Senior Practitioner Psychologist

Transformation Unit; Liverpool; Hybrid; GBP 58,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Senior Practitioner Psychologist (Band 8a) to provide highly specialist assessment and therapy for patients approaching the end of life, and to support families.

You will also offer expert psychological consultancy to colleagues, contribute to developing the palliative care psychology service, and supervise junior staff across Woodlands Hospice and the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

Qualifications

• Doctoral level knowledge of clinical psychology assessment and therapy.
• Advanced knowledge of clinical health psychology.
• Experience in psycho-oncology is desirable.
• Post-qualification research experience in physical health settings.

Responsibilities

• Provide highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy for patients approaching end of life and their families.
• Offer specialist psychological consultation to colleagues contributing to patient treatment.
• Develop psychology services at Woodlands Hospice and liaise with stakeholders to meet patient needs.
• Supervise the clinical work of junior qualified staff.

Skills

Psychology expertise

Teaching & training

Multidisciplinary collaboration

Communication skills

Leadership

Education

Doctoral level training in Clinical/Health Psychology

HCPC registration

Post-doctoral training in specialised areas

Job description

Employer Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Royal Liverpool University Hospital Town Liverpool Salary £57,528 - £64,750 per annum, pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 06/11/2026 23:59

Senior Practitioner Psychologist

Band 8a

Job overview

Toprovideahighqualityandhighlyspecialisedpsychologyservicefor patientsandtheirfamilieswhobeingsupportedbyWoodlandsHospice and the specialist palliative care ward at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

Main duties of the job

To provide highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy for patients approaching the end of their lives, and their families.

To provide expertise and specialist psychological consultation to colleagues contributing to patients’ treatment and managers developing palliative care services.

Working for our organisation

Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust comprises Aintree University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital & Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

We are part of NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, formed on 1 Nov 2024 from the coming together of LUHFT and Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust. The Group was born from a shared aim to improve the care we provide our patients.

UHLG is one of the largest employers in the region, with over 16,800 colleagues dedicated to caring for our communities - from birth and beyond.

For the 630,000 people across Merseyside, we are their local NHS. We provide general and emergency hospital care, alongside highly specialised regional services for more than two million people in the North West.

Aintree University Hospital is the single receiving site for adult major trauma patients in Cheshire and Merseyside and hosts a number of regional services including an award-winning stroke facility. Broadgreen Hospital is home to elective surgical, diagnostic and treatment services, together with specialist patient rehabilitation. Liverpool Women’s Hospital specialises in the health of women and babies, delivering over 7,200 babies in the UK’s largest single site maternity hospital each year. The Royal Liverpool University Hospital is the largest hospital in the country to provide inpatients with 100% single bedrooms and focuses on complex planned care and specialist services.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To provide highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy for patients under the care of Woodlands Hospice or the specialist palliative care ward at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital
• T oprovideexpertiseandspecialistpsychologicaladvice,guidanceand consultationto other professionals contributing directly to patients’ treatment
• . To take specific responsibility for developing the psychology service at Woodlands Hospice,includingliaisonwithrelevantstake-holdersandestablishing effectiveworkingarrangementsfortheminorter to meettheneedsof patients.
• To supervise directly the clinical work of relevant junior qualified and pre-qualification staff.

Person specification

Knowledge

• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology
• Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge of clinical health psychology, consistent with doctoral level professional training and further post qualification study, training and/or supervised experience.
• Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of highly specialised psychological therapies.
• Specialist clinical knowledge of clinical health psychology, consistent with previous experience in this setting
• Ability to plan, organise and provide teaching and training on relevant psychological topics, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and DoH policy and implementation guidelines, and of the implications of such documentation for clinical practice and professional management in relation to health care in general and cancer services in particular.
• Evidence of continuing professional development consistent with expected standards of the British Psychological Society and relevant subdivisions (e.g. Division of Clinical Psychology).
• Familiarity with the ethical and professional standards expected of Clinical Psychologists as laid down in the collated BPS 'Code of Ethics and Conduct' (2009).
• Awareness and thorough understanding of the political, social and economic policy framework within which health and mental health services are delivered and an ability to articulate and interpret clearly the role of the professions of clinical, health and counselling psychology within this context.
• Post-qualification experience of research in physical health setting.
• Publication in peer-reviewed clinical or service-related journals.
• Experience of working in a clinical research environment
• Specialist knowledge of psycho-oncology

Qualifications

• Satisfactory completion of postgraduate doctoral level training in Clinical, Counselling or Health Psychology (or its equivalent for those trained before1996) as accredited by the BPS.
• Eligibility for entry onto the British Psychological Society Register of Chartered Psychologists.
• Registered with HCPC as a Practitioner Psychologist
• Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.
• Specialist training or demonstrable expertise in one or more areas of research methodology.

