Principal Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Sheffield-Teaching-Hospitals-Nhs-Foundation-Trust; Sheffield; Hybrid; GBP 67,000 - 77,000; Full time

Job summary

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Sheffield is seeking a Principal Clinical/Counselling Psychologist (NHS AfC: Band 8b) for a permanent post.

The role offers a salary of £66,582–£77,368 per annum pro rata for part-time staff, with flexible, hybrid working options across acute services and spinal injuries psychology.

You will join the Department of Psychological Services, delivering high-level care and supervising staff within inpatient and other service areas.

Qualifications

• HCPC registered clinical or counselling psychologist with doctoral level training.
• Experience at a highly specialist level and leadership in psychology services.
• Ability to provide supervision and contribute to professional development.

Responsibilities

• Work within the Inpatient & Acute team and spinal injuries psychology service.
• Provide supervision, training, and leadership to the wider staff group.

Skills

Clinical supervision

Interdisciplinary collaboration

Strategic service development

Education

Doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology

HCPC registration

Eligible for Practitioner Full Membership of the BPS Divisions

Post-doctoral training in specialised areas

Job description

Employer Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Town Sheffield Salary £66,582 - £77,368 per annum pro rata for part time staff Salary period Yearly Closing 12/10/2026 23:59 Interview date 22/10/2026

Principal Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

NHS AfC: Band 8b

We are committed to helping our staff balance their work and home lives and ensure they feel supported, valued and appreciated so whilst you care for our patients and clients, we’ll take care of you. We offer many different ways of helping staff including career development opportunities, flexible working, good annual leave and pension schemes , health and wellbeing packages and financial support systems. Joining the Trust also allows you access to a number of saving options via our salary sacrifice schemes and a wide range of discount opportunities with retailers and service providers.

Job overview

We are delighted to advertise this permanent post at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust (STHFT). In our latest staff survey, 95% of staff report feeling valued and cared for and that their role makes a difference.

We aim to attract a committed, diverse, and talented workforce who are passionate about delivering psychological care within an acute hospital setting and adapting approaches to meet the needs of our services and service users. In return, we offer a supportive, dynamic work setting where you can link with colleagues and develop your career.

We welcome applications from HCPC registered Clinical or Counselling Psychologists with skills and experience relevant to this context; support will be given for anyone returning to the workplace.

As a department, we recognise that diversity of workforce extends our skills, experiences, and ideas, thereby adding value and creativity to our services. The department has an active Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) group and welcome applications from candidates from all backgrounds. We particularly encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and the LGBTQ+ community.

Please see the attachment “Department overview” for more details about working with us.

Main duties of the job

This post will work into the Inpatient & Acute team within Department of Psychological Services (DPS), with specified time into the Spinal Injuries psychology service and other service areas.

Within this diverse role there will be opportunities for multidisciplinary team working, providing supervision and training along with guidance to the wider staff group. Working with patients and team members, there is potential to have a far-reaching positive impact both directly and indirectly, making a huge difference to outcomes and quality of life for patients with spinal cord injuries.

Working for our organisation

You will be working for an organisation which values and respects all of its staff and the community it serves. The Trust is a leader in the NHS and research sectors and provides excellent benefits for its staff. This includes commitments to professional development but also many policies to support employees in balancing their personal and professional lives.

As a member of the department, you would be part of a substantial, experienced, and enthusiastic team; benefitting from inhouse professional development including clinical supervision, special interest groups and opportunities to engage in our wider projects. The department is committed to supporting our staff and have a well-supported Staff Engagement and Wellbeing Group. The Trust has a flexible working policy, allowing for a range of flexible / hybrid working options as appropriate to the service needs.

As a dynamic department, we have seen considerable growth in recent years and have a portfolio of new service developments. Continuing professional development is strongly supported, as appropriate to the individual’s and organisation’s requirements.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please view the attached Job Description and Person Specification documents for full details regarding this post.

Person specification

Education and Qualifications

• Doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996), as accredited by the HCPC, including models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology, as accredited by the British Psychological Society.
• Professional registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).
• Eligible for Practitioner Full Membership of the BPS Divisions of Clinical or Counselling Psychology
• Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice

Experience

• Experience of working as a qualified clinical or counselling psychologist at a highly specialist level.
• Experience of working and communicating with a wide variety of patient groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across a range of care settings including inpatient, community, outpatient, residential, primary care
• Experience in the management of services, including the management of psychology staff groups.
• Experience in leading on the promotion and development of psychological approaches within health care settings.
• Experience of working clinically within health and medical settings.
• Experience of maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing psychological and physical health problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients’ psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care co-ordinator and also within the context of a multi-disciplinary care plan
• Experience of teaching, training, and professional and clinical supervision.
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care
• Experience in project management.

Skills and Knowledge

• Doctoral level knowledge of clinical/counselling psychology, including highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, and two or more distinct psychological therapies.
• Highly developed 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 both in writing and orally complex, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to patients, their families, carers and a wide range of lay and professional persons.
• Ability to exercise judgement when presented with highly complex facts or situations, which require the analysis, interpretation , and comparison of a range of options.
• 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 or counselling psychology .
• 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.
• Knowledge of legislation & policy in relation to DPS’s patient groups and psychological, neurological and physical health/mental health.
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by HCPC and BPS.
• Skills in working with diversity
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g., personality disorder, chronic or terminal illness, complex psychological or physical problems, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).

Personal Qualities

• 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.
• Positive attitude, sensitivity and commitment to working with relevant patient groups and their significant others.
• Experience in working with interpreters.
• Ability to think creatively and flexibly about psychology as applied to designated services
• Excellent organisational skills, able to work with appropriate autonomy and able to recognise when escalation to the DPS senior management team is required.
• Ability to develop and use complex multi -media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings.

Please note that in order to comply with the UK Government’s rules on Skilled Worker sponsorship, any applicants who do not meet the eligibility requirements or concessions on salary thresholds under the Skilled Worker visa will not be eligible to receive sponsorship from the Trust. Please keep this in mind when submitting your application. Further details on these concessions, and who qualifies for them, can be found here .

The Trust is committed to its obligations in accordance with the Equality Act 2010, and we positively encourage applications from all sections of the community.

For more information about our organisation and the opportunities available, please visit our website and follow us on Twitter and Facebook

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.