Principal Clinical Psychologist

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust; Preston; On-site; GBP 51,000 - 61,000; Full time

Job summary

A health service provider in Preston is seeking a Band 8B Principal Clinical Psychologist. This role involves leading the clinical psychology service, supervising assessments and therapies, and utilizing research for service improvements. The ideal candidate will have doctoral-level training in clinical psychology and substantial experience at a senior level. The position emphasizes teamwork and support for mental health service users, aligning with community-focused care principles. Flexible working arrangements are encouraged to support work-life balance.

Benefits

Support for flexible working

Commitment to diversity and inclusion

Qualifications

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology or equivalent.
• Skills in using complex methods of psychological assessment and management.
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility in multidisciplinary settings.

Responsibilities

• Provide high-quality specialist clinical psychology service.
• Supervise and support psychological assessments and therapies.
• Utilise research skills for policy and service development.

Skills

Psychological assessment skills

Effective communication

Research methodology knowledge

Supervision of psychologists

Ability to cope with distressing situations

Education

Doctoral level training in clinical psychology

Job description

Overview

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust

Principal Clinical Psychologist

The closing date is 09 February 2026

An exciting opportunity for a Band 8B Clinical Psychologist has arisen to join the Central Home-Based Treatment Team and Central Mental Health Liaison Team. Home Based Treatment Team offer 24-hour support to service users, and their families/carers, who are suffering from mental health concerns that would otherwise require admission to an acute inpatient environment. There is a strong focus on preventative interventions, robust risk management and the recovery model to provide quality care in a community setting. MHLT provide Mental health assessments to service users who present to the Royal Preston Accident and Emergency Department and Chorley Urgent Centre. In addition MHLT provide assessment, care and treatment plans to patients who are receiving care on the medical wards. The team has a full MDT approach consisting of Mental Health Nurses, Doctors, Health Care Assistants and Trainee Advanced Clinical Practitioner. The Central Home-Based Treatment Team and Mental health Liaison team strive towards excellence and pride themselves as teams who are kind, compassionate and flexible. The Post holder will be supported by the local Professional Lead for Clinical Psychology.

Main duties of the job

To be responsible for ensuring the systematic provision of a high quality specialist clinical psychology service to clients and staff within the HBTT and IRS areas of responsibility.

To supervise and support psychological assessment and therapy provided by other psychologists and other clinical members of the team who provide psychologically based care, treatment and assessment.

To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the designated areas of responsibility.

To utilise research skills, audit, policy and service development and research and implement policy changes within the areas served by the team/service in agreement with the relevant manager.

About us

LSCFT values diversity and inclusion, recognising that talent from varied backgrounds creates a flexible, creative, and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from all, regardless of age, disability (including those with experience of accessing or caring for someone who has accessed mental health or learning disability services), ethnicity, gender, religion, belief, or sexual orientation. Our aim is to reflect the communities we serve, so we particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups. If you\'d like to discuss your application, please ask. We also welcome individuals with lived experience relevant to the role or service area, as your insight brings authenticity to our services. LSCFT support flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as term time, part time, compressed hours and flexi-time

Job responsibilities

For further information about the role, please see the attached recruitment pack which includes a detailed job description and person specification, or visit our website via Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS FT.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology or equivalent for those who trained prior to 1996, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS

Knowledge

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
• Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists
• Evidence continuing profession development as recommended by the British Psychological Society

Experience

• Substantial assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist at senior level
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for client's psychological care and treatment both as a professionally qualified care co-ordinator and also within the context of multidisciplinary care plan
• Demonstrable experience of conducting complex audit/research and service evaluation

Skills

• Ability to sustain intense levels of concentration responding and participating as required
• Ability to cope and deal with highly distressing emotional circumstances
• Ability to cope with unpleasant working conditions

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.

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust