Principal Clinical Psychologist- Band 8B

Integrated Care System; Wakefield; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A community healthcare provider in Wakefield is looking for a Principal Clinical Psychologist to join their multidisciplinary team. The role involves leadership in clinical care, conducting assessments, and supporting psychological interventions for individuals with learning disabilities. Candidates should have extensive training in clinical psychology and experience in mental health care. This position offers an opportunity to contribute meaningfully to community mental health services.

Benefits

Continuous professional development

Comprehensive support for staff

Multidisciplinary team environment

Qualifications

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology, including mental health and psychometrics.
• Experience of working with complex mental health issues.
• Skills in psychological assessment and evidence-based interventions.

Responsibilities

• Provide leadership in the Clinical Psychology team.
• Conduct psychological assessments and develop therapy plans.
• Supervise clinical and assistant psychologists.

Skills

Specialist psychological assessment

Therapeutic interventions

Communication skills

Clinical leadership

Education

Doctoral level training in clinical psychology

Registration with HCPC

Job description

Go back South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust

Principal Clinical Psychologist- Band 8B

The closing date is 08 August 2025

Are you passionate aboutsupporting people with learning disabilities and committed to improving theirquality of life? Are you interested in being part of a thrivingmulti-disciplinary team within a well-established community service inWakefield?

We wish to appoint anenthusiastic and dynamic Principal Clinical Psychologist to join the team andsupport the Consultant Clinical Psychologist in providing clinical leadershipto the Community Psychology Team.

You will join an experiencedand committed specialist MDT based at Fieldhead Hospital, covering theWakefield region. The Community Psychology team works closely with LearningDisability Nurses, Psychiatry and Allied Health Professionals including Physiotherapy,Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Dietetics.

For further information or toarrange a visit, please contact Dr Lindy Newton ([e-mail] or on07918618819).

Main duties of the job

We are seeking an experiencedClinical Psychologist to provide leadership in the Clinical Psychology team,leading on specific pathway development. We support PWLD and ASC acrossWakefield community. We provide a diagnostic service for LD and ASC and contributeto MDT dementia assessments. We work therapeutically with the full range ofpsychological and emotional difficulties, provide advice and consultation, andsupport the development of psychological thinking within care homes throughformulation and staff training. Your role will include clinically supervisingother clinical and assistant psychologists and managing the communitypsychology referrals and waiting lists.

We are linked to theDoctoral Training Programme at the University of Leeds and offer regularplacements to Trainees, with opportunities for teaching and training on theprogramme and within the service. We are committed to supporting you to developyour skills and practice through supervision and CPD.

About us

Weare a specialist NHS Foundation Trust that provides community, mental healthand learning disability services for the people of Barnsley, Calderdale,Kirklees and Wakefield. We also provide low and medium secure services and arethe lead for the west Yorkshire secure provider collaborative.

Our mission isto help people reach their potential and live well in their communities, we do thisby providing high-quality care in the right place at the right time. We employstaff in both clinical and non-clinical services who work hard to make adifference to the lives of service users, families and carers.

We encourageand welcome applications from all protected characteristic groups, we valuediversity and want our workforce to be reflective of our communities.

Beinga foundation Trust means were accountable to ourmembers, who can have a say in how were run. Around 14,300 local people(including staff) are members of our Trust.

Joinus and you will be one of over 4,500 staff committed to supporting and improvingthe mental, physical and social needs of the thousands of people we meet andhelp each year.

Weare committedto safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people andvulnerable adults and expects all colleagues and volunteers to share thiscommitment.

We do reserve to right to close vacancy before the advertised closing date if necessary, so please apply as soon as possible.

Job responsibilities

Thepost holder will provide a high quality specialist clinical psychology serviceto clients as part of the multidisciplinary team within the service.

Thepost holder will provide psychological assessments and interventions to clientswithin the service

Thepost holder will provide psychological assessment and interventions in keepingwith evidence based practice working autonomously within the professionalguidelines and within the overall framework of the Trusts policies andprocedures.

Thepost holder will be involved with service development, research and audit inline with the service priorities

Thepost holder will be expected to supervise and support the psychologicalassessment and therapy provided by other psychologists and other clinicalmembers of the team who provide psychologically based care and treatment.

Thepost holder will work in collaboration with professionals, carers and serviceusers offering advice, consultation and supervision as appropriate.

Organisational Chart

KEY RESULTAREAS:

Clinical

1 The post holder will develop andmaintain therapeutic relationships with clients, including in group settings.This will include joint working with complex cases which require morespecialised levels of assessment and therapeutic skills.

