Job summary
- Main area
- Mental Health
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 9
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 437-8033768
- Employer
- Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Harrop House
- Town
- Manchester
- Salary
- £112,782 - £129,783 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 19/06/2026 23:59
- Interview date
- 14/07/2026
Employer heading
Director of Psychological Professions
NHS AfC: Band 9
Job overview
GMMH is looking for experienced and ambitious consultant psychological professionals as candidates for the Director for Psychological Professions / Chief Psychological Professions Officer role. The appointee will be responsible for senior strategic leadership, professional governance, workforce development, and driving improvement across psychological services in line with the GMMH Psychological Professions Plan.
GMMH has developed leadership roles for each of the professional groups and strong care group leadership for the psychological professions. The successful candidate would be expected to work with professional lead colleagues toward a psychologically safe, just and learning culture underpinned by compassionate and trauma informed leadership.
Main duties of the job
Complete JD/PS is attached to the advert.
- Provide strategic and professional leadership for all psychological professions within the trust.
- Lead long‑term service development, ensuring psychological interventions are high‑quality, evidence‑based, and well‑integrated across clinical services.
- Act as the Trust’s senior professional advisor on psychological practice, governance, and workforce issues.
- Professional responsibility for psychological professionals, including supervision systems, appraisal, CPD, and recruitment frameworks.
- Strategic workforce leadership, including retention, recruitment, and development of new psychological roles.
- Clinical and research governance, ensuring safe, effective, and consistent psychological practice across services.
- Performance management of psychological services, including developing systems to monitor quality and value for money.
- Budgetary contribution, supporting senior managers in planning and managing resources for psychological services.
- Representing the Trust regionally and nationally, influencing policy and contributing to wider NHS psychological professions strategy.
- Compassionate, inclusive leadership with strong collaboration skills.
- Commitment to service user and carer involvement in shaping psychological services.
- Alignment with Trust values, such as respect, quality, improving lives, and working together.
- Experience working in large, complex organisations and with external partners.
Working for our organisation
Greater Manchester Mental Health (GMMH) Foundation Trust employs over 7000 members of staff, who deliver services from more than 122 locations.
We provide inpatient and community-based mental health care for people living in Bolton, the city of Manchester, Salford, Trafford and the borough of Wigan, and a wide range of specialist mental health and substance misuse services across Greater Manchester, the north west of England and beyond.
Greater Manchester is one of the world's most innovative, original and exciting places to live and work. From the beauty of the surrounding countryside to the heart of the vibrant inner city with great shopping, entertainment and dining options.
Wherever you go you will experience a great northern welcome with people famed for their warmth, humour and generosity.
Our people enjoy their work, have opportunities to learn and develop their skills and are encouraged to generate new ideas that improve care for our service users.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
For more details about this role and the responsibilities please see attached full Job Description and Person Specification.
Person specification
Education/Qualification
Essential criteria
- Doctoral level training in psychological practice, including models of psychopathology, lifespan developmental psychology, clinical psychometrics, neuropsychology, and two or more distinct psychological interventions.
- Registered with HCPC (or equivalent) as a practitioner psychologist.
- Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.
- A recognised Management/Leadership Qualification.
Desirable criteria
- Eligibility to be a chartered clinical psychologist with British Psychological Society
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience within Mental Health Services at a Senior Psychological Professional Level.
- Experience of continuing professional development.
- Experience of effective partnership working with a range of agencies and stakeholders.
- Ability to manage complex and sensitive situations.
- Ability to work within and meet clear performance targets and indicators Knowledge of working experience of service redesign.
- Financial and budgetary management experience.
- Ability to work in a complex environment.
- Display strong collective leadership qualities.
- Ability to communicate highly complex and/or sensitive information in challenging environments.
- Influencing, persuasion and negotiating skills.
- Experience of user and carer involvement in the evaluation of services.
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across a full range of care settings.
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients’ psychological care and treatment.
- Experience of teaching, training, and professional and clinical supervision. Experience of professional management of qualified and pre qualified psychological professionals.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of professional management, selection and recruitment of qualified psychologists and other healthcare professionals.
- Experience of having sole responsibility for a key area of service provision within psychology services.
- Proven ability to plan, implement, develop and evaluate new service initiatives.
- Experience of representing the profession or service in local policy forums. Experience of managing a Psychological Service Budget.
- Experience of the application of psychological principles in different cultural contexts
Knowledge and Skills
Essential criteria
- Doctoral level knowledge of psychological theory.
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical, and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
- Ability to organise time effectively.
- Skills in providing consultation to other professionals and non professional groups.
- Ability to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team and to liaise effectively with other professionals.
- Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis.
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological interventions, including CBT.
- Ability to provide thorough risk assessments.
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to clients with complex, severe and enduring mental health problems and of mental health legislation.
- Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies interventions.
- Evidence of CPD as recommended by BPS, HCPC and accrediting bodies.
- Formal training in supervision of other psychological professionals.
- Ability to demonstrate critical reasoning skills, to question received wisdom and arrive at sound judgements where information is not available and expert opinion may differ.
- Ability to think strategically, to retain the wider picture and create a viable vision and to demonstrate critical reasoning.
- High level analytical and judgmental skills.
- High level planning and organisation skills.
- Familiarity with computer use including word processing, spread sheets, database programmes and PowerPoint.
- Ability to demonstrate leadership and management skills.
- Ability to contain, manage and work with organisational stress and ability to contain the stress of others.
- Ability to identify provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours.
- Ability to identify, and employ, as appropriate, clinical 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 develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings.
- Ability to clearly articulate the role of the psychological professions based upon a good understanding of the framework of government and national professional policy.
Desirable criteria
- Ability to interpret financial and performance data in order to create strategic plans.
- Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological interventions in specific difficult to treat groups. Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of highly specialised psychological interventions. Knowledge of models and/or strategies of management and leadership.
- A commitment to the evaluation of services, enthusiasm for both multi professional and uni-professional audit, and a wish to continue to develop expertise in the service area.
- Record of having published in either peer reviewed or academic or professional journals and/or books.
Personal
Essential criteria
- Have credible and personal integrity, open, honest and inclusive.
- Ability to work in a complex environment.
- Flexible in style and approach Displays strong collaborative leadership qualities.
- Ability to lead, motivate, inspire and empower others to achieve objectives and aspirations.
- Ability to assimilate, interpret, and analyse complex information and present to others.
- The resilience necessary to overcome obstacles and resistance Results driven / outcome focused System and process orientate.
- Ability to sustain intense periods of concentration.
- Enthusiasm for a broad range of psychological phenomena, an interest in models of service delivery, and an ability to articulate the value added by clinical psychology services within the context of multi-disciplinary mental health services.
Desirable criteria
- Personal experience of managing mental health problems.
- Ability to demonstrate the trust values within the work setting.
Planning & Organisational Skills
Essential criteria
- Can demonstrate a high level of organisational skills and ability.
- Can demonstrate Project Management skills
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
- Salli Midgley
- Job title
- Chief Nurse
- Email address
- [email protected]
List jobs with Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust in Allied Health Professions or all sectors