Principal Clinical Psychologist for Intensive Care

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

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in Birmingham is seeking a Principal Clinical Psychologist for Intensive Care. The successful candidate will provide psychological leadership within the paediatric intensive care unit and support staff wellbeing. The role requires a Clinical Psychology Doctorate, HCPC status, and experience with children. Join a dynamic team committed to high-quality care and professional development in a supportive environment.

Qualifications

• Proven experience of managing staff and providing clinical supervision.
• Experience in assessing and managing risk with service users.
• Ability to make decisions in pressured situations.

Responsibilities

• Lead psychological assessment and intervention for paediatric critical care.
• Support the wellbeing of patients and staff in critical care settings.
• Doctors and leadership support within the Health in Mind service.

Skills

Expert psychological assessment

Experience with children/adolescents

Multidisciplinary team collaboration

Effective communication

Leadership in challenging situations

Education

Clinical Psychology Doctorate

HCPC Practitioner Psychologist Status

Tools

Microsoft Office Suite

NHS IT systems

Job description

Go back Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust

Principal Clinical Psychologist for Intensive Care

The closing date is 11 August 2025

We are excited to be recruiting for a highly specialist clinical psychologist to join our amazing Health in Mind service, providing psychological leadership to the paediatric intensive care units as well as the KIDSNTS transport service. We are an enthusiastic and dynamic team of Psychologists who value our professional identity and career progression opportunities that develop the 4 pillars of key skills namely our therapeutic expertise, leadership, education of others and service development within our Health in Mind team, across the medical services we link with and the organisation.

You will work in a dynamic, fast paced, emotive environment with complex and challenging demands working alongside very friendly and supportive psychology colleagues in Health in Mind. You will contribute to the provision of psychological assessment and intervention to children, young people and families accessing support through the Health in Mind service, specifically those receiving care in paediatric critical care. You will also lead the development of psychologically informed environments on PICU, supporting the wellbeing and clinical care of the staff teams. You will also support the management team, leading strategy and development of the Health in Mind service and leading development, innovation and feedback within one of the therapeutic streams.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will provide a highly specialised Clinical Psychology service to Paediatric Critical Care (PCC), Kids Intensive Care and Decision Support/Newborn Transport Service (KIDSNTS). This will involve the provision of universal, targeted and specialist psychological interventions to support the wellbeing of patients, families, staff and the wider teams.

The purpose of the role is to lead this provision, advise on and facilitate psychological service development and interpret policies, facilitating the integration of psychological practice within the wider linked MDTs, including working alongside established systems within Health in Mind and the wider Trust to:

provide psychological assessment and intervention to babies, children, young people and families accessing care in PCC

ensure that the PCC and KIDSNTS staff teams can access psychological support, both for their own wellbeing and for the psychological aspects of patient care.

About us

Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust is the first of its type in the UK. Our Trust was formed in February 2017 to drive forward our commitment to provide the highest quality, world-class physical and mental health care for our women, children and families. Uniting our hospitals means more seamless care; more investment to make greater advances in our specialist treatment and world-leading neo-natal and fetal work. Importantly, it also gives us a greater voice in shaping the future of family-centred care.

Birmingham Children's Hospital is a UK leading specialist paediatric centre with an international reputation in several areas.

Birmingham Women's Hospital is one of two dedicated women's hospitals in the UK, with the busiest single site maternity unit, delivering more than 8,200 babies a year offering a full range of gynaecological, maternity and neonatal care.

Forward Thinking Birmingham (FTB) Mental Health Services are a unique, innovative community and inpatient mental health partnership. Alongside partners FTB offers care pathways of mental health assessment and treatment for young people aged 0-25 years old.

Our Trust is committed to creating the best place to work. We believe in promoting and enhancing inclusion, diversity and equality and encourage applications from all areas of the community, who meet the criteria for the role, regardless of age, gender identity, disability, race, religion or sexual orientation.

Job responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification to view the full details for this opportunity at Birmingham Womens and Childrens NHS Foundation Trust.

When completing your application, please ensure you have evidenced how you meet the job description and person specification to include transferable experience, qualifications, skills along with professional registration details (if applicable).

Occasionally we receive a large number of applications for our roles and when that happens we sometimes bring the closing date forward, so please apply promptly to avoid disappointment.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Clinical Psychology Doctorate
• HCPC Practitioner Psychologist Status
• Leadership or management training
• Post qualification training leading to highly developed specialist knowledge of issues relevant to core and specialist clinical populations

Experience

• Experience of working with children/adolescents
• Experience of providing expert psychological assessment and treatment for clients across the full range of mental health settings to include outpatient, community, day services and in-patient settings. To include experience of assessing and managing risk with service users, involving judgements of highly complex facts or situations requiring analysis, interpretation and decision making.
• Experience of managing staff and leadership, especially in emotional or conflictual situations.
• Experience of providing clinical supervision and consultation with psychologists and other professional groups.
• Experience of teaching and training others, using a variety of complex multi media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional an academic settings
• Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
• Knowledge of working inclusively with children, young people & their families
• Experience of working in an acute physical health setting
• Experience of working with staff to improve their wellbeing or support mental health needs

Professional

• Understanding of literature/guidelines
• Knowledge in developing trauma-informed psychological environment.
• Awareness of factors contributing to team ethos and wellbeing
• Able to prepare business cases and SOPS
• Confidence and experience of using Microsoft Systems (e.g. Outlook, Word, Powerpoint, etc), digital communication platforms (e.g. MS Teams), and common NHS IT systems (e.g. Electronic Patient Records, Electronic Staff Record)
• Use of IT in undertaking governance and datix reports as needed

Other requirements

• Demonstrate alignment with the values and beliefs of the Trust
• Demonstrate an understanding of the practices of equality and inclusion in the delivery of this role

Analytical and judgement skills

• Ability to make decisions in pressured situations
• Ability to assimilate a lot of information in a fast paced, highly emotive environment

Personal skills

• Experience of maintaining working relationships and a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical aggression.
• 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. Especially where there are barriers to understanding and in adverse circumstances.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Evidence of good rapport with colleagues
• Excellent organisational and time management skills, ability to plan and prioritize own and others workload.
• Ability to remain calm under pressure
• Flexibility in a fast paced, dynamic environment with complex and changing demands
• Good report writing skills

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.

Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust