Joint Lead of Clinical Health Psychology

South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust; Stratford-upon-Avon; On-site; GBP 91,000 - 106,000; Part time

Job summary

A community health trust is seeking a Joint Lead of Clinical Health Psychology to co-lead a dynamic team and enhance psychological care. You will guide clinical practices, manage specialized services, and lead a team to tackle health inequalities. This permanent part-time role is based in Stratford-upon-Avon with a salary range of £91,342 to £105,337 pro rata, depending on experience.

Qualifications

• Qualified Clinical Psychologist registered with the HCPC.
• Experience working with varied client groups.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Clinical Health Psychology service.
• Conduct complex psychological assessments.
• Develop and manage clinical health psychology specialties.

Skills

Clinical assessment

Psychological therapies

Communication skills

Research methodology

Leadership

Education

Post‑graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology

Post‑doctoral training in specialized areas

Job description

Go back South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust

Joint Lead of Clinical Health Psychology

The closing date is 07 December 2025

The Clinical Health Psychology Team at South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a highly experienced, compassionate and dynamic Consultant Clinical Psychologist to co‑lead the department and build on its success in delivering excellent psychological practice. The role includes leading and governing evidence based care for patients at all ages and staff, coordinating a team of 35 staff. It is a service development role with a need for creativity and innovation to meet the three big shifts in the NHS 10 year plan. It includes scoping the staff psychological support need at the George Elliott Hospital Trust and co‑working with HR and wellbeing services. The post also includes a highly specialist clinical role, with the option to work in service areas such as psycho‑oncology, paediatric services, frailty services or general medical psychology.

The lead would be active in reducing health inequalities continuing the commitment to anti‑discriminatory and anti‑racist practice. Including widening access to all psychological professionals.

This role includes financial and managerial responsibility, recruitment and retention and governance of practice to be shared with the leadership team. There is engagement in trainee placements, apprenticeships and teaching roles. Research and service development is prioritised. This post is embedded in regional PPN structures, integrated service offers, workforce and council faculties and has ICB links.

Main duties of the job

To carry out and communicate effectively to senior colleagues' long‑term strategic planning and provide leadership and motivation for the delivery of the Clinical Health Psychology service to other staff in South Warwickshire Foundation Trust (including community staff)

To further develop the provision of appropriate clinical health psychology specialities to the South Warwickshire Health Community based on research and evidence‑based practice, and thereby supporting modernisation of health care delivery.

To provide professional leadership and be professionally responsible for psychologists working within clinical specialties.

To support management and strategic development of the general health psychology service develop these services long term via Local Development Planning, and service reviews.

Act as Professional Advisor to the Trust at all levels and externally to key stake holders as appropriate. Professional responsibility for clinical and research governance for Psychology and staff, ensuring systematic governance of psychological practice and those systems are in place and working effectively for the clinical and professional supervision and support of staff including ensuring systems for effective recruitment, professional appraisal, and the identification of CPD.

To provide a highly specialist clinical input across the South Warwickshire health economy and consult to the Foundation.

About us

Come and join a Trust rated Outstanding by the CQC. South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust have been rated as outstanding following our latest inspection by the CQC and we are recruiting new staff to come and help us improve even further. In addition our staff survey results have placed us 4th in the country for recommended place to work.

We provide services across Warwickshire and beyond ranging from Hospitals in Warwick, Stratford‑Upon‑Avon, Royal Leamington Spa and Shipston‑on Stour to Community Services across the county. We are a progressive, expanding organisation with great ambition around improving quality, integrating pathways and delivering high levels of productivity. Our values can be summed up in one sentence. We are 'Trusted to provide safe, inclusive, effective and compassionate care'. Throughout the recruitment process you will be asked to think about how you demonstrate these values and how they impact on your work. It doesn't matter what role you do, whether it is patient facing or not, we are all working in the same way with our values at the core.

