Principal Practitioner Psychologist

NHS; Ashton-under-Lyne; On-site; GBP 67,000 - 77,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous annual leave

Involvement in improvement and inrese

Health and wellbeing activities

Staff discounts across retail, leisure

Job summary

Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust is advertising a permanent 0.9WTE Principal Practitioner Psychologist (Clinical, Counselling, Forensic) to join Walkerwood PICU at Tameside General Hospital in Ashton-under-Lyne. This role provides strategic psychological leadership within a 10-bed PICU for men aged 18 and over, delivering specialised assessment and therapy.

The post requires doctoral-level training in clinical psychology and offers a comprehensive pathway within a supportive MDT, including

Qualifications

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical/counselling/forensic

Responsibilities

• To provide clinical leadership and direction in the continual development and provision of excellence in applied psychology for the PICU.
• To provide a high quality clinical psychology service to adults presenting with complex mental health problems.
• To provide highly specialised psychological assessment and therapy while also offering advice and consultation on service users’ psychological care to other colleagues and different professional groups.
• To work as part of the wider MDT, bringing a psychological perspective and understanding to presenting distress. This will include to formulation driven care, risk assessments and formulations and contributions within team meetings.
• To support inpatient colleagues through the provision of supervision, reflective practice and post-incident reflective spaces where appropriate.
• To contribute to audit, policy/service development, and research. To propose and implement policy changes within the areas served.
• To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the Trust’s policies and procedures.
• To provide clinical supervision to individuals and groups of staff working across the inpatient services, including psychology staff.

Skills

Clinical leadership

Clinical psychology service

Assessment and therapy

Risk assessment

Formulation driven care

Supervision

Audit and research

Autonomous practice

Education

Doctoral-level training in clinical psychology/clinical/counselling/forensic

Job description

Main area Inpatient - Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) Grade NHS AfC: Band 8b Contract Permanent Hours

• Part time
• Flexible working
• Compressed hours

33.75 hours per week Job ref 311-T760-26

Site Tameside General Hospital Town Ashton-under-Lyne Salary £66,582 - £77,368 per annum, pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 18/11/2026 23:59

If you are Kind, Fair, Ingenious and Determined then we want you to come and join our#PennineCarePeople

We are excited to advertise a permanent 0.9WTE Principal Practitioner Psychologist post (Clinical, Counselling, Forensic) to work in Walkerwood Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), based at Tameside General Hospital.

We are looking for a highly skilled and compassionate Practitioner Psychologist who is passionate about providing high-quality psychological care within our PICU and working with people experiencing significant levels of distress and complexity.

Walkerwood is a 10-bedded PICU providing specialist assessment, care and treatment to men aged 18 years and over who are experiencing a psychiatric crisis and often present with a variety of complex mental health needs and heightened levels of risk .

Walkerwood is a friendly, dynamic multidisciplinary team committed to delivering the highest standards of care. The team works in a trauma-informed way and utilises the RAID model of care to support recovery, engagement and therapeutic relationships. Our aim is to provide care in the least restrictive way possible whilst maintaining safety and promoting positive outcomes for service users.

The successful applicant will join an Acute Care Pathway Psychology Team with a strong network of colleagues around them, including supervision from a Consultant Clinical Psychologist.

Main duties of the job

As outlined in the job description, the main duties include:

• To provide clinical leadership and direction in the continual development and provision of excellence in applied psychology for the PICU.
• To provide a high quality clinical psychology service to adults presenting with complex mental health problems.
• To provide highly specialised psychological assessment and therapy while also offering advice and consultation on service users’ psychological care to other colleagues and different professional groups.
• To work as part of the wider MDT, bringing a psychological perspective and understanding to presenting distress. This will include to formulation driven care, risk assessments and formulations and contributions within team meetings.
• To support inpatient colleagues through the provision of supervision, reflective practice and post-incident reflective spaces where appropriate.
• To contribute to audit, policy/service development, and research. To propose and implement policy changes within the areas served.
• To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the Trust’s policies and procedures.
• To provide clinical supervision to individuals and groups of staff working across the inpatient services, including psychology staff.

Working for our organisation

Our acute pathway provides an evidence-based, high quality service across adult acute wards, PICUs, Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Teams and Mental Health Liaison Teams covering half of Greater Manchester. The Trustwide acute psychology team meets regularly for team meetings, CPD and facilitated reflective group and has leadership from a Clinical Lead.

We are passionate about staff well-being and compassionate leadership. Our staff survey results support this. In the latest national NHS Staff Survey (2024) Pennine Care was ranked as the best mental health and learning disability trust in the North.

Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the top of our agenda. We know a diverse, inclusive and engaged culture is vital; that everyone's value should be recognised and respected. We actively encourage applications from individuals of diverse backgrounds to help us grow, innovate, and improve.

We support staff to work flexibly and recognise and respect the roles our colleagues hold outside of working hours. This focus helps us to retain staff and ensure people are happy in their place of work.

If you come and work for us we offer a range of benefits and opportunities, including:

• Generous annual leave entitlement for Agenda for Change staff.
• Involvement in improvement and research activities
• Health and Wellbeing activities and access to an excellent staff wellbeing service
• Access to staff discounts across retail, leisure and travel

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For a more detailed overview of the roles job description and main responsibilities, please see the attached job description and personal specification.

Education/ Qualifications

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical/counselling/forensic