Consultant Clinical Psychologist

NHS; Preston; On-site; GBP 79,000 - 94,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional healthcare provider in England is seeking a Consultant Clinical Psychologist to lead the Psychology Services at a secure mental health hospital. The role requires extensive experience in clinical leadership, risk assessment, and a solid understanding of psychological therapies. Successful candidates will provide supervision to staff, manage a clinical case load, and collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary teams. This position supports professional development and offers flexible work arrangements.

Benefits

Dedicated therapy service for staff

Leadership development programmes

Flexible working patterns

Qualifications

• Extensive post qualification experience in similar service.
• Experience with diverse client groups across various settings.
• Full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care.

Responsibilities

• Provide clinical leadership and supervision to the psychology service.
• Collaborate with senior clinical and managerial staff.
• Manage a clinical caseload within the inpatient service.

Skills

Clinical leadership

Risk assessment and formulation

Supervision and clinical leadership

Expertise in psychological therapies

Education

Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology

HCPC registration as a practitioner psychologist

Eligibility for consultant psychologist appointment approval

Job description

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust

Consultant Clinical Psychologist

The closing date is 13 January 2026.

We are excited to announce a fantastic opportunity has arisen for an 8c Consultant Clinical Psychologist to be the Psychology Lead for Inpatient Psychology Services at Guild Lodge Secure Mental Health Inpatient Hospital.

Guild Lodge is a regional secure unit and provides medium secure, low secure and step down provision for both men and women with complex mental health difficulties, as well as a specialist pathway for men with acquired brain injury.

An experienced candidate is required to provide psychological leadership and clinical supervision into the inpatient psychology service, and to work closely with their counterpart in the community service to ensure continuity in the application of psychological input across the transition. The successful applicant will work alongside a well established, dedicated psychology team to ensure a high standard of psychological service.

Staff support is paramount to us. We have a dedicated therapy service for staff who have experienced trauma as well as workplace trauma support which continues to be rolled out trust wide. Furthermore, psychology has developed a leadership development programme for psychological professionals aiming to support colleagues in their development and confidence in providing and developing their leadership skills.

Main duties of the job

We are seeking a dynamic and enthusiastic person with a range and depth of experience of working in secure care. Relevant experience would include expertise in risk assessment and formulation, management of personality disorder, interventions for psychosis, accreditation/ expertise in at least one model of a relevant therapy, and a track record of delivering supervision and other aspects of clinical leadership to psychology and non-psychology staff.

The successful post holder would be expected to

• Work as a senior member of the service to assist in providing clinical leadership, supervision and strategic service development to the forensic inpatient service.
• Work closely with other senior clinical and managerial staff within Guild Lodge to provide a psychological perspective to service planning, service development and clinical service transformation.
• Hold a clinical case load within the Inpatient forensic service.
• Contribute to LSCFT wide discussions regarding Forensic inpatient services
• Provide supervision
• Provide consultation to colleagues and other services
• Provide governance/ oversight for interventions, referrals, waiting lists and clinical delivery.

If you are considering a psychological profession's post here at LSCFT we encourage you to contact us and we would be very happy to talk further about the opportunities available - we look forward to hearing from you!

About us

LSCFT values diversity and inclusion, recognising that talent from varied backgrounds creates a flexible, creative, and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from all, regardless of age, disability (including those with experience of accessing or caring for someone who has accessed mental health or learning disability services), ethnicity, gender, religion, belief, or sexual orientation.

Our aim is to reflect the communities we serve, so we particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups. If you'd like to discuss your application, please ask.

We also welcome individuals with lived experience relevant to the role or service area, as your insight brings authenticity to our services.

LSCFT support flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as term time, part time, compressed hours and flexi-time.

Job responsibilities

Here at LSCFT we are a dedicated and passionate community of psychological professionals. We are committed to staff support and CPD and encourage opportunities for colleagues to undertake innovative work or passion projects where appropriate to their job roles. We have an annual psychological professionals conference which is always well attended, as well as trust support for innovative psychological practice as supported by our psychological professionals governance group. We aim to provide a culture of unity and joined up working with colleagues and we feel there is a strong sense of community and psychological identity here.

Please see attached the job description and person specification for more information about this role.

When completing the supporting information section of your application, please ensure you show how you meet each of the criteria of the person specification providing illustrative examples where possible; as this is what you will be shortlisted against.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology (or the equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS, specifically including models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology
• HCPC registered as a practitioner psychologist
• Eligibility for consultant psychologist appointment approval from external BPS assessor

Experience

• Substantial post qualification experience including experience within the designated specialty/type of service
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups across the whole life course, in various settings including outpatient, community, primary care inpatient and residential care settings. Also including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and threats of physical abuse.
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibilities for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified

Knowledge

• Doctoral level knowledge of psychology, including highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology and two or more distinct psychological therapies
• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• A high level ability to communicate effectively at both a written and oral level complex, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and a wide range of lay and professional persons within and outside the NHS.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.