Principal Psychologist or Principal Psychological Practitioner

North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust; Kendal; On-site; GBP 64,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional healthcare trust in Kendal seeks a Principal Psychologist to work within the Department of Physical Health and Rehabilitation. The role involves exercising full clinical responsibility and working with diverse client groups in various care settings. Ideal candidates will possess advanced qualifications in clinical psychology and experience in leading psychological care. Competitive salary and professional development opportunities are offered.

Benefits

27-day holiday scheme rising to 33 after 10 years

NHS Discounts

Salary Sacrifice schemes including lease cars and Cycle to Work

Free confidential counselling service

Qualifications

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology.
• Experience in outpatient, community, in-patient and residential care settings.
• Training in leadership and management skills.

Responsibilities

• Work within the Department of Physical Health and Rehabilitation.
• Exercise full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care.
• Support the existing Consultant in South Cumbria.

Skills

Clinical psychology

Experience with diverse client groups

Interpersonal skills

Teaching and supervisory experience

Leadership and management skills

Education

Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology

Job description

Go back North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust

Principal Psychologist or Principal Psychological Practitioner

The closing date is 21 November 2025

The post holder will work within the Department of Physical Health and Rehabilitation psychology, within this service we have a number of pathways of care including:

• Locality posts for Long term conditions, working with the Wellbeing service
• Persistent symptoms service for patients with Persistent pain, CFS
• Neuropsychology and stroke rehabilitation
• Familiar faces for patients who present frequently within the health care system

This post will work into the South Cumbria pathways, which requires a highly skilled Psychological practitioner and will give an ideal opportunity to work within the other pathways; we encourage joint working.

This post will support the existing Consultant in South Cumbria, in the delivery of this service.

Main duties of the job

Please see the full job description and person specification for a comprehensive list of roles and responsibilities.

About us

At NCIC, we have an ambition to deliver outstanding healthcare services to the population of North Cumbria. The Trust is committed to creating a centre of excellence in providing rural and remote healthcare and provides a wide range of community and acute services throughout our county.

Our 5 key principles demonstrate our belief in the delivery of 'safe, high quality care every time':

• Being a clinically led organisation
• Quality and safety at the heart of our Trust
• A positive patient experience every time
• A great place to work
• Managing our money well

As an organisation we are serious about supporting a diverse workforce that reflects our local community and are very much focused on being an inclusive and compassionate place to work.

Across the North East and Cumbria we are working together to deliver our ambition to be the greenest region in England by 2030. All staff are expected to support sustainability.

Job responsibilities

Please see attached job description and person specification for further information regarding the role and the essential and desirable criteria required to be met by applicants.

Please note, due to changes implemented by the Government to the UK immigration policy, individuals who require a Health and Care Visa or a Skilled Worker Visa may no longer be eligible for sponsorship where the UKVI salary threshold is not met or if the occupation is not included in the updated Immigration Salary List (ISL). Applicants must check their eligibility to be employed in any role they are interested in applying for, prior to completing an application for employment. Any applicants who do not meet the eligibility criteria will not be progressed. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.

If you are applying under the Disability Confident Scheme or Armed Forces Covenant and you meet all the essential criteria for a post, you will be guaranteed an interview.

Relocation assistance may be available for successful applicants moving to the region for certain posts. Please see our Policy for eligible vacancies.

Unrestricted DBS check will be conducted for all candidates, and commit to cover the cost via salary deduction at the following rates.

• Standard Check: £21.50 + Administration cost of £5.90 = £27.40. Deducted from salary over a 4 month period or a one-off payment.
• Enhanced Check: £49.50 + Administration cost of £5.90 = £55.40. Deducted from salary over a 4 month period or a one-off payment.

NCIC can offer successful future employees the following benefits:

• 27-day holiday scheme rising to 33 after 10 years
• NHS Discounts*
• Salary Sacrifice schemes including lease cars and Cycle to Work*
• Vivup is a free, confidential counselling and information service to assist with personal or work-related problems
• *Subject to eligibility

Please ensure that you document evidence of meeting all the essential criteria in the supporting information.

If sufficient response is received this post could be closed earlier than the specified closing date, please apply as soon as possible to ensure that your application is considered.

Candidates who have been successfully shortlisted for interview will be asked via an email notification to log on to their Trac account to select an interview time. This will usually be within 2 weeks of the closing date.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS.
• Additional post graduate training in relevant skills, eg EMDR or other relevant therapeutic models OR Post graduate Diploma in CBT with additional training in:
  • EMDR
  • Other clinical models eg ACT
  • Neuropsychology

Knowledge & Experience

• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings including outpatient, community, in-patient and residential care settings including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment, within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan.
• Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
• Experience of working with patient groups
• Experience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision.
• Experience of Service development and clinical audit.
• Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group, mental health and mental capacity.
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists.
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office functions and a willingness to further develop these as required.
• Experience of assessing and treating clients across the full range of care settings including in-patient
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of highly specialised psychological therapies and assessment methodologies.
• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Ability to integrate highly complex clinical information into a coherent formulation, and to apply this in treatment, management and rehabilitation
• Training in leadership and management skills.
• The ability to plan and organise in a manner consistent with a Service remit and the requirement of highly autonomous working
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical, and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS, including the ability to communicate effectively with people with severe communicative disabilities
• Demonstrable ability to exercise full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment
• Ability to articulate and interpret clearly the role of the profession of clinical psychology based upon a good understanding of the framework of government and national professional policy.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Ability to identify provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and challenging behaviours.
• 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.
• Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to 'hold' the stress of others.
• Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings.

Other requirements

• Ability to travel independently of public transport.
• Willingness to work flexibly across all service locations in Cumbria as appropriate and required by the service.
• An awareness of own strengths and limitations.
• A sense of humour.

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 Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust

£64,455 to £74,896 a year per annum pro rata