Practitioner Psychologist

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust; St Helens; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Clinical/Practitioner Psychologist to support two acute inpatient wards in St Helens. The role involves direct clinical work with adults, supervising assistant psychologists, and contributing to service development.

You will provide assessments, interventions, and consultancy, while engaging in supervision and CPD. The post emphasizes trauma-informed care and multidisciplinary collaboration.

Qualifications

• Registration with HCPC as a Clinical Psychologist.
• Inpatient service experience desirable.
• Ability to work across two wards.
• Experience supervising trainees or assistants.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist psychological assessment, therapy and interventions for adults on acute inpatient wards.
• Lead psychology groups and 1:1 sessions as required.
• Offer consultancy, training and advice to multidisciplinary staff.
• Develop clinical guidelines, pathways and processes with ward teams.

Skills

Clinical psychology

Leadership

Consultation

Supervision

Education

Registered Clinical Psychologist

Tools

Psychological assessment tools

Group facilitation

Job description

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Clinical Psychologist or Practitioner Psychologist to join our Inpatient Psychology service working across Acute Inpatient Mental Health Wards in Mid Mersey. The post will be full time across two adult acute inpatient ward at Peasley Cross, St Helens. The wards are Taylor Ward (Male) and Iris Ward (Female). Both teams are welcoming of psychology and valuing psychological ways of working. You will provide a direct clinical service to adults on the wards, will oversee psychology groups and offer 1:1 assessments and brief psychological interventions. You will provide consultancy, training and advice to other clinical staff and offer regular reflective practice. This is a great opportunity to join a network of established inpatient psychologists, and assistant psychologists. You will receive regular supervision and CPD as well as informal support. Developing clinical guidelines, pathways and processes will also be integral to this role, helping to hold the psychological framework and trauma informed care in mind with ward teams. Applicants at Band 7 or Band 8a level are eligible to apply. Applicants joining at Band 7 will have the opportunity to engage in a preceptorship programme with the opportunity to progress to Band 8a once required competencies have been met. Main duties of the job Successful applicants would be working within teams to support people with a range of psychological issues. The applicant will provide specialist psychological assessment, therapy and interventions to service users and carers, making use of a range of models where appropriate. Successful applicants would also offer specialist advice, leadership and consultation to non-psychologist colleagues and support the development of psychological skills across the whole workforce through specialist training, supervision, mentorship and reflective practice. Psychological input is highly valued by staff within the service. You will work alongside the senior Clinical Psychologist to be involved in ongoing service development and in shaping service innovations. We have excellent links with North West doctoral training programmes and offer placements to trainees from local universities on a regular basis and the post holder would be expected to clinically supervise and manage the workloads of assistant psychologists and trainee clinical psychologists within the service as required. You will contribute towards the continuing professional development, training, research, advising and supporting the Multi-disciplinary team as appropriate. 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.