Principal Clinical Psychologist

NHS; Poole; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional healthcare provider in Poole seeks a Principal Clinical Psychologist to lead crisis mental health services. This role involves providing direct clinical care and supervision within a multidisciplinary team. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in clinical psychology, a high level of expertise, and a commitment to developing trauma-informed care pathways. Competitive salary and flexible working arrangements offered.

Qualifications

• 5+ years as a qualified Clinical Psychologist in Mental Health.
• Experience with severe mental health problems including psychosis.
• Continuing professional development as recommended by BPS and HCPC.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist psychological formulation, assessment, and direct clinical care.
• Lead and supervise teams in psychological approaches to care.
• Contribute to service development and quality improvement across pathways.

Skills

Clinical psychometrics

Psychological assessment

Consultation skills

Research design and methodology

Supervision of psychologists

Education

Post-graduate doctoral level training in Clinical or Counselling Psychology

Tools

RiO (clinical system)

Job description

Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust

Principal Clinical Psychologist

The closing date is 29 Medi 2025

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a dynamic, forward thinking, highly skilled and experienced clinical psychologist to join our crisis mental health services. Working across the Home Treatment, Connection and Patient Flow teams, you will provide expertise in both direct clinical work and leadership/supervision of teams in psychological approaches to care.

This is a key clinical leadership role, working within multidisciplinary teams and responsible for continuing to drive and embed the significant work already undertaken in developing trauma informed psychological pathways and approaches to care through the CCC (Comprehend, Cope, Connect) model.

The post holder will be responsible for providing highly specialist advice and consultancy to individual staff, teams and patients. With direct responsibility for the provision of psychological services within the teams, including supervision of assistants and trainees. And have a key role to play in service development and quality improvement across the crisis and acute care pathways.

This role covers teams based at St Anns Hospital, Poole and Forston Clinic, Dorchester. All reasonable flexible working requests will be considered, but the post holder will be expected to work across both sites in line with service need.

Main duties of the job

The Home Treatment Teams provide short-term intensive community care to those in mental health crisis. They work alongside the Patient Flow team to ensure least restrictive, trauma informed care as an alternative to hospital admission wherever possible.

In this role you will:

• work as part of the MDT providing specialist psychological formulation, assessment and direct clinical care.
• provide supervision, reflective practice and consultation/advice to both teams, along with the Connection service (which provides 24/7 mental health crisis telephone support and very urgent face to face clinical assessments).
• contribute to quality improvement and service development, including research and development activities such as teaching.
• leading workstreams on psychological approaches to care, and specifically to continue to embed the CCC model within the teams
• line manage, supervise and support other psychologists, assistants and trainees.

About us

At Dorset HealthCare we're on a mission to empower people to make the most of their lives through our outstanding, joined-up healthcare services. We're a dynamic, forward-looking Trust, running 12 community hospitals, specialist inpatient facilities and a wide range of integrated community and mental health services for a population of almost 800,000 people. We do things differently here - it's one of the reasons the CQC rated us 'outstanding' in 2019. It's also why 95% of patients across our services say they have a good or very good experience of our services and 89% of staff feel they can really make a difference. Whether you're looking to work with us in one of our bustling market towns, vibrant urban locations, thriving seaside spots, or among the rolling hills of Dorset, there are lots of ways you can make a difference in our communities.Our 7,000-strong workforce is at the heart of what we do and our success is a testament to our brilliant people. We're all about building a workplace for the future, we believe in equal opportunities and we celebrate diversity. We're an inclusive workplace, where everyone is welcome, everyone can be authentic, and we are all encouraged to be the best version of ourselves. Working with us you'll be part of a strong team, challenge yourself, build a career, and teach us what we don't know. And you'll be working towards our vision to be better every day through excellence, compassion and expertise in all we do

Job responsibilities

Please read the job description and person specification carefully before making your application, in particular the requirements about professional registration, experience and qualifications in therapy modes.

When completing your application please ensure your supporting statement reflects the criteria set out in these documents by showing how your experience and skills apply to this post.

As part of our vision to have a skilled, diverse and caring workforce, Dorset HealthCare is working in partnership with The Princes Trust to support people getting into work, as part of this partnership, we are offering an employability service to support individuals between 16-30 years old with application writing, interview skills and other employment support. If you would like or know of anyone who would value this support please do contact [e-mail]

Employment in this post requires an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, which the Trust will cover the cost of. Applicants who subscribe to the DBS update service are able to present a valid DBS certificate instead of requiring a new check.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in Clinical or Counselling Psychology (or its equivalent for those who trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS,
• Qualification to include including specific models of psychopathology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.

Skills and experience

• Knowledge and skills in clinical psychometrics including the use and manipulation of specialist test materials and equipment and experience of psychological assessments for a range of disorders.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups requiring judgements involving highly complex information and consideration of a range of provisional hypotheses and options.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology.
• Assessed experience of working as a qualified Clinical Psychologist (1.0 wte) for a minimum of five years, including post qualification experience within Mental Health across the life span and in particular with people with severe and complex mental health problems including psychosis and personality disorder.
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological assessment, care and treatment, including within the context of a multi-disciplinary care plan.

IT

• Ability to use computer systems for clinical purposes, e.g. RiO, and ability to use complex multimedia material for presentations in public, professional and academic settings.

CPD and Supervision

• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS and HCPC
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision

Additional

• Demonstrable skills in written and spoken English, adequate to enable the post holder to carry out the role effectively.

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.

Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust