Job summary
- Main area
- Early Intervention - Mental Health Services
- Grade
- Band 7
- Contract
- Fixed term: 12 months (Until June 2027)
- Hours
- Full time
- Part time
- Job ref
- 350-MHC787638
- Employer
- Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- St John's Unit
- Town
- Wigan
- Salary
- £47,810 - £54,710 per annum pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 16/04/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Cognitive Behavioural Therapist
Band 7
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Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnically diverse, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.
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Job overview
The Early Intervention Teams in Widnes and St Helens are specialist secondary care community mental health teams who work with First Episode Psychosis. We are looking for a caring and committed person who is trained and accredited in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to join us and be part of a large team of psychologists, CBT/EMDR therapists, occupational therapists, mental health nurses, support workers and psychiatrists.
You will be joining a hard working and busy team providing CBT for people who experience symptoms of psychosis and bipolar affective disorder. You will also be working with clients who experience severe anxiety related difficulties, depression and PTSD. Your role would be to provide CBT as per NICE guidance within our EI team.
We also have clients who sit on our At Risk Mental State (ARMS) pathway who require CBT for trauma, depression and anxiety but who may also experience milder psychotic-type symptoms.
The early intervention teams in Widnes and St Helens provides high quality intervention-based care for clients who have a GP in Halton, Warrington, Knowsley and St Helens.
You will receive regular supervision from a consultant clinical psychologist who is qualified in CBT for psychosis and bipolar affective disorder and be supported to follow CPD opportunities to further develop your career.
Please note there is 1 x Full-time post & 1 x Part-time post available.
Main duties of the job
To work as part of the multi-disciplinary teams based in Widnes and St Helens, providing a qualified specialist cognitive behavioural psychotherapy service to clients with psychosis and/or bipolar affective disorder.
To provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy, offering advice and consultation on client's psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other, nonprofessional carers. To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the Directorate's and team's policies and procedures. To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the area served by the team/service.
Working for our organisation
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Person specification
QUALIFICATIONS
Essential criteria
- Post Graduate Diploma, or equivalent Post Graduate level CBT training certificate which confers eligibility for BABCP accreditation
- Has BABCP accreditation or able to achieve Provisional Accreditation within one year
Desirable criteria
- Relevant professional qualification (e.g. Nursing, social work, Allied Health Professional etc.)
KNOWLEDGE/ EXPERIENCE
Essential criteria
- Demonstrable experience of working in mental health services.
- A range of experience of delivering Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to adults.
- Ability to meet agreed/specified service targets.
- Ability to manage own caseload and time.
- Demonstrates high standards in written communication.
- Able to write clear reports and letters to referrers.
- Experience with routine outcome monitoring.
- Experience of teaching/training and liaising with other professional groups.
- Significant experience working as a psychological therapy practitioner and can demonstrates the competences as required.
- Demonstrates an understanding of anxiety and depression and how it may present in Primary Care.
- Demonstrates knowledge of the issues surrounding work and the impact it can have on mental health / benefits & employment systems.
- Knowledge of medication used in anxiety and depression and other common mental health problems.
- Demonstrates an understanding for the need to use evidence based psychological therapies and how it relates to this post.
- Knowledge of child protection issues and other relevant legislation.
- Able to attend supervision training if not already trained, and other training as the post develops.
- Good record of Continuing Professional Development and willingness to continue this.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of working in Primary Care Services treating anxiety and depression.
- Worked in a service where agreed targets in place demonstrating clinical outcomes.
VALUES
Essential criteria
- Continuous Improvement
- Accountability
- Respectfulness
- Enthusiasm
- Support
- High professional standards
- Responsive to service users
- Engaging leadership style
- Strong customer service belief
- Transparency and honesty
- Discreet
- Change oriented
SKILLS
Essential criteria
- Full range of skills and competencies as laid out in the competence framework for CBT (Roth and Pilling 2007).
- Computer literate.
- Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
- Has received training (either formal of through experience) and carried out risk assessments within scope of practice.
- Able to develop good therapeutic relationships with clients.
- High level of enthusiasm and Motivation.
- Advanced communication skills.
- Ability to work within a team and foster good working relationships.
- Ability to use clinical supervision and personal development positively and effectively.
- Ability to work under pressure.
- Regard for others and respect for individual rights of autonomy and confidentiality.
- Ability to be self reflective, whilst working with individuals, & in own personal and professional development and in supervision.
- The ability and skills to act as an advocate for a new service, to engage and foster good professional relationships with all health professionals in promoting the good integration of this service with the wider health and social care system.
Desirable criteria
- Trained in provision of supervision for CBT.
- Accredited with a professional psychological therapy organisation
- Completed clinical audits within a service.
- Car driver and/or ability and willingness to travel to locations throughout the organisation.
- Fluent in languages other than English
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 Samantha Wallace
- Job title
- Consultant Clinical Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07384528651
- Additional information
Please feel free to call Samantha Wallace if you wish to discuss the post and alternative working hours.
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