Clinical Psychologist | Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust; Sunderland; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare trust in the UK seeks a Clinical Psychologist to provide psychological assessments and therapy to clients, ensuring safe, effective care. The role involves working autonomously within established guidelines and contributing to service development through research. Candidates should possess a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and experience in therapeutic practices. Flexible working arrangements may be considered.

Qualifications

• Experience in providing psychological assessments and therapy.
• Ability to work autonomously within professional guidelines.
• Strong research skills for service development.

Responsibilities

• Conduct specialist psychological assessments based on complex data.
• Implement psychological treatment plans for clients.
• Provide psychological advice and consultation to other professionals.
• Undertake risk assessment and management for clients.
• Communicate effectively about clients' treatment plans.

Skills

Psychological assessment

Therapy implementation

Research skills

Autonomous working

Risk assessment

Education

Doctorate in Clinical Psychology

Job description

Overview

A Band 7 - Band 8a Preceptorship/Development will also be considered for this post. An exciting opportunity to provide a qualified clinical psychology service to individuals within the Halton Recovery Team providing psychological assessment and therapy, offering advice and consultation on individuals’ psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other, non-professionals. To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of Trust policies and procedures. To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the area served by the team/service. To provide a qualified specialist clinical psychology service to clients of the service team, across all relevant sectors within an equality and human rights framework. To provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy, offering advice and consultation on clients’ psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other, non professional carers. To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the Directorate’s and team’s policies and procedures. To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the area served by the team/service.

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands. We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities. At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

Responsibilities

• To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s psychological problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses where appropriate.
• 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 or group.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment and treatment of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based enhanced care plans.
• To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
• To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.

This advert closes on Sunday 21 Sep 2025.