Principle Clinical Psychologist

Lancashire Care Foundation Trust; Lancaster; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading UK healthcare provider is seeking a Band 8b Clinical Psychologist to work with young people in Lancaster and Morecambe. The role involves providing high-quality psychological services and supervising a multidisciplinary team. Successful candidates will need a Doctoral level training in clinical psychology and relevant experience. The organization values flexibility in working patterns to promote work-life balance.

Benefits

Flexible working options

In-house training opportunities

Supportive team environment

Qualifications

• Minimum of 4 years experience as a qualified clinical psychologist.
• Experience working with a variety of client groups throughout the lifespan.
• Demonstrable experience in conducting complex audits and research.

Responsibilities

• Ensure high-quality specialist clinical psychology services.
• Supervise and support psychological assessment and therapy by other team members.
• Utilize research skills for policy and service development.

Skills

Complex methods of psychological assessment

Effective communication

Research methodology

Clinical responsibility

Education

Doctoral level training in clinical psychology

Job description

Our Vision is to provide the best mental health, learning disability, autism and community based services for the populations we serve.

As an integrated mental health, learning disability and community Trust, Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust provides a range of services including:
• Primary and secondary mental health care for children and adults including specialist inpatient child and adolescent mental health provision, perinatal mental health, forensic services including low and medium secure care.
• Specialist community support for children and adults with learning disabilities and autism, including intensive support.
• Community physical health and well-being services for children and adults.

The Trust was first established in 2002 and employs approximately 7,000 staff who provide care from more than 400 sites. The organisation offers opportunities for medics, mental health and general nurses, allied health professionals, psychology, administration and clerical staff, apprentices and volunteers.

Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust supports flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as; term time, part time, compressed hours, home/remote working, and flexi-time.

For more information visit our website via Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS FT.

Please note that further communication from Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCft) will normally be to the email address given on the application form. You should also ensure that email addresses and telephone numbers are provided for your referees, to enable LSCft to contact them.

Job overview

Are you looking for an opportunity to work with children and young people, and their families?

Do you have a passion and enthusiasm for supporting young people to improve their mental health and reach their potential?

Are you thinking about where in the country you would like to work?
Referral rates to CAMHS are rising. There is much work to be done and we need clinicians who want to make a positive difference to the lives of young people.

We are looking to recruit a Band 8b Clinical Psychologist to Lancaster and Morecambe CAMHS / Children's Psychological Service (CPS). We are a part of Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust.

We are lucky to have a number of community resources for children and adolescents in this area, with dedicated professionals and volunteers working to offer young people a chance to thrive. Direct mental health work with young people is only one part of a bigger picture of their recovery. We work with young people, and their parents / carers, to ensure that they are linked in to other opportunities within their local community.

Main duties of the job

We are looking for an enthusiastic, dynamic and creative Principle Clinical Psychologist to join our established Psychological Therapies Team (including Clinical Psychologists, CBT Therapist, Family Therapist and Trainee/Assistant Psychologists) which works within the highly experienced, supportive and forward thinking CAMHS/CPS MDT, inclusive of Psychiatrists, CAMHS Practitioners, ADHD Practitioners, Primary Mental Health Workers and, Children and Young Wellbeing Practitioners.

There will be opportunities to further develop areas of clinical interest relevant to the employed role. Our team have benefitted from a range of development opportunities including in-house training and specific therapies training and supervision (e.g., DDP, EMDR, Schema Therapy).

There will be ample opportunity for support, supervision alongside experienced colleagues both locally and across the region.

For an informal discussion please contact Dr Claire Nicholls, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, on 01524 550650.

To be responsible for ensuring the systematic provision of a high-quality specialist clinical psychology service to clients within a designated area of responsibility.

To supervise and support psychological assessment and therapy provided by other psychologists and other clinical members of the team who provide psychologically based care and treatment.

Working for our organisation

To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the designated area of responsibility.

To utilise research skills, audit, policy and service development and research and implement policy changes within the areas served by the team/service in agreement with the relevant manager.

The north of Lancashire is a beautiful, and often overlooked, part of the country. There is easy access to the countryside and the coast; the Forest of Bowland and the Lake District are both within easy driving distance. You could leave the office and be at the shore of Lake Windermere in less than an hour. Lancaster is also really well connected by train to Glasgow, Manchester and London.

Despite Lancaster being a small city it is home to two universities; two theatres; an active music scene, a large city park; many restaurants and several independent coffee shops. The people of Lancashire are friendly and welcoming. There is a clinical psychology doctoral training course based at Lancaster University which means we benefit from having local trainee clinical psychologists on placement with us.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust provides a range of services including secondary mental health care across this area. Specialist provision comprises inpatient child and adolescent mental health services, perinatal mental health and forensic services including low and medium secure care.

The Trust also provides a range of physical health and well-being services in the community alongside a range of partners in the Lancashire, Cumbria and Sefton area.

Lancashire & South Cumbria Foundation Trust encourages flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as; term time, part time, compressed hours, flexi-time and career breaks. We encourage applicants to state clearly on their application forms this request and discuss these options at interview.

For more information please visit our website via Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS FT

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology or equivalent for those who trained prior to 1996, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS.

Desirable criteria

• Pre-qualification training / qualifications in research methodology and/or other fields of applied psychology.

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• 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.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
• Knowledge of legislation, and its implications in relation to the client group and mental health.

Experience

Essential criteria

• A minimum of 4 years experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity 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 client's psychological care and treatment both as a professionally qualified care co-ordinator and also within the context of multidisciplinary care plan. Experience of teaching, training and supervising.
• Demonstrable experience of conducting complex audit/research and service evaluation.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Please be aware, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) when submitting an application is monitored and if you have used AI to generate an application, you are required to declare this on your application form. Failure to do so, may result in your application being withdrawn.

We want to highlight the importance of integrity and authenticity in your application form, and ask you to use AI tools responsibly to ensure your application form is a true reflection of your skills, knowledge and experiences.

We are looking for you to demonstrate personal experiences of how you meet the essential criteria and as an NHS Employer, we value authenticity and honesty.

Please consider that AI-generated content may lack specificity and fail to address key criteria outlined in the job description providing impersonal and inaccurate information.

Please ensure that you read the person specification attached below as your application will be measured against this document.

Applications from job share partners are welcome and other forms of flexible working will be considered for all posts.

For all posts which require a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check please be aware of the Disclosure and Barring Service Code of Practice, a copy of which is available by logging on to the DBS website. If the post is subject to DBS disclosure, a charge will be made to the successful candidate(s).

You are advised to consider applying for LSCft vacancies as soon as possible as in some instances vacancies are closed as soon as a sufficient number of applications have been received. If you are not invited to interview within three weeks of the closing date then please assume that on this occasion you have been unsuccessful, as it is not possible to contact all unsuccessful candidates.

LSCft is committed to celebrating difference as an asset and we know that recruiting talent from diverse backgrounds helps to create a more flexible, creative and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from people regardless of age, disability (particularly those with experience of accessing or caring for someone who has accessed mental health or learning disability services), ethnicity, gender, religion or belief or sexual orientation. Our goal is for the Trust to be truly representative of the communities we serve so we are particularly keen to receive applications from people in under-represented groups. If there is anything you'd like to discuss in relation to your application then please ask.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Application numbers

This vacancy may close early if it receives a high number of applications. You are therefore advised to consider applying for this vacancy as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
Documents to download

• JDPS (PDF, 592.3KB)
• NHS Staff Benefits - 2023 (PDF, 556.9KB)
• We Do More at LSCFT (PDF, 654.2KB)