Experience

• Post-qualification experience of working as a practitioner psychologist.
• Experience of working as a qualified psychologist in a physical health setting.
• Working with a wide variety of client groups, across the adult life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across a range of care settings including outpatient and in-patient settings.
• Maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems.
• Exercising full clinical responsibility for clients’ psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care co-ordinator and also within the context of a multi-disciplinary care plan
• Teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision.
• Representing the profession in local policy or planning forums
• Experience in cancer services.
• Experience in service development and/or innovation.
• Membership of national professional or interprofessional groups
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of research in physical health settings.

Skills

• Skills in the use of highly complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management commensurate with doctoral level training, including specialist clinical interviewing, behavioural observation, complex psychometric testing and specialist neuropsychological testing.
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills (written and verbal) including the ability empathically, sensitively and effectively to communicate clinical and condition-related information to patients, their families, carers and professional colleagues (within and outside the NHS) that is extremely complicated, technical or sensitive and potentially distressing to the recipient or that is extremely contentious or challenging.
• When communicating with patients, carers and colleagues, has the high level interpersonal skills necessary to obtain and convey highly complex, sensitive or contentious information in emotionally charged and extremely emotive settings, in a manner that addresses and overcomes psychological resistance, hostility, antagonism, and problems of motivation and engagement, as well as barriers to understanding arising from cognitive, cultural or linguistic factors
• Ability to show respect for patients and practitioners, and to build and sustain effective working relationships.
• A commitment to the integration of research and clinical services including the evaluation of services for both multi-professional and uni-professional audit, and a wish to continue to develop expertise in the service area.
• Resourcefulness and ability to work independently at a high level and as a member of a team and to deliver team and organisational objectives.
• Adaptable and able to work flexibly when required (particularly in the light of changing service priorities).
• Capacity for tolerating frustration, change and high levels of demand with an ability to work effectively under pressure.
• Demonstrable leadership in relation to psychology and other professions.
• Computing skills: data processing, wordprocessing, literature-searching consistent with doctoral training and the need for dataanalysis to support audit and research.
• Excellent verbal and written communication
• Evidence of management skills

Other

• Willingness to travel between sites as required.

Posts advertised to ‘internal staff’ are open to employees of hospitals within University Hospitals of Liverpool Group and you should confirm your employment within your application form.

Note: Under current Home Office Immigration Rules we are currently unable to offer right to work visa sponsorship for Band 2 and 3 roles with a salary of less than £25,000 pa as they do not meet the UK Visas & Immigration criteria.

The Trust is committed to promoting a healthy work-life balance and achieve fair, equitable and consistent practice. We welcome flexible working requests and will consider a variety of flexible working arrangements from day one of your employment. Not all roles are suitable for every flexible working opportunity all of the time. Flexible working options may include reduced hours, compressed hours, fixed shifts, time back in lieu and home working.

The Trust is committed to promoting equality and diversity; we value the contribution of individual talent, skills, knowledge and experience and aim for a workforce demography representative of the local community. We encourage applicants from the following groups that are currently under-represented in our workforce black, Asian and minority ethnic, lesbian, gay, bisexual and Transgender (LGBTQ+), disabled, male and age 16-24.

Trust policy requires that the cost of submitting & processing the successful applicant/s DBS application be recovered via salary deduction following start in post. The amount of £25.70 (standard disclosure) or £46.70 (enhanced disclosure) will be deducted from salary, in manageable monthly instalments for up to 3 months following commencement of employment. Bank posts require upfront payment.

From April 2017, Skilled visa applicants and their adult dependant(s) will be required to provide a criminal record certificate from each country they have lived in consecutively for 12 months or more in the past ten years.

Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.

This organisation has a zero-tolerance approach to the abuse of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All staff must ensure they adhere to the organisations safeguarding children and adults’ policy and comply with the Local Safeguarding Children and Adult Board procedures.

Staff should be mindful of their responsibility to safeguard children and adults in any activity performed on behalf of the organisation in line with the requirements of statutory guidance and legislation.

All employees (and volunteers)are expected maintain their safeguarding knowledge and skills by completing mandatory safeguarding training which includes understanding and recognising the signs of abuse and neglect and taking appropriate action.

As an organisation, we have adopted the Merseyside Domestic abuse workplace scheme which supports our staff who are experiencing Domestic Abuse /any forms of sexual violence.

If you have any personal requirements that will enable you to participate in our recruitment process please contact a member of the Recruitment Services by phone on 0151 706 4666 at the earliest opportunity to ensure that measures can be put in place to enable your application for this post.

Our statement on modern slavery

We have zero tolerance of slavery and human trafficking and are committed to maintaining and improving systems, processes and policies to avoid complicity in human rights violation and to prevent slavery and human trafficking in our supply chain.

The Trust policies, procedures, governance and legal arrangements are robust, ensuring that proper checks and due diligence are applied in employment procedures to ensure compliance with this legislation. We also conform to the NHS employment check standards within our workforce recruitment and selection practices. This strategic approach incorporates analysis of the Trust’s supply chains and its partners to assess risk exposure and management on modern slavery.

Please note: new entrants to the NHS will commence on the first pay point of the relevant band.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

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.