As part of our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion we encourage all applicants to complete a short survey. This can be accessed via the link below:

https://forms.office.com/e/ahWY3eAGM2

We appreciate you completing the survey.

Job responsibilities

Clinical

To receive and communicate highly complex, sensitive or contentious information as the result of the referral, assessment and therapy process of clients with physical and mental health problems and challenging behaviours.

As a clinical specialist in physical health provide highly developed 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 tests requiring accurate physical administration self‑report measures, rating scales direct and indirect structured observations and semi‑structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the clients care. Clinical work requires intense concentration over prolonged periods in a constrained position and also frequently involves working with highly distressed clients (e.g. issues relating to diagnosis of a terminal illness those suffering from traumatic events, injuries).

To formulate plans for the formal psychological intervention and/or management of a clients mental and physical health problems based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.

To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams. Adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

To make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about therapy options, taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes as well as the complex interactions of mental and physical health problems often presenting as co morbidity that have shaped the individual, family or group,

To exercise full responsibility and autonomy for the therapy of and discharge of clients whose problems are managed as an individually based care plan, ensuring appropriate assessment, formulation and interventions, communicating with the internal agent and others involved with the care on a regular basis.

To provide expertise and specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation and intervention plan (e.g. provide professional guidance to the mental health team, for their patients who have developed a serious physical health problem)

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for relevant individual clients and to provide both general and specialist advice for psychologists and other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.

To act as care co‑ordinator, where appropriate, ensuring the provision of a care package appropriate for the clients needs, co‑ordinating the work of others involved with care, arranging clients reviews as required and communicating effectively with the client, his/her family and all others involved in care; and to monitor progress during the course of multidisciplinary interventions.

To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni‑and multi‑disciplinary care.

To provide expertise and advice to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the team.

To provide expert consultation about the psychological care of the client group to staff and agencies outside the Trust.

Teaching, Training and Supervision

To jointly lead the clinical health psychology service to ensure that all staff within the services have access to appropriate professional supervision, appraisal and systems for continuing professional development.

To provide clinical and professional supervision to qualified staff and assistant psychologists working in the service, including supervision of research/ audit and service development.

To provide specialist clinical placements for trainee clinical and/or counselling psychologists, ensuring that they acquire the necessary skills, competencies and experience to contribute effectively to good psychological practice, and contributing to the assessment and evaluation of those competencies.

To provide specialist advice, consultation and training and (where agreed locally) clinical supervision to other members of the team for their provision of psychologically based interventions to help improve clients functioning.

To contribute to the pre‑ and post‑qualification teaching of clinical and/or counselling psychology as appropriate.

To continue to develop expertise in the area of professional pre‑ and postgraduate training, clinical and professional supervision.

Policy and Service Development

To jointly lead the profession of Clinical Health Psychology within the South Warwickshire Health Economy at all levels, including Board level when necessary and to contribute generally to the effective operational and strategic management of clinical services.

To identify service priorities and advise on the level of clinical health psychology provision within the Trust, and the health economy.

To provide leadership as a senior clinician in the development of a high quality, responsive and accessible service for staff, clients their carers and families within the service, including advising the Directorate, Management Groups and Localities on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.

To be responsible for some service developments and projects within the service, and across the South Warwickshire Health Economy and Foundation Trust.

To initiate and lead on policy development and change for the South Warwickshire economy.

Management and Recruitment

Co‑lead for all the assets of the service including the budget.

Co‑lead for the strategic development of delivering specialist clinical health psychological therapies for South Warwickshire Health economy.

Authorised signatory status for elements of service.

As the Line Manager of several services exercise the responsibility for managing the psychological resources available to the service both in terms of psychological staff and psychological materials employed in the assessment and treatment of patients.

To ensure systems are in place for the recruitment retention and professional development of some posts across the service.

To be responsible for ensuring clear systems for professional appraisal and the development of appropriate professional development plans.

