Specialist Senior Clinical Psychologist

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust; Sefton; On-site; GBP 52,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust seeks a Specialist Senior Clinical Psychologist to join the North West Spinal Injuries Centre. You will work with spinal injury inpatients, contribute to outreach and outpatients, and collaborate with spinal MDT colleagues to enhance psychological care.

You will be part of a network of psychologists across MWL, trained in EMDR with opportunities to train further as pathways are established for spinal injury service users.

Qualifications

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology with accredited therapies.
• Professional registration as Practitioner Psychologist with HCPC.
• Pre-qualification training in research methodology and staff training.

Responsibilities

• Provide a highly specialist clinical psychology service to inpatients within the NWSIC.
• Lead on development and delivery of the paediatric psychology service within the NSIC.
• Deliver specialist psychological assessment and treatment to adult inpatients and groups.

Skills

Clinical psychology in health settings

Multidisciplinary teamwork

Communication skills

Education

Post-graduate doctoral training in clinical psychology

HCPC registration as Practitioner Psychologist

Research methodology training

Job description

Go back Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Specialist Senior Clinical Psychologist

The closing date is 22 November 2026

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a newly forming psychology team developed for the North West Spinal Injuries Centre. You will work clinically with spinal injuries patients in line with national spinal standards, onto the inpatient ward, have opportunity to support outreach work, outpatients and work with spinal MDT colleagues to increase the psychological mindedness of the whole service. You will be part of a broader network of multi-specialist Psychologists across MWL who pride themselves on being high quality and dynamic.

Southport is a lovely place to live and work. A seaside town with thriving businesses and a great welcoming and friendly culture.

Our psychology workforce are all trained in EMDR and the successful candidate will be offered the opportunity to be trained in EMDR too once these pathways are established for our spinal injury service users.

Interviews will take place w/c 30th November, 2026

The JD & PS are currently under AfC review and are submit to change

Main duties of the job

• To provide a highly specialist clinical psychology service to inpatients within the NWSIC, across the acute and rehabilitation wards with some outreach where clinically indicated
• To lead on the ongoing development and delivery of a highly specialist clinical psychology service to the paediatric and young person's SCI rehabilitation service and supervise junior colleagues as needed
• To deliver highly specialist psychological assessment and treatment to adult inpatients at the NSIC, on an individual and group basi
• To provide advice and consultation regarding inpatients psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues
• To provide consultation to the NSIC outreach service regarding admission of inpatients with complex psychological / psychiatric needs
• To contribute to the strategic planning of clinical psychology services within the NSIC, including leading upon the ongoing development and delivery of the paediatric psychology service within the NSIC, with the aim of maintain high levels of psychosocial care for patients
• To represent Clinical Psychology in aspects of the NWSIC's wider organisational development and as part of MWL Psychology.
• To contribute to the planning, development and delivery of the Department's teaching and training commitments

About us

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our Services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

o Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018

o Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)

o National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

Job responsibilities

Please see the attached job description and person specification for full details.

The applicant should be an established Clinical Psychologist with experience of working with clients with long term physical health conditions, ideally in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Applicants should have the ability to work closely with medical and surgical colleagues and other disciplines, and have experience of multi-disciplinary team work and consultation to non-psychology staff.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Post-graduate doctoral level training (or equivalent) in clinical psychology, including specific models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS.
• Professional registration as Practitioner Psychologist with HCPC.
• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.

Knowledge

• Doctoral level knowledge of clinical psychology including highly developed specialist knowledge of clinical psychology in physical health, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, particularly the literature pertaining to two or more distinct psychological therapies for adults referred to Clinical Health Psychology
• Skills in the use of highly complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• A high level of ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical, and clinically sensitive information to adults, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology
• Knowledge of safeguarding vulnerable adults and other key legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and supervision regarding work with adults and their families/carers.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS.
• Ability to plan and prioritise own clinical workload and research programmes.
• Advanced word processing skills. Advanced use of presentation software such as MS PowerPoint. Use of internet for searching documents and research. Use of email.
• Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in Spinal trauma
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of highly specialised psychological therapies and assessment methodologies
• Experience of conducting holistic and comprehensive assessments for the purpose of producing psychological reports.
• Completion of supervisor training to enable the supervision of practicing Clinical Psychologists/ trainees
• Skills in the use of statistical packages such as SPSS. Use of MS EXCEL or similar spreadsheets to analyse data numerically and graphically.

Skills

• Assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist at a specialist level.
• Experience of working with adults with long term physical health problems in a hospital setting.
• Experience of working with adults with complex psychological presentations
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified autonomous practitioner and also within the context of a multidisciplinary treatment plan
• Experience of delivering teaching, training and/or offering professional and clinical supervision to other professionals working with adults who have psychological difficulties
• Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
• Experience of assessing and treating adults across the full range of care settings, particularly inpatient and outpatient.
• Experience of working in pain management and complex pain.
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of working with clinical risk.

Other

• Ability to sit in constrained positions when working with clients
• Ability to sustain intense levels of concentration, responding and participating as required.
• Ability to self-reflect and use clinical supervision appropriately

Our Values

• We are Kind
• We are Open
• We are Inclusive

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.

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust