Job summary
- Main area
- Psychologist
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8c
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Part time - 24 hours per week
- Job ref
- 311-F906-26
- Employer
- Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Arundel House
- Town
- Bury
- Salary
- £76,965 - £88,682 PA, pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 23/03/2026 23:59
- Interview date
- 08/04/2026
Employer heading
Consultant Practitioner Psychologist
NHS AfC: Band 8c
If you are Kind, Fair, Ingenious and Determined then we want you to come and join our #PennineCarePeople
https://www.penninecare.nhs.uk/values
Job overview
The Armed Forces Covenant 2011 commits the NHS to a number of actions to support veterans. By signing the Armed Forces Covenant (AFC) organisations demonstrates the intention to support the Armed Forces community
The Postholder will:
Contribute to the Trust wide strategy for Psychological Therapies, working closely with the adult pathway lead, Specialist Directorate Psychological Therapies Network Lead and the senior psychosocial therapies leadership team to provide high quality safe and effective care for our clients.
Promote collaborative working between all key stakeholders including client groups, the broader MDT, which would include local and national partners.
Represent MVS in the strategic psychological therapy structure trust wide including the psychotherapeutic committee.
Significantly contribute to identifying unmet need and contributing to the development of new business proposals aligned to MVS.
Support the trust to retain its position as an organisation that provides some of the highest standards, and most respected military veteran mental health and psychological care available in the UK.
As part of the collaborative MVS leadership team contribute to strategic Development & Business Planning for Pennine Care’s veterans services.
Main duties of the job
Be responsible for developing, reviewing and refining the service pathways for Veterans, families/carers and reservists (non-mobilised) for both MVS/ and contribution to joint service joint pathways with key stakeholders and collaborative partners
Take overall clinical responsibility for the development and implementation of the clinical care pathway through the MVS.
Take overall clinical responsibility for the advice, consultation, training and guidance to the staff in the MVS/ Ensure that therapists and other staff within the MVS have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding and supporting the treatment of clients via expert clinical consultation and supervision systems.
To be responsible for planning, implementing and monitoring a range of highly individualistic and complex psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups. This occurs within and across teams, is employed individually and in synthesis. Psychological formulations are adjusted and refined by drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
To provide clinical supervision to practitioners from the MVS/ and, to external individuals and teams, within a structured supervision framework.
Working for our organisation
We are proud to provide high quality mental health and learning disability services, both inpatient and in the community across five boroughs of Greater Manchester - Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport and Tameside and Glossop.
Our vision is for a happier and more hopeful life for everyone in our communities and our staff work hard to deliver the very best care for the people who use our services. We’re really proud of our #PennineCarePeople and do everything we can to make sure we’re a great place to work.
All individuals regardless of race, age, disability, ethnicity, nationality, gender, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, religion or belief, marriage and civil partnership are encouraged to apply for this post. We would also encourage applications from individuals with a lived experience of mental illness, either individually or as a carer.
If you come and work for us we will offer a range of benefits and opportunities, including:
- Generous annual leave entitlement for Agenda for Change and Medical and Dental staff.
- Flexible working opportunities to support your work/life balance
- Access to Continued Professional Development
- Involvement in improvement and research activities
- Health and Wellbeing activities and access to an excellent staff wellbeing service
- Access to staff discounts across retail, leisure and travel
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team’s operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.
To contribute to the organisation and delivery of psychological therapies within the trust.
To contribute to the governance of psychological practice within services including record keeping standards.
To identify service priorities and advise both Service and professional Management on those aspects of the Service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.
To act as a Link Person in Veterans’ mental health within the trust to liaise with teams and attend clinical meetings, where appropriate, in order to offer an informed psychological perspective on client care, appropriateness of referrals to MVS and to support staff in working with ex armed forces personnel.
To identify training needs and develop and present relevant training/workshops to staff teams.
To take a lead role in team meetings and have a lead clinical role within meetings in formulation based discussion and care planning.
To participate as a senior clinician in the development of high quality services including advising both the RHS hub associate director and RHS hub medical clinical lead on psychological issues within the pathway to ensure quality services for clients relating to veterans’’ mental health. This may include advice on specialty clinical standards,
skills mix, safe evidence based clinical practice, and resources;
To incorporate psychological thinking into key documents such as the business plan, people strategy and quality strategy. Taking a Lead on actions from these plans and ensuring this information is shared with all members of the psychology team.
To support the Operational services lead in writing cases for new business;
To be responsible for the recruitment and selection of additional psychologists.
To lead on the systematic governance of psychological practice within the RHS hub
To deputise for the Adult Pathway Lead and/or the trustwide clinical and professional lead as per request and when appropriate
To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of Clinical and/or Counselling Psychology, as appropriate
To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.
To attend regular continuing professional development training days held within the Trust, locally and nationally.
To ensure personal compliance and that of the team in relation to CEST training. Attend regular in-house training on PMVA breakaway techniques, life support, child/adult Safeguarding training, supervision skills.
To ensure that yearly refresher courses are completed where appropriate.
To ensure the provision of specialist clinical placements for trainee clinical psychologists and other psychological therapists ensuring they acquire the necessary clinical and research skills competencies and experience, to contribute effectively to good psychological practice and contributing to the assessment and evaluation of these competencies.