To ensure that staff within the Trust observe the requirements of Government legislation, the Patients Charter, Trust policies and local initiatives.

Research and Service Evaluation

To develop responsibility for the performance management of psychological research and development activity within the service.

To provide leadership as the Professional Head in planning and implementing systems for the evaluation, monitoring and development of a clinical specialty through the deployment of professional skills in research, including electronic data entry and analysis, service evaluation and audit and ensuring incorporation of psychological frameworks for understanding and provision of high quality care.

To utilise theory, evidence‑based literature and research to support evidence‑based practice in individual work, work with other team members and across the service.

To undertake, co‑ordinate and implement appropriate research and provide leadership to other staff undertaking research and R and D activity within the service.

To initiate and implement project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within and across part of the service to help develop and improve services to clients and their families.

To act as field supervisor for theses in the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology providing expert research knowledge in a specialist clinical area.

General

To be responsible to the ACOO for the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of psychological practice through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes.

To develop leadership in the development and articulation of best practice in psychology across the service, by exercising the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology and related disciplines.

To ensure the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self‑governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the British Psychological Society and Trust policies and procedures.

To contribute to the strategic and operational development and articulation of best practice in psychology across the South Warwickshire Health Economy.

To develop skills that all psychologists within the service maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health.

To receive clinical and service supervision, in line with good practice.

To understand and continue to develop appropriate models and delivery of leadership, according to the service (including staff) needs.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Post‑graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) accredited by the BPS, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical health psychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.
• Post‑doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.
• Clinical Psychologist registered with the HCPC

Experience

• Experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist which demonstrates the following: Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across a full range of care settings including outpatient, community, primary care, in‑patient and residential care settings.
• Experience of working with the particular client groups served by the Specialty, in all areas of care, and presenting with the full range of clinical severity represented by this client group including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems and verbal abuse.
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment.
• Experience of teaching, training and professional and clinical supervision.
• Experience of professional management of qualified and pre‑qualified clinical/counselling psychologists and other professional groups.
• Experience of developing and leading a clinical service with evidence of staff (clinicians) wellbeing and trust being foremost.
• Experience of representing the profession or service in local policy forums.
• Experience of the full range of professional management activities including defining appropriate establishments, grading and recruitment procedures, performance and appraisal.
• Experience of managing a Psychology Service Budget.
• Post‑Doctoral Training in Leadership/ Management
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts
• Professional/ NHS management/ experience, across a range of specialties/ services.

Skills

• Doctoral level knowledge of clinical psychology including highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, 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.
• Highly developed skills in providing consultation to other professional and non‑professional groups.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology.
• Knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to the client group and mental health.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS /HCPC
• High level skills in clinical and professional supervision.
• Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups.
• Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of highly specialised psychological therapies.
• Knowledge of models and/or strategies of management and leadership.

Personal Qualities

• Enthusiasm for a broad range of psychological phenomena, an interest in models of service delivery, and an ability to articulate the value added by clinical psychology services within the context of multi‑disciplinary physical and mental health services.
• Ability to contain, manage and work with organisational stress and ability to 'hold' the stress of others.
• Demonstrate leadership and management skills and reflection on these skills adapting them as necessary.
• A commitment to the evaluation of services, enthusiasm for both multi‑professional and uni‑professional audit, and a wish to continue to develop expertise in the service area.

Other

• Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours.
• Ability to identify, and employ, as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
• Ability to develop and use complex multi‑media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings.
• Ability to articulate clearly the role of the profession of clinical psychology based upon a good understanding of the framework of government and national professional policy.

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.

South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust

Address

The Rowan Tree Dept of Clinical Psychology, Stratford Healthcare, Floor 2, Building 1

£91,342 to £105,337 a year Pro rata (Dependent Upon Experience)

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Part‑time

Reference number

203-SS1151

Job locations

The Rowan Tree Dept of Clinical Psychology, Stratford Healthcare, Floor 2, Building 1