Job summary
- Main area
- Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8b
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Part time
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 311-R395-26-A
- Employer
- Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Birch Hill Hospital
- Town
- Rochdale
- Salary
- £66,582 - £77,368 per annum, pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 22/04/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Principal Practitioner Psychologist
NHS AfC: Band 8b
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
We are delighted to announce an exciting opportunity for a permanent Principal Practitioner Psychologist (Clinical, Counselling, Forensic) to join our Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale (HMR) Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team (CRHTT), based at Birch Hill Hospital.
This is a 0.8WTE Band 8b position, offering a key leadership role within our dynamic and supportive service. The vacancy forms part of significant new investment in the crisis pathway, supporting the transformation of our existing Home Treatment Teams into CRHTTs. The successful candidate will join a Highly Specialist Psychologist as part of expanding psychology provision.
Our CRHTT provides intensive home‑based assessment, intervention, and support as an alternative to hospital admission. The team works with adults experiencing acute mental health crisis, often presenting with high levels of distress, risk, and complexity. The service plays a crucial role in admission avoidance, early intervention, and supporting safe discharge from inpatient care.
The successful candidates will join committed and experienced MDTs, working closely with medical, nursing, OT, and support staff to deliver psychologically informed crisis care.
This is an excellent opportunity to contribute to a growing and evolving service, influence the development of psychologically informed crisis pathways, and make a meaningful difference to service users and their families during some of the most challenging moments in their lives.
Main duties of the job
As outlined in the job description, the main duties of the job include:
- To provide consultation and formulation to colleagues within the CRHTT.
- To provide a qualified specialist psychology service for people referred to the CRHTT care pathway.
- To provide specialist assessment, formulation and interventions for a clinical caseload.
- To provide psychological leadership to the CRHTT care pathway and work systemically across services (e.g., acute services and secondary care) to develop a psychological understanding and context for other professionals, service users and carers.
- To lead the psychological CRHTT provision within borough and support the Trust wide acute pathway when needed, to help ensure equity in provision and service.
- The post holder will propose and implement evidence-based practice, utilising research skills for audit and service developments.
- The post holder will enhance psychological understanding and skill set through the delivery of training, supervision and reflective practice. This will include within the current CRHTT team but also making links with local universities and providing placements for trainee Psychologists.
- To be an integral part of local and national initiatives to improve care quality. For example (but not limited to) inpatient transformation, community transformation care in the community and reducing admissions.
Working for our organisation
Our acute pathway provides an evidence-based, high quality service across adult acute wards, PICUs, Home Treatment Teams and Mental Health Liaison Teams covering half of Greater Manchester. The Trustwide acute psychology team meets regularly for team meetings, CPD and facilitated reflective group and has leadership from a Consultant Clinical Psychologist/Clinical Lead.
We are passionate about staff well-being and compassionate leadership. Our staff survey results support this. In the latest national NHS Staff Survey (2024) Pennine Care was ranked as the best mental health and learning disability trust in the North.
Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the top of our agenda. We know a diverse, inclusive and engaged culture is vital; that everyone's value should be recognised and respected.
We support staff to work flexibly and recognise and respect the roles our colleagues hold outside of working hours. This focus helps us to retain staff and ensure people are happy in their place of work.
If you come and work for us we offer a range of benefits and opportunities, including:
- Generous annual leave entitlement for Agenda for Change staff.
- 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
For a more detailed overview of the roles job description and main responsibilities, please see the attached job description and personal specification.
Person specification
Education/ Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Doctoral level training in clinical psychology (including specific models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychological assessments, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan development psychology as accredited by the BPS or postgraduate training in Forensic Psychology or Counselling Psychology)
- Current registration as a Clinical, Forensic or Counselling Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council.
Desirable criteria
- Completion of further post qualification training within psychological therapies (e.g., DBT, CBT, CAT, CFT, MBT etc)
- Completion of further post qualification training in supervision
Experience
Essential criteria
- Demonstrable post-qualification experience of specialist psychological assessment, formulation and treatment of adult clients experiencing psychological difficulties.
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of 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.
- Demonstratable post-qualification experience of working withcomplex mental health problems, including distressing psychosis, problems associated with complex relational and emotional needs and severe depression, anxiety and trauma.
- Demonstratable experience of working with people experiencing a suicidal crisis
- Demonstratable experience of working with an MDT
- Experience of clinical leadership within a previous role
- Demonstratable experience of providing clinical supervision to psychologists, psychological practitioners or other core health professions
- Demonstratable experience of providing teaching/ training upon clinical interventions.
- Demonstratable experience of managing demand for psychological services within a form of stepped-care framework (i.e., an approach based upon the provision of direct care, and supporting other professionals in their provision of psychosocial work)
- Experience of delivering brief interventions to meet need
Desirable criteria
- Experience of clinical leadership
- Experience of working within an acute service setting
- Ability to demonstrate further specialist clinical experience and training
- Experience of audit and service evaluation within psychological therapy services
- Research experience within an area relevant to work within an adult service
- Demonstratable experience of the application of psychological therapy in diverse cultural and ethnic contexts
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Understanding of the national and regional legislation, guidance and policy directives in relation to the development and delivery of psychological therapies within acute services
- Evidence of post-qualification CPD as recommended by the HCPC and, or BPS, or other professional body.
- Up to date knowledge of the needs of people with complex mental health problems, and of psychological approaches to recovery.
- Awareness of the principles of a trauma informed care approach.
- Familiarity with computing technology, including keyboard skills and use of word-processing, e-mail and internet software.
Desirable criteria
- Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies and approaches for adults with complex mental health problems.
- Publication of training, service evaluation, clinical audit and research material
Skills and abilities
Essential criteria
- Ability to work with service users, carers and families to engage with their needs and provide them with appropriate psychological support and intervention
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non professional groups
- Skills in working within an MDT to bring and share a psychological understanding of distress
- Well developed, effective communication skills, both oral and in writing, enabling complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to be shared with service users, their families, carers and other professional colleagues within the NMHS and other agencies
- Ability to prioritise work, operate a waiting list, meet short deadlines and an unpredictable work pattern that requires regular revision of plans
- Ability to sit in a constrained position for service user assessment, formulation and individual and group therapy sessions and for computer work
- Ability to work at a high level of professional autonomy and responsibility, in a collaborative multi-disciplinary environment and also as a lone worker in circumstances where there may be exposure to verbal and sometimes physical aggression.
- Able to sustain the intense concentration necessary for service user assessment and formulation, individual and group therapy sessions
- Ability to work and communicate highly sensitive, contentious information effectively in a highly emotive or hostile atmosphere, and to overcome barriers to acceptance/ psychological resistance to potentially threatening information
- Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to staff and carers exposed to highly distressing situations
- 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.
Desirable criteria
- 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 demonstrate an area of special interest/ skill in therapeutic intervention
- Ability to move equipment (including case files, neuropsychological tests, self-help materials, audiovisual equipment) between office base and other work settings.
Work related circumstances
Essential criteria
- Use of a car or access to a means of mobility to travel across the Trust footprint in line with service needs
- Willing to carry out all duties and responsibilities of the post in accordance with the Trust’s Equal Opportunities and Equality and Diversity policies
- Appointments to regulated and controlled activities require an enhanced DBS disclosure.
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
- Dr Sarah McHale
- Job title
- Consultant Clinical Psychologist/Clinical Lead
- Email address
- [email protected]
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