To contribute to the development of knowledge and skills base within the directorate by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychological therapies and by implementing knowledge gained in practice
To be responsible for the planning, organising and the delivery of teaching and training of pre and post-qualification psychologists and specialist training to other professions in the services
Person specification
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Demonstrable evidence of leadership across areas and teams.
- Commitment to quality improvement in psychological services through multi professional evaluation and audit of psychological services.
- Knowledge of contemporary legislation relating to the delivery of mental health and psychological services and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management
- Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology.
- Knowledge and experience of the application of clinical risk management policies and procedures for the maintenance and improvement of psychological therapies.
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the HCPC and BPS. Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to ‘hold’ the stress of others.
- Highly specialised knowledge of assessment, formulation and therapeutic intervention around mental health
- Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of organisational development and dynamics
- Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies for adults/veterans’ who have experienced trauma including knowledge of the mental health needs of Military Veterans and their families/ carers.
- Knowledge of partnership working and service development
- Knowledge of a range of services typically involved with veterans with complex needs
- Knowledge of the application of Quality governance and risk Knowledge of the application of Quality governance and risk
- Knowledge of contemporary legislation relevant to the delivery of mental health and psychological services
- Knowledge of professional issues in psychology and psychological therapies
Desirable criteria
- Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of highly specialist psychological assessment methodologies for adults
- Knowledge of systems theory and organisational change
- Expertise in administration and interpretation of specialist psychological assessment tools
- Specialist training in therapeutic approaches relevant to adults who have experienced trauma
- Knowledge of Governmental and strategic policies and national clinical guidance in relation to adults/veterans’ mental health
- Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology
Experience
Essential criteria
- Substantial assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical / counselling psychologist and experience as a senior clinical psychologist in the NHS
- Experience of working with complex safeguarding of adults and / or children and young people
- Experience of working with adults presenting with the full range of clinical severity across a wide range of care settings including community and voluntary sector settings, including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients’ psychological care and treatment, including caseload management.
- Experience of assessing and intervening clinically around adult and child protection issues.
- Experience of representing psychology/ psychological therapy within the context of multi-disciplinary care
- Experience of development and implementation of teaching/training packages for multi-agency professionals including the identification of need
- Experience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision and Consultancy across multi-disciplinary staff groups
- Experience of managing clinical risk within a community setting
- Highly specialised knowledge of military mental health issues including trauma
- Previous service within the armed forces communities Or • Experience of working with the military communities/ service charities Or • Evidence of understanding the Military veterans’ / HM Forces communities
- Experience of working strategically to plan, develop and commission psychological services within and across organisations
- Experience of effective leadership across a service
Desirable criteria
- Assessed experience of working as a qualified psychological therapist
- Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts
- Experience of clinical supervision of trainee psychologists, assistants or qualified psychology staff / other professionals within an MDT
- Experience of service audit and / or project management within the clinical setting
- Involvement in Service Development within adult and / or Veteran Services
- Experience of psychometric and neuropsychological assessments with adults
- Delivering psychological therapy in a group format (e.g. DBT, CBT, Schema Therapy, CFT).
- Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi- disciplinary care
- Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts
- Experience of leading strategic development across service areas and pathways locally, regionally and/or nationally
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Doctorate in Clinical/Counselling Psychology including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, and neuropsychology. Plus, further specialist training, research, or study, conferring advanced theoretical and practical knowledge within a specialist field of psychological therapy and across a number of areas (such as clinical, research and development, personnel, finance)
- Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.
- Valid registration with the HCPC
- Evidence of continuing Professional Development as recommended by the BPS Additional clinical training appropriate to the service user group, for example EMDR , DBT, ACT for trauma
- Evidence of working in the field
- Training in the supervision of psychological therapists and / or other professionals within the MDT
Desirable criteria
- Post-qualification training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice
- Additional Accreditation/members hip of an appropriate psychological therapy professional body
- Post-qualification training in specialist therapeutic work with adults e.g. DBT, CBT, CAT, IPT, FT
- Experience of working within a community based/ primary care/ remote service
Skills and Abilities
Essential criteria
- Ability to engage a range of professional and non-professional groups in cooperative working
- Ability to engage a range of professional and non-professional groups in cooperative working
- Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to “hold” the stress of others
- An ability to work strategically to improve service delivery from a psychological service perspective.
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- Highly developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical, and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
- Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to “hold” the stress of others
- Ability to work strategically to improve service delivery from a psychological service perspective.
- Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to multidisciplinary professionals exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours.
- Ability to identify and employ, as appropriate, Quality Governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour
- Ability to work face to face with potentially verbally aggressive patients in isolated settings without other team members being nearby and in accordance with the trust lone worker policy
- Highly developed skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
- Ability to work with a range of professionals from a range of agencies
- Ability to work independently and as part of a team
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non- professional groups.
- Ability to teach and train 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.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
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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
- Rachel Buckley
- Job title
- Service Lead
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 0300 323 0707
If you have problems applying, contact
- Address
-
Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust
225 Old Street
225 Old Street
OL6 7SR
- Telephone
- 01617163181
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