Principal Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Greater Manchester Menthal Health NHS Foundation Trust; Salford; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading mental health foundation seeks a clinical psychologist to undertake specialist assessments and provide interventions for clients with complex mental health needs. The role involves formulating treatment plans and working collaboratively with multi-disciplinary teams to improve patient outcomes. Ideal candidates will possess a doctorate in psychology and have significant experience with complex mental health issues.

Qualifications

• Post-graduate doctorate in clinical/counselling psychology required.
• Willingness to undertake supervisory courses.
• Experience of complex mental health problems required.

Responsibilities

• Conduct specialist psychological assessments and evaluations.
• Deliver specialist interventions and develop care programs.
• Provide clinical leadership and supervise teams.

Skills

Excellent interpersonal skills

Ability to engage with service users

Excellent communication skills

Ability to plan and prioritise work

Education

Post-graduate doctorate in clinical or counselling psychology

Job description

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please refer to attached Job Description for full details.

To undertake highly specialist psychological assessments of complex clients, based upon the appropriate use and interpretation of data from various sources, including neuropsychological tests, across a wide-ranging age group.

To make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about assessment and treatment options considering both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group drawing on advanced specialist knowledge and planning of complex processes.

To formulate the presentation of a range of complex mental health problems and their potential interaction with physical health problems to aid personal recovery. This includes formulation of the complex systems in which individuals are receiving care. To adjust and refine psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintain several provisional hypotheses.

To deliver highly specialist interventions and develop specialised programmes of psychological care.

To undertake risk assessment 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 advise upon psychological treatment plans for intervention and/or management.

To harness and support the psychological skills of other team members by providing supervision, opportunities for co-working, and multi-disciplinary forums.

To develop and maintain appropriate frameworks for the provision of supervision and consultancy to support the psychological and psychosocial intervention work of colleagues.

Person specification

Education/Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Post-graduate doctorate in clinical or counselling psychology, (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996), and current registration as a Practitioner Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council
• Willingness to undertake appropriate supervisory courses.

Desirable criteria

• Specialist training and accreditation (where available) in evidence-based therapies as agreed with the service (e.g., CAT or CBT).
• Completion of relevant modules of Accredited Doctoral Clinical Psychology Course: Introduction to Supervision Courses (approx. 30 hours) or equivalent, or professional equivalent e.g. CAT supervisor training.

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of complex and often co-occurring mental health problems.
• Experience of specialist assessment and treatment of people experiencing mental and physical ill-health
• Experience of developing psychological formulations to inform care for service users and care teams i.e., systemic formulation of complex needs
• Experience of providing clinical leadership to teams providing complex care (i.e. MDT based care).
• Experience of working with people with complex mental health problems, including problems associated with complex relational and emotional needs, distressing psychosis and severe depression, anxiety, co-morbid substance misuse, suicidal thoughts and trauma.
• Experience of leading audit and service evaluation
• Experience of providing clinical supervision to psychologists, psychological therapists or other core health professions and non-therapists.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working within a MHLT
• Research experience within an area relevant to role.
• Demonstrable experience of the application of psychological therapy in diverse cultural and ethnic contexts.
• Experience of working across different age groups.
• Demonstrable experience of managing demand for psychological services via a stepped-care framework

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Knowledge and understanding of the national and regional legislation, guidance and policy directives in relation to the development and delivery of psychological therapies within acute services and specifically MHL services.
• Evidence of post-qualification CPD as recommended and/or accredited by the BPS, or other professional body.
• Up to date knowledge of the needs of people with complex mental health problems and interaction with physical health problems.
• Familiarity with computing technology, including keyboard skills, and use of word-processing, e-mail, and internet software

Skills & Abilities

Essential criteria

• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Ability to work with service users, carers and families to engage with their needs and provide them with appropriate psychological support and intervention.
• Skills in providing and communicating psychological consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written, enabling the communication of complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information with clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues within the NHS and other agencies.
• Ability to plan and prioritise work, operate a waiting list, meet short deadlines and an unpredictable work pattern that requires regular revision of plans.
• Ability to sit in constrained position for client therapy, testing and for computer work.
• Ability to work at a high level of professional autonomy and responsibility, in a collaborative multi-disciplinary environment and also as a lone worker in circumstances where there may be exposure to conflict.

Desirable criteria

• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials, suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings
• Ability to demonstrate an area of special interest/skill in therapeutic intervention

Other Requirements

Essential criteria

• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour
• Ability to work towards goals agreed at Individual Appraisal with the Service Manager
• Ability to work to professional guidelines.

Important Information about working for GMMH:

All positions within the Trust are subject to satisfactory pre-employment checks, for further information on the checks required please visit the NHS Employers website www.nhsemployers.org

The Trust mandates all post holders who require a DBS for their role to subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £16 per year and maintain registration throughout your employment with GMMH.

Applicants are encouraged to apply for posts at Greater Manchester Mental Health who have direct experience of mental health, learning disability or drug and alcohol services either as a service user or a carer.

The Trust is also committed to safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults and requires all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We are aspiring to ensure our workforce is representative of the diverse communities that we serve, and we are strongly committed to removing barriers to employment for candidates from under-represented groups, for example BAME, Disabled and LGBT+ communities. If you would like to have an informal chat about the recruitment process for this role or would value some additional support, we'd love to hear from you.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) when writing job applications

A candidate may utilise the help of AI when writing job application. The assessment of an application is made on its entirety and most times AI-generated content does not fully grasp the context and requirements of the job one applies for thus producing inaccurate and misleading information, especially in the supporting statement section of an application that can lack real life examples of one's achievements, success and challenges.

We have added a disclaimer to our application process advising that the use of AI is monitored. GMMH reserves the right to follow up with a candidate at the interview on specific responses and those examples used in the supporting statement to explore it further.

Sponsorship

We are proud to be an approved sponsor for the Skilled Worker visa. Applications from individuals who require sponsorship will be considered alongside all other applications. Please be aware that not all roles are eligible for sponsorship. You can review the list of eligible roles and salary requirements on the UK Government's website - click here.

If you are offered a role with us and you require sponsorship, we will check your eligibility in line with the information on the above website. Your offer of employment could be withdrawn if the role is not eligible for sponsorship, and you are not otherwise able to evidence your right to work in the UK.

The Home Office introduces new changes from 09/04/2025 that impact the health and care sector, you may wish to familiarise with it here.

Do you have experience outside the NHS?

We want to attract and retain people with diverse skills and experience, to deliver inclusive healthcare services to our communities.

We will consider relevant experience outside the NHS to calculate your salary on appointment. Please contact our Recruitment Team for more information.

**Please note, this vacancy may be closed at any time if sufficient applications have been received**

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

• Job Description & Person Specification (PDF, 296.4KB)
• Important Candidate information (PDF, 2.5MB)