2 The post holder is expected to provideautonomous, highly specialist assessments of clients referred to the servicebased upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of psychologicalof psychological data from a variety of sources including psychological andneuropsychological tests, self report measures, rating scales, direct andindirect structured observations andsemi structured interviews with clients, and, where appropariate, familymembers and others involved in the clients care.

3 The post holder will be expected tocommunicate with clients with a wide range of difficulties and otherpresentations, including clients with complex mental health difficulties andplan and organise broad range of complex activities.

4 The post holder will be expected toformulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and /ormanagement of a clients mental health problems including associatedchallenging behaviours, based on appropriate conceptual framework of theclients problem and employing methods of proven efficiency across the fullrange of care settings.

5 The post holder will be expected to makedecisions and clinical judgements involving a range of highly complex factorsin the context of inadequate or unavailable information, equivocal research/evidence or where expert opinion differs.

6 The post holder will be expected toexercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatmentand discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically basedcare plans.

7 The post holder is expected to act ascare co-ordinator where appropriate, ensuring the provision of a care packagefor the clients needs, co coordinating the work of others involved with care,arranging the clients reviews as required and communicating effectively withthe client, the family and all others involved in the care and to monitorprogress during the course of multidisciplinary interventions.

8 The post holder will have skills tocommunicate sensitive and complex information regarding personal psycho-socialproblems in an empathic and supportive way using the highest levels ofinterpersonal skills in situations which can be highly emotional and sometimesantagonistic.

9 The post holder will be expected to haveresponsibility and autonomy for the treatment and discharge of clients, whoseproblems are managed as a psychologically based care plan, ensuring appropriateassessment, formulation and interventions, communicating with the referralagent and others involved with the care on a regular basis.

10 The post holder will undertake riskassessments that will be used to inform/advise other professionals and carerswhere there are concerns in relation to mental health or risk taking behaviour.

11 The post holder will work with colleaguesfrom other professional backgrounds and agencies to enable them to incorporatespecialist psychological knowledge into their work.

12 The post holder will be expected toprovide a flexible approach to engaging service users who may have difficultiesengaging with the service by offering appointment in other, health centres, andhome where appropriate.

Teaching,Training, Consultation and Supervision

13 The post holder will provide timely,appropriate and concise information (written and verbal) including thecompilation of assessment and risk reports and summaries of therapeuticinterventions including psychological reports in line with the Trusts InformationGovernance protocols.

14 The post holder will be expected to planand manage their own time to meet expected workload across a number of complexactivities and within specified time limits.

15 The post holder may be required to engagein physical activity involving role play with clients in a therapeutic setting.

16The post holder will be exposed to highlyemotive information, distressing situations and a possible risk of challengingbehaviours.

Research,Audit and Evaluation

17 The post holder will be expected tocontribute to the Safeguarding Adults and Childrens Agenda.

18 The post holder will actively promoteuser/carer involvement in all aspects of care planning and delivery whilstrespecting the rights cultural needs, capabilities and wishes of the individualconcerned.

19 The post holder will be expected tosupport the Person Centred Planning Agenda.

20 The post holder will receive regularclinical professional and safeguarding supervision and will be responsible foraccessing this on a regular basis.

21 The post holder will be involved in thedelivery of teaching, training, consultation and supervision and providesupervision to other colleagues and professionals as appropriate.

22 The post holder will provide trainingplacements and participate in teaching for the relevant regional trainingprogramme. The post holder will assess the clinical competence of trainees andprovide formal feedback to the relevant training body.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology, including specifically mental health, clinical psychometrics and therapeutic interventions,
• Registration with the HCPC as a Clinical psychologist.
• Training in the supervision of doctoral level trainee psychologist.
• Post qualification training in a relevant area of specialised practice relevant to the post.

Experience

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of people across a range of care settings, which may include outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings.
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts
• Experience of carrying out assessment and diagnosis and management within a multidisciplinary team.
• Experience of working as a HCPC clinical psychologist.
• Experience of leading in an area of service development.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of complex mental health
• Evidence of continuing professional development in relation to the area of practice for this post.
• Experience of teaching, training and supervision.

Special Knowledge and Skills

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management.
• Skills in change management.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• 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.
• Skills to work with clients with a range of difficulties and to utilise therapeutic methods of proven efficiency.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
• Evidence of continuing professional development to meet HCPC requirements..
• Skills in risk assessment and management, needs assessment, care planning and case management.
• Knowledge and ability to apply relevant legislation and government policies in relation to the area of practice.
• Demonstrate leadership skills in relation to an area of practice.

Personal Attributes

• Ability to travel around the Trust as appropriate to the role

Physical Attributes

• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Commitment to service evaluation and consultation with service users.
• Willingness to be flexible and adaptable in accordance with changing service priorities.
• Commitment to challenging discrimination and improving accessibility to services

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.

South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust