Job summary
- Main area
- Clinical Psychology
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8b
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Part time
- Flexible working
- Home or remote working
- Job ref
- 382-CS48-26
- Employer
- Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Whitgate Health Centre
- Town
- Blackpool
- Salary
- £66,582 - £77,368 pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 22/04/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Principle Clinical Psychologist
NHS AfC: Band 8b
Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is situated on the west coast of Lancashire, with services covering the local authority areas of Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre. The Trust is part of the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS) supporting a population of around 1.6 million people.
We have three main hospitals providing acute services to around 330,000 local residents. The organisation also provides specialist tertiary care for cardiac and haematology services, delivers community health services to over 445,000 residents including those in North Lancashire and hosts the National Artificial Eye Service across England. Plus, we provide urgent and emergency care services to an estimated 18 million people who visit the seaside resort each year. We employ over 7000 people from 68 different countries.
We welcome and encourage application from anyone with protected characteristics, as well as supporting reservists and Veterans who are looking for a rewarding and challenging career within the NHS.
Blackpool Teaching Hospitals encourages flexible working in all our roles to support staff in maintaining healthy home-life balance. Working patterns such as: part time working, self-rostering, compressed hours, annualised hours, term time, reverse term time and flexitime working can be explored.
Job overview
Are you a positive and enthusiastic clinical psychologist looking to bring your skills and experience to the specialty of Pain Management? Would
you like to join a team of friendly clinical psychologists working across the Acute Trust and Community settings?
You will be working into an interdisciplinary team who already have positive experiences of clinical psychology, under the professional guidance of the Head of Psychology.
If you have vision and a positive ‘can-do’ attitude, reflecting your ability to work collaboratively, bring people on board and facilitate positive
change at all levels this could be an exciting opportunity for you.
Main duties of the job
You will be working directly with patients, and MDT colleagues, to help inform psychological aspects of the patient journey and provide highly
specialised psychological assessment, formulation, and interventions. You will contribute to service developments and staff training and
development, including consultancy and individual and group supervision to colleagues.
You will work with outpatients. The clinical psychology service has provided an uninterrupted service to patients, throughout the pandemic, by rapidly adopting smarter working practices. We now routinely make regular use of video clinics; you will be equipped and supported to work
flexibly and remotely, including working from home, wherever appropriate, bringing the additional advantage of being able to flexibly meet service need and to achieve a good work-life balance. These technological advantages and efficiencies have been positively recognised and supported at the highest levels within the Trust.
Working for our organisation
You will be joining a wider clinical psychology team, accountable to Head of Directorate of Psychology, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, including
specialist provision into Oncology, Haematology, End of Life Care, Cardiac Services, Weight Management, Critical Care, Cystic Fibrosis,
Community Learning Disabilities, Primary Intermediate Mental Health, Staff Support and Neuropsychology. The service routinely hosts doctoral trainees in core and specialist placements. Opportunities to participate in research are encouraged and there is a strong emphasis on CPD, both in terms of developing specialist knowledge of persistent pain diagnoses and treatments, as well as professional development in terms of therapeutic skills and leadership etc. Following a recent Divisional re-structure, the service is well placed to offer psychological provision across multiple areas of Trust function, thereby offering a vibrant opportunity to develop your career as a clinical psychologist.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To develop, implement and manage specialist assessment and high level and complex programmes of psychological therapies for patients with
highly complex psychological needs within the area of expertise and the MDT. To carry out high level and complex psychological treatment and
other interventions within the specialist area that necessitate the interpretation and communication of highly complex and sensitive medical, psychological and social information, the application of empathy and the ability to manage hostility, aggression, potential violence or manipulation from the patient or their families. To arrive at a formulation and treatment plan where there is likely to be a range of options available.
Person specification
Training & Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Good Honours degree (min 2:1) in Psychology.
- Registration as a Practitioner Psychologist with the HCPC.
- Post-graduate doctorate in Clinical Psychology (or equivalent for those trained before 1996) as accredited by the BPS & HCPC.
- Training for and/or experience of clinical supervision of practicing psychologists and/or doctoral degree trainees.
- Completion of specialist post-qualification course or demonstrable experience in utilising psychological theories and clinical approaches in physical health, to include specific applicability to the post.
Desirable criteria
- Other specialist further training in physical health psychology, e.g. pain management
- Completion of Clinical Supervision training as provided by doctoral training courses to enable post holder to be able to supervise and assess clinical doctorate trainees.
