Principal Psychologist

NHS; Stoke-on-Trent; On-site; GBP 64,000 - 75,000; Part time

Job summary

A regional healthcare provider is hiring a Principal Psychologist who will provide high-quality psychological services in critical care. The candidate needs a Doctorate in clinical psychology and experience in critical care settings. Responsibilities include psychological assessments, team leadership, and delivering training. This is a permanent, part-time position with a salary ranging from £64,455 to £74,896 per annum, pro rata.

Benefits

Wellness opportunities

Flexible working

Qualifications

• Experience in critical care and acute medical settings.
• Supervision training is required.
• Ability to work with a variety of client groups across different care settings.

Responsibilities

• Provide psychological assessments and interventions for patients.
• Engage in service improvement and clinical leadership.
• Deliver psychological support and training to junior colleagues.

Skills

Psychological assessment

Clinical leadership

Direct psychological support

Research skills

Education

Doctorate in clinical psychology

HCPC registration

Post-doctoral training

Job description

Go back North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare Trust

Principal Psychologist

The closing date is 18 September 2025

Principal Psychologist 8b 0.4 WTE (15 hours) Substantive

We are pleased to be able to advertise a permanent Principal Practitioner post in our Adult Critical Care Unit (ACCU) based at the UHNM. The ACCU has undergone significant expansion of its MDT rehabilitation across the care pathway, to include In-patients, ward follow up, and an out-patient clinic. The expansion includes the provision of psychology for patients, staff wellbeing and support for families/carers.

This has led to the development of our specialist Critical Care Psychology Team. This includes a Consultant Psychologist, Principal Psychologists, Senior Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Psychologists.

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Principal Psychologist, to support the innovation, ongoing development & delivery of psychological services across the care pathway.

The post holder will be responsible, with the support of the strategic and clinical lead and Consultant Psychologist within critical care (NSCHT), for providing highly skilled psychology service in the specialist areas of critical care at UHNM. This will include:

Follow up on wards at UHNM

Main duties of the job

The post holder will join a highly specialist and motivated multi-disciplinary rehabilitation team at the UHNM Adult Critical Care Unit (ACCU), in partnership with North Staffordshire Combined Mental Health Trust (NSCHCT).

An emphasis with be on the clinical screening, triaging, assessment and treatment of patients at high risk of psychological distress and difficulties as a consequence of the incident that brought them into ITU services and their experiences whilst receiving these services. This includes patients who may be experiencing mental health difficulties for the first time and those with a pre-existing history of such difficulties. There will also be a need to work with patients' families experiencing PTSD, depression and anxiety as a consequence of their experiences. The post holder will also provide support, consultation and advice to staff.

The post holder will have expertise in working psychologically within physical health care settings, as well as within a wider physical health psychological context. There will be a leadership component, with experience required in clinical assessment, interventions and signposting, as well as managing caseloads, risk assessment/management and individual/group psychology programmes, within a timely and professional manner.

About us

As a Trust we remain bold and ambitious with plans for both service and system collaborative transformation over the coming years to improve the health and wellbeing of our local people through high quality care.

We pride ourselves on ensuring our team has their wellbeing put first and as such provide a range of wellness opportunities including flexible working.

We are committed to the Greener NHS national ambition to becoming the world\'s first \'carbon net zero\' national health system by 2045 (Greener NHS (england.nhs.uk). As part of this, sustainability is embedded in our strategy as one of our four key enablers. In order to deliver on this commitment, we recognise that we need a workforce that is as passionate as we are about achieving these goals, for the benefit of our service users, workforce, local communities and the planet alike. For 2024/2025, we have launched our "Proud to be Green" engagement campaign which is aligned to the targets set out in our Green Plan. As a Trust, you can be assured that we will commit to supporting you in working towards our net zero ambitions, set out in our Green Plan, through our sustainability programme".

The Trust is committed to ensuring that a diverse workforce is representative and inclusive at all levels. We would very much welcome applications from all under-represented groups including women, people with disabilities, people from global majority backgrounds, and those from the lesbian, gay, bi and trans communities.

Job responsibilities

The post holder will be responsible, with the support of the strategic and clinical lead and Consultant Psychologist within critical care and health psychology (NSCHCT), for providing highly skilled psychology service in the specialist areas of critical care at UHNM. This will include services in the following areas:

• Follow up on the wards at UHNM
• Out-patient clinic for community follow-up
• Family/ carer support

The key duties of the role will be:

To provide expertise in the highly specialist clinical area of intensive care and to deliver high quality psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for patients and their families, within the critical care services of UHNM

To contribute to the design, planning, delivery & evaluation of a psychological service for patients on the ACCU pathway, from Critical Care in-patients, ward follow-up at UHNM, and a prospective out-patients clinic.

To contribute to the delivery of a 7 day psychological service for critical care patients

To deliver direct/ indirect psychological support for the family/ carers of ACCU patients.

To hold clinical and managerial responsibility for junior psychologists in the delivery of highly specialist psychological services. To provide clinical leadership to psychology staff to provide psychological interventions for complex and contentious co-morbid physical and mental health conditions in ITU which may include challenging behaviours and possible risk of physical aggression

To provide clinical supervision and training to junior colleagues within the designated psychology service and to staff external to the team

To undertake formal research as a major part of the job and act as field supervisor to doctorate trainees

To engage in continual service improvement within own area

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Has doctorate in clinical psychology
• Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice
• HCPC registration
• Supervision training

Experience

• Working as a qualified applied psychologist within the designated service including a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and a range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings.
• Worked previously in Critical Care, inpatient acute medical setting, inpatient hospital setting.

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.

North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare Trust

£64,455 to £74,896 a yearper annum pro rata