Principal Practitioner Psychologist - Pain

Greater Manchester Mental Health; Manchester; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent mental health care provider in Manchester is seeking a Principal Practitioner Psychologist specializing in pain management. This role offers the opportunity to influence the delivery of high-quality services, provide clinical supervision, and engage in service development within a supportive team environment. Applicants should possess a relevant doctoral degree and substantial experience in the field.

Benefits

27 days annual leave plus bank holidays

Excellent pension

Cycle to work scheme

Wellbeing programme

Salary sacrifice car scheme

Qualifications

• Experience in pain management and working with multidisciplinary teams is essential.
• Registered psychologist with significant experience helping adults with physical health problems.
• Knowledge of psychological therapies for chronic illness is necessary.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist assessment and intervention for chronic pain management.
• Work collaboratively with a team of medical professionals.
• Support the development of pain services and contribute to audits and research projects.

Skills

Experience with chronic pain

Group-based CBT interventions

Clinical supervision

Complex methods of psychological assessment

Multi-disciplinary team engagement

Education

Doctoral Degree in Clinical, Health or Counselling Psychology

Registered with Health & Care Professions Council as Practitioner Psychologist

Job description

Job overview

Band 8B Principal Practitioner Psychologist – Pain

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced practitioner psychologist to work in partnership with Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) to contribute at a senior level (alongside another 8B colleague) to the ongoing delivery of high quality, psychologically informed pain management. The role includes a particular focus on offering senior support and oversight to the development of the pain services including contributing to Pain Management Programmes and providing management / clinical supervision to other practitioner psychologists.

You will be joining a well-developed group of practitioner psychologists working within physical health psychological services. The post holder will be based at Wythenshawe Hospital but provide up to 1 day a week input into a community pain team in Trafford. You would be supported by the Head of Physical Health Psychological Services for GMMH and have access to peer supervision from an experienced practitioner psychologist already in post.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will have experience of and enthusiasm for working within the chronic pain specialism and will provide a service of specialist assessment, consultation and intervention, working with a team of multidisciplinary staff. There are excellent opportunities within the service to become involved with service developments and with audit and research projects. The service has close links with Lancaster and Liverpool Doctorate Training Programmes and GMMH is the Host Trust for the Manchester Doctorate Programme.

There is a principal practitioner psychologist already in post and the successful candidate will benefit significantly from working alongside them as part of their induction and ongoing development.

Working for our organisation

Greater Manchester Mental Health (GMMH) Foundation Trust employs over 7000 members of staff, who deliver services from more than 122 locations.

We provide inpatient and community-based mental health care for people living in Bolton, the city of Manchester, Salford, Trafford and the borough of Wigan, and a wide range of specialist mental health and substance misuse services across Greater Manchester, the northwest of England and beyond.

Greater Manchester is one of the world's most innovative, original and exciting places to live and work. From the beauty of the surrounding countryside to the heart of the vibrant inner city with great shopping, entertainment and dining options.

Wherever you go you will experience a great northern welcome with people famed for their warmth, humour and generosity.

Our people enjoy their work, have opportunities to learn and develop their skills and are encouraged to generate new ideas that improve care for our service users.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see attached job description and person specification.

Staff benefits

• Pay Enhancements
• 27 days annual leave plus bank holidays rising to 29 after 5 years and 33 days after 10 years
• Excellent pension
• Cycle to work scheme
• Salary sacrifice car scheme
• Wellbeing programme
• fuelGenie Fuel Cards (for applicable roles)

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• British Psychological Society Accredited Doctoral Degree in Clinical, Health or Counselling Psychology.
• Registered with The Health & Care Professions Council as a ‘Practitioner Psychologist’.

Desirable criteria

• Training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological relevance ( staff training, research methodology, and / or other fields of applied psychology)
• Training in management skills

Experience

Essential criteria

• Considerable experience of working as a practitioner psychologist in relevant settings and services ( Pain Management).
• Experience of group based CBT interventions
• Considerable experience in assessment and therapeutic work with adults with mental health / psychological needs in the setting of physical health problems
• Experience of representing practitioner psychology services in multidisciplinary settings.
• Experience of providing supervision (professional / clinical), teaching and / or training.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of applying legislation and national guidance in relation to the physical health specialism
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the life span and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings including outpatient, community, in-patient.

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical / counselling / health psychology
• Evidence of CPD as recommended by HCPC, BPS & KSF
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of highly specialised psychological therapies and assessment methodologies.

Desirable criteria

• Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific groups ( those with chronic illness / traumatic medical histories).

Skills

Essential criteria

• Highly developed skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
• Ability to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team and to liaise effectively with other professionals.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professionals and non-professional groups.
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists

Other

Essential criteria

• Ability to identify, and employ, as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.

The Trust mandates all post holders who require a DBS for their role to subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £16 per year and maintain registration throughout your employment with GMMH.

Applicants are encouraged to apply for posts at Greater Manchester Mental Health who have direct experience of mental health, learning disability or drug and alcohol services either as a service user or a carer.

The Trust is also committed to safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults and requires all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We are aspiring to ensure our workforce is representative of the diverse communities that we serve, and we are strongly committed to removing barriers to employment for candidates from under-represented groups, for example BAME, Disabled and LGBT+ communities. If you would like to have an informal chat about the recruitment process for this role or would value some additional support, we’d love to hear from you.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) when writing job applications

A candidate may utilise the help of AI when writing job application. The assessment of an application is made on its entirety and most times AI-generated content does not fully grasp the context and requirements of the job one applies for thus producing inaccurate and misleading information, especially in the supporting statement section of an application that can lack real life examples of one’s achievements, success and challenges.

We have added a disclaimer to our application process advising that the use of AI is monitored. GMMH reserves the right to follow up with a candidate at the interview on specific responses and those examples used in the supporting statement to explore it further.

Sponsorship

We are proud to be an approved sponsor for the Skilled Worker visa. Applications from individuals who require sponsorship will be considered alongside all other applications. Please be aware that not all roles are eligible for sponsorship. You can review the list of eligible roles and salary requirements on the UK Government’s website – click.

If you are offered a role with us and you require sponsorship, we will check your eligibility in line with the information on the above website. Your offer of employment could be withdrawn if the role is not eligible for sponsorship, and you are not otherwise able to evidence your right to work in the UK.

The Home Office introduces new changes from 22 / 07 / 2025 that impact the health and care sector, you may wish to familiarise with it .

Do you have experience outside the NHS?

We want to attract and retain people with diverse skills and experience, to deliver inclusive healthcare services to our communities.

We will consider relevant experience outside the NHS to calculate your salary on appointment.