- Specialist training in a therapy (e.g. CBT, ACT, CFT)
- Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied clinical psychology.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of working as a qualified Clinical Psychologist, appropriate to the Leading of psychological provision of a service in the NHS.
- Experience of working in Clinical Psychology, relevant to physical health settings.
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across a full range of care setting, including remote provision of psychological services, outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings.
- Experience of working within multidisciplinary teams and taking a lead in patient care.
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups across the life span, with a wide variety of presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity. For example, specialist experience in the psychological assessment, management and treatment of physical health conditions.
- To have demonstrable experience in delivering and receiving appropriate Clinical Psychological supervision relevant to role.
- Proficiency in administering, scoring and interpreting clinical psychometrics. Experience of using two or more distinct psychological therapies and knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology.
- Working with 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.
Desirable criteria
- Substantial post qualification experience in the area of psychology of Physical Health
- Experience of management tasks (e.g. supervision of junior psychology staff; recruitment & selection)
- Direct experience of work in the area of Pain Management and/or physical health
- Experience of negotiating with NHS managers, professional colleagues & other agencies
Knowledge and skills
Essential criteria
- Knowledge of National legislation, guidelines, and local policies for the area of specialty, and their implications for clinical practice & professional management in relation to patients.
- Excellent communication & interpersonal skills.
- Ability to develop, implement, manage, evaluate & carry out high level & complex psychological treatment & other interventions within the specialist area that necessitate the application of empathy and the ability to interpret & communicate highly complex & sensitive information.
- The ability to manage hostility, aggression, potential violence or manipulation from the patient.
- Ability to manage the rejection of unwelcome information where there are significant barriers to acceptance and the ability to overcome cultural, knowledge- based or cognitive barriers to understanding.
- Ability to carry out or take responsibility for R & D programmes including design & use of databases, spreadsheets & specialist statistical software packages.
- Awareness of significance of ethnic & cultural issues in delivery of psychological services.
- Evidence of continuing professional development as required by HCPC and/or professional bodies.
- Standard keyboard skills.
- Skills in the administration of psychometric tests where timing and accurate manipulation are essential to patient care
- Experience of managing junior psychology staff.
- Substantial experience or training in more than one therapeutic intervention specialty.
- Training and/or substantial experience of psychological assessment & rehabilitation
- Ability to design & implement policy for specialist psychological services & to propose service changes that impact beyond that area of activity.
- Ability to professionally manage staff within the specialty
- Sound knowledge of software and general IT competence.
- Capacity to plan and prioritise many competing complex ongoing tasks including patient contacts, research activity, supervision of psychology and non-psychology staff, service development activities and representation of service.
- Skills in co-ordinating, chairing and arranging multidisciplinary meetings and activity in relation to patient care and other activities.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of managing junior psychology staff.
- Substantial experience or training in more than one therapeutic intervention specialty.
- Training and/or substantial experience of psychological assessment & rehabilitation
- Ability to design & implement policy for specialist psychological services & to propose service changes that impact beyond that area of activity.
- Ability to professionally manage staff within the specialty.
Personal
Essential criteria
- Ability to contain & work with organisational stress.
- Ability to hold the stress of colleagues & other relevant persons.
- Ability to manage continual exposure to distressing and highly emotional clinical material.
- Ability to cope with physical requirements of job (work remotely, or at locations relevant to the role).
- Ability to sit in one position for lengthy periods during clinics.
- Ability to operate within irregular working hours.
- Ability to sustain intense levels of concentration, responding and participating as required.
- Ability to self reflect and use clinical supervision appropriately.
- Ability to cope with unpleasant working environments or conditions.
Other
Essential criteria
- Ability & preparedness to work to professional guidelines
- Ability to interpret general clinical, professional & organisational policies & to use own independent initiative to establish how they should be applied within the area of specialty
- Ability to teach, train & supervise others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
- Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
- Computer literate, familiar with Microsoft Office and SPSS software packages.
- Ability to drive or access suitable transport in order to work from different bases within the working week.
Desirable criteria
- Understanding and empathy arising from either personal experience of or working with physical and/or mental health problems.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
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.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Dr Lyn Sutcliffe
- Job title
- Consultant Clin Psychologist / Head of Psychology
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07818533854
- Additional information
George Rogers pain Management Service manager can also be contacted at [email protected]
If you have problems applying, contact
- Address
-
BTH
- Telephone
- 03033 301 033
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