Practitioner Psychologist | Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust; St Helens; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 61,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working

Job summary

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust in St Helens invites a Clinical Psychologist or Practitioner Psychologist to join the Inpatient Psychology service across two adult acute wards. The role includes direct clinical work with inpatients, leading psychology groups, and performing 1:1 assessments and brief interventions.

You will provide consultancy and training to ward staff while contributing to service development and CPD.

Qualifications

• Experience in inpatient adult mental health settings.
• Ability to provide 1:1 assessments and brief psychological interventions.
• Capability to supervise assistants and provide training.

Responsibilities

• Provide direct clinical service to adults on inpatient wards.
• Oversee psychology groups and conduct 1:1 assessments.
• Offer consultancy, training and reflective practice to staff.
• Develop guidelines, pathways and trauma-informed care in wards.

Skills

Clinical assessment

Therapeutic interventions

Supervision

Job description

Practitioner Psychologist | Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

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.

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.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

The post holder will be responsible for undertaking psychological work with service users.

Main duties include: assessment, formulation, intervention, attending ward meetings, audits and service evaluations, and provide regular reflective practice to both ward teams. You will work closely with two assistant psychologist to support the delivery of individual and group psychological interventions.

Strong emphasis is placed on supporting the wider workforce, enhancing their understanding of and support for psychologically informed ways of working, and promoting formulation based understanding and approaches.

Of primary importance is an interest and commitment to working with individuals with complex mental health needs. You will be committed to improving the quality of life of people with complex mental health problems and you will support the ward teams system to deliver models of care.

The post holder will report directly to the Consultant Clinical Psychologist.

Please refer to the Job Description and Person Specification for further details.

This advert closes on Tuesday 27 Oct 2026