Senior Clinical Psychologist

Sheffield Health Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust; Sheffield; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent healthcare organization in Sheffield is seeking a diligent Senior Clinical Psychologist/Psychological Therapist to join a dedicated multidisciplinary team. The role involves providing evidence-based psychological treatments, clinical supervision, and contributions to team dynamics for young individuals at risk of psychosis. Candidates should possess a relevant clinical psychology qualification and experience in diverse settings. This position offers opportunities for professional development and collaboration in a supportive environment.

Qualifications

• Significant experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of service users across various settings.
• Experience of working with young people.
• Experience of delivering supervision.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy to service users.
• Maintain high standards of clinical record keeping.
• Contribute to best practice in psychology/psychological therapy.

Skills

Psychological intervention

High level communication skills

Education

Professional qualification in clinical psychology or psychotherapy

Formal training in supervision

Job description

Go back Sheffield Health Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

Senior Clinical Psychologist / Psychological Therapist

The closing date is 23 February 2026

We are seeking to recruit a highly motivated, enthusiastic and compassionate Senior Clinical Psychologist / Psychological Therapist as an integral part of the small and specialist multidisciplinary At Risk Mental State (ARMS) team, which works with young people (16-35) who may be at risk of developing first episode psychosis.

This is an excellent opportunity to develop your leadership skills and experience in a skilled, specialist team. You will be joining a friendly multidisciplinary team in which there are great prospects for developing a good range of skills in a supportive and dynamic environment. The job will involve leading and supporting experienced MDT colleagues to offer a service to users and their families; joint & indirect work with colleagues (team formulation, staff training, support and consultation around psychological issues); and appropriate audit, evaluation & research activities as required. You will be required to deliver evidence-based psychological approaches to our service users, as identified in the National guidelines, including cognitive behavioural therapy and family interventions.

Main duties of the job

To provide a qualified specialist clinical psychology/psychological therapy service to service users of the At Risk Mental State (ARMS) pathway. To provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy at the same time as offering highly specialised advice and consultation on service users\' psychological care to psychologist/therapist colleagues, non-psychologist colleagues and to other, non-professional carers. In common with all Clinical Psychologists/Psychological Therapists, to receive regular clinical supervision in accordance with good practice.

Please see Job Description document for more information.

About us

We are passionate about providing the very best care to the people we support, and we're looking for amazing people who share this passion to join us.

What is it that makes our Trust such a special place to work? Well, it's all about the people. Our staff, service users, carers and families all come from such diverse backgrounds and all have expertise and stories to share.

It's important that you feel supported in your role, that the people who you work with are as passionate as you are and that your health and wellbeing is taken care of

If you're interested in developing your career, you'll have access to a range of training and education opportunities, including apprenticeships, work experience and placements, as well as the chance to get involved in research.

We are very proud of the difference we make to people's lives each and every day and if that's something that you'd like to be part of we'd love to have you with us.

Job responsibilities

To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the post-holders professional and service manager(s).

To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychology/psychological therapy across the service, by continuing to develop the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal, and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology/psychological therapy and related disciplines.

To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the HCPC, BABCP, UKCP, BPS and Trust policies and procedures.

To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues.

To attend and contribute to relevant professional meetings.

To develop and maintain good working relationships with colleagues within Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust and in the statutory and voluntary services with the aim of promoting high standards of care and clinical practice

To maintain professional registration as a Clinical Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council OR to maintain accreditation as a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist with the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) OR to maintain professional registration as a Psychotherapist with the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP).

Clinical

To provide highly specialist psychological assessments of service users referred to the At Risk Mental State (ARMS) Team, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and psychometric tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with service users, family members and others involved in the persons care.

To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a service users problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the persons problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across a full range of care settings.

To work on a daily basis in face to face individual, family and/or in group therapy settings with service users presenting with highly complex and distressing psychological problems, including low mood, paranoia, unusual anomalous experiences, anxiety, trauma, emotional sensitivity / regulation and bipolar experiences, and social exclusion.

To be responsible for implementing a range of specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of different provisional hypotheses.

To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of service users whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.

To provide highly specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals (both psychologists/therapists and non-psychologists) contributing directly to service users formulation, diagnosis and treatment plans.

To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all users of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the service user group.

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual service users and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.

To coordinate, where appropriate, complex intervention plans, taking responsibility for initiating planning and reviews of plans, and including service users, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.

To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of service users under their care and to monitor progress during both the course of uni- and multi-disciplinary care.

Teaching, Training and Supervision

To receive regular clinical professional supervision in accordance with professional practice (HCPC / BACP / UKCP), BPS and Trust guidelines

To provide supervision to other MDT staffs psychological work, as appropriate.

To provide supervision for trainee clinical psychologists OR trainee psychotherapists, as appropriate.

To provide clinical supervision to less experienced qualified clinical psychologists/therapists, counsellors, assistant(s), or other professionals.

To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical psychology/CBT therapy/ psychotherapy, as appropriate

To provide highly specialised advice, consultation and training to staff (including both psychologists/therapists and non-psychologists) working with the service user group across a range of agencies and settings.

Management, Recruitment, Policy, Organisational and Service Development

To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of aspects of the teams clinical practice through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.

To contribute to the governance of psychological practice within their own team by developing and collecting relevant measures of outcome and audit and to provide consultation to other health and social care professionals to enable them to develop their own effective systems of governance.

To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.

To manage any waiting lists within the team and participate as a senior clinician in the allocation of cases taking into account skill mix and caseload. To respond to referrals, making autonomous professional and clinical judgements based upon complex information, prioritising accordingly and contributing to multidisciplinary decision making.

To implement the policies and propose changes to working practices/procedures concerning professional good practice for the provision of psychological services as applicable to The At Risk Mental State (ARMS) Team, in order to ensure the highest standards of service to the service user group.

To propose policy or service changes which impact beyond own area of activity by participation in Trust working parties and other local development groups.

Research and Service Evaluation

To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

To undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research.

To supervise DClinPsy research projects, as appropriate.

To initiate, undertake and supervise project management, service evaluations and complex audits with colleagues within the service to help develop service provision.

To disseminate research findings through publications and conference presentations.

To provide psychological care to service users and their carers in the least restrictive and least stigmatising environment in the At Risk Mental State (ARMS) Team, including home visits, community locations, GP surgeries, community mental health bases, and in-patient settings. The job role will involve working alone in situations where there may be some risk of verbal or physical aggression from service users, carers, and the general public.

This is not an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities and in discussion with the manager the postholder may be required to undertake other duties which fall within the banding of the post. The job description will be reviewed regularly in the light of changing service requirements and any such changes will be discussed with the post holder.

The post holder should be comfortable in the use of computer technology, have basic keyboard skills and have the ability to use email.

All employees are expected to observe the following:

Person Specification

Knowledge

• Psychological Therapies
• Knowledge of theory and practice of specific psychological work with complex issues
• Research methods

Skills

• Psychological intervention, assessment, consultation
• High level communication skills

Qualifications

• Professional qualification in clinical psychology or psychotherapy
• Formal training in supervision
• Additional short courses

Experience

• oSignificant experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of service users across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings
• oExperience of working with young people
• Experience of delivering supervision
• oAbility to be part of the wider Leadership team, be a positive role model, and be able to lead on difficult discussions.
• oExperience of the application of clinical psychology/psychological therapy in different cultural contexts.

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.

Sheffield Health Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust