crying…getting the stuff out I needed to. I grew from that…if I don’t like myself, how can anyone else like myself. How can I move on if I don’t forgive myself… I’ve got to give myself a chance.” Current service user

Main duties of the job

To provide a highly specialist psychological therapy service to patient(s), referred to the Fens Service and ensure the systematic provision of a high-quality specialist psychology service as agreed with commissioners and CPFT.

To supervise and support the psychological assessment and therapy provided by specialist psychologists and other clinical members of the team who provide psychologically based care and treatment.

To support the Clinical Lead who is responsible for the treatment programme in the development of highly specialised programmes of care and to provide highly specialised advice to non-psychological staff working directly with the patients.

To take responsibility for project work within a specified domain of the Fens service under the line management of one of the consultant Psychologist leads. To contribute to the development and management of the teaching and training programme for staff on the Fens service.

Working for our organisation

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health and social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting and empowering them to lead fulfilling lives.

Our clinical teams deliver a wide range of NHS services across inpatient, primary care and community settings, including children’s, adult and older people’s mental health, forensic and specialist mental health, learning disabilities, primary care and liaison psychiatry, substance misuse, social care, and research and development.

To achieve our goals, we recruit high calibre candidates who share our vision and values. As an equal opportunities’ employer, we welcome applications from all sections of the community, particularly under represented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities.

All appointments are subject to the successful completion of a probationary period.

Please note we reserve the right to close adverts early should we receive sufficient applications.

Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all roles. If you apply for a post that does not attract sponsorship, your application will be withdrawn from the process.

For further information on CPFT, please visit our website at https://www.cpft.nhs.uk

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities

• To develop psychological formulations of presenting problems; emotional, cognitive and behavioural. In particular to use specialist knowledge in relation to offending behaviour, trauma and to develop psychological formulations of the connection between a person’s personality psychopathology and the risk they pose to others
• To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family, carers or group
• To incorporate the results of individual assessments, including neuropsychological assessment, into the formulations and treatment and care plans for the patient(s). To be able to articulate these formulations to other members of the Multi-Disciplinary Team including non-clinical staff using the highest level of interpersonal and communication skills at a level which is accessible to all
• Within a cognitive interpersonal framework develop plans for the formal psychological individual treatment/formulation and/or management of a service user’s mental health and behavioural problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of these problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings
• To provide management, co-ordination and delivery in conjunction with the Clinical Lead, Treatment Leads, and partnership agencies, on the development of new innovative services within the Fens and wider prison. This will include the application of adjunctive and alternative therapies both within assessment and treatment provisions within the wider Fens services, supporting the psycho-social environment and developing appropriate evaluation methodologies and research protocols
• To ensure that all members of the clinical and operational team have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of psychological research and theory
• To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically-based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all service users in the OPDP Fens services, across all settings and agencies serving the patient group, including delivery of service user collaboration and/or co-production
• To take a leading role within the Multi-Disciplinary Team meetings providing direct input to those meetings and communicating information on psychological assessments, formulations and interventions undertaken by other Psychologists/Psychotherapists within the OPDP Fens service
• To contribute to the wider OPDP services by sharing information with other sites both through Fens progression and continuity of care pathway services for service users entering and leaving high secure services in line with agreed data sharing protocols
• To provide highly specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other partnership professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan
• To undertake actuarial and clinical tools assessments, in addition to highly specialist knowledge and expertise to inform ongoing risk assessment and risk management for individual service users and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment
• To take a lead in working in partnership with other disciplines to help to establish and maintain Multi-Disciplinary Team working and Care Programme Approach, including. acting as care co-ordinator in all that is required of this role
• To communicate throughout all service delivery elements in a highly skilled and sensitive manner to others (e.g. service users’ family, carers), as appropriate, information that may be contentious or highly distressing concerning the formulation and treatment plans of service users under their care in line with agreed data sharing protocols.
• To produce reports on service users, in a timely manner, that convey the key findings of psychological assessment and formulation and treatment outcome in a way that does justice to the complexity of the problems described, but that are understandable to the recipients of the reports, including clients and referrers
• To attend and/chair OPDP meetings including but not limited to: MDT meetings, Prisoner Management meeting, programmes and governance meetings. Meetings will include partnership agencies and service user representatives
• To contribute to HMPPS process of reviews of service users, providing written or verbal reports as appropriate to the specific reviews. Such reviews include those that relate to suicidal behaviour (ACCT reviews), safeguarding, security status and sentence planning
• To work in partnership with other agencies and to maintain links with statutory and non-statutory and primary care agencies as appropriate
• To collect and communicate specific information as required by the commissioners responsible for the OPDP services.

Person specification

Education / Qualifications

• Doctoral level training in an applied psychology or master’s level qualification registration; to include, models of lifespan developmental psychology, psychopathology and clinical psychometrics in addition to two or more distinct therapies.
• Registered as a Practitioner Psychologist with HCPC
• Specialist psychological therapy training focussed on treatment of trauma and/ personality disorders eg, Schema training, EMDR, CAT, CFT.CBT…
• Undertaken Post graduate Psychological training relevant to the advertised post (e.g. Personality Disorder training, Risk Assessment training, Training with respect to Interventions for clients with Personality Disorders and/ or those who pose a risk of harm to others.

Experience

• Experience of assessing and treating clients across a range of forensic/secure setting and/ or community personality disorder service
• Experience of work within a Multi-Disciplinary Team.
• Experience of the application of Psychology within different contexts.
• Able to demonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours professional supervision.

Skills & Abilities

• Skills to impart psychological knowledge and approaches with non-psychology colleagues, taking an empowering, rather than an instructive stance.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance.
• High level of knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies related to this client group, using specific psychological models such as Schema, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, DBT, MBT, CAT and CBT for Personality Disorders
• Well-developed knowledge and treatment of complex trauma and/or PD as displayed in recent research or conference paper or book chapter.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, as practised within the field of psychology.
• Good understanding of other professionals’ theoretical perspectives of this service user group, in addition to appreciation of their differing experiences of working with these clients.

Other

• Interpersonally calm and able to defuse difficult, volatile situations.

Here at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) we are dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion. We deliver many of the NHS services that are provided outside of hospital and in the community such as physical, mental health and specialist services.

We are a health and social care organisation, offering a wide range of services, including:

• Integrated physical and mental health services for adults and older people;
• Specialist mental health and learning disability services;
• Children’s community services in Peterborough;
• Ground-breaking research

We strongly encourage applications from all sections of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including disabled people and members of our ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ communities. For further information about our positive equality, diversity and Inclusion work, please visit https://www.cpft.nhs.uk/equalityanddiversity .

CPFT is looking to build upon its pool of temporary workers with Temporary Staffing Services (TSS). You will be asked at interview if you would be willing to register with TSS. This is an excellent opportunity for those looking to take on additional hours that are flexible around your personal circumstances.

Please be advised that in line with the WHO Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List, 2020 Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust currently are unable to accept applications from overseas candidates whose country of residence is classed as a ‘Red List’ country.

Applicants who require entry into the UK will be required to provide a valid police certificate from the relevant authority from each country (except the UK) where the applicant has been present for 12 months or more, 10 years before the date of visa application, while aged 18 or over.

If you are successful at interview you will be subject to pre-employment checks, including a DBS (if appropriate), references and Occupational Health. To ensure a smooth process please bring all identity documents to your interview. A list of required identity documents will be attached to your interview invitation.

All communications will be sent to you via TRAC Systems. By applying for this post you are agreeing to CPFT transferring the information contained in this application to TRAC. If you are made an offer, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Name Dr Victoria Vallentine Job title Clinical Lead and Consultant Clinical Psychologist Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 01354 602586