Clinical or Counselling Psychologist

Job summary

Seeking enthusiastic and compassionate Clinical or Counselling Psychologist for temporary post to cover maternity leave.

The Calderdale Core team is a collaborative adult mental health team, comprised of mental health nurses, occupational therapists, psychiatrists, support workers and clinical and counselling psychologists and psychotherapists. We are embracing trauma informed practice and exciting developments in mental health community transformation.

Within your role, you will provide psychological therapy to service users and support the psychological thinking within the wider team. Offering clinical supervision is also a part of the working role and we will support you to develop in this area (particularly if employed as newly qualified).

Currently we have a broad psychological therapy offer and the service offers both individual and group therapies, contributing to a rich and varied experience in the working role. We are a collaborative and supportive team with support for continued professional development, clinical supervision, and line management. Opportunities for further training and gaining experience in other clinical areas will also be supported.

You will be supported by the managerial and leadership structure of the core team, alongside receiving access to line management, professional and clinical supervision from clinical psychologists based with the Core team.

Main duties of the job

We are seeking a clinical psychologist with interest and enthusiasm for working with service users with complex psychological and mental health needs.

We are particularly looking for individuals who have a strong interest or experience of working with adults with complex psychological problems, and of delivering psychological therapies to this client group alongside offering psychological consultation to mental health team members.

We have good links to the D. Clin Psych training course at Leeds, offering placements to trainees, supervising research and providing teaching.

Informal enquiries are welcomed and should be made to Dr Jo Robinson, Consultant Clinical Psychologist Core team.

All employees of the Trust are strongly encouraged to have their up-to-date flu vaccination to protect staff and patients.

While this role meets the eligibility requirements for Skilled Worker sponsorship, due to the fixed-term nature of the contract, the Trust may not be able to offer sponsorship for this post.

We welcome applications from individuals who already have the right to work in the UK or are on a visa route that permits employment without sponsorship. Such applications will be considered alongside all others.

About us

We are a specialist NHS Foundation Trust that provides community, mental health and learning disability services for the people of Barnsley, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield. We also provide low and medium secure services and are the lead for the west Yorkshire secure provider collaborative.

Our mission is to help people reach their potential and live well in their communities, we do this by providing high-quality care in the right place at the right time. We employ staff in both clinical and non-clinical services who work hard to make a difference to the lives of service users, families and carers.

We encourage and welcome applications from all protected characteristic groups, we value diversity and want our workforce to be reflective of our communities.

Being a foundation Trust means were accountable to our members, who can have a say in how were run. Around 14,300 local people (including staff) are members of our Trust.

Join us and you will be one of over 4,500 staff committed to supporting and improving the mental, physical and social needs of the thousands of people we meet and help each year.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all colleagues and volunteers to share this commitment.

We do reserve to right to close vacancy before the advertised closing date if necessary, so please apply as soon as possible.

Details

• Date posted: 27 August 2026
• Pay scheme: Agenda for change
• Band: Band 7
• Salary: £49,387 to £56,515 a year
• Contract: Fixed term
• Duration: 12 months
• Working pattern: Full-time, Flexible working
• Reference number: C9378-CK2540
• Job locations: Laura Mitchell Health Centre, Great Albion Street, Halifax, HX1 1YR, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities

JOB SUMMARY

This job description is an outline of the main duties of the post. The postholder will be required to undertake other duties commensurate with the grade as directed.

The content of this post will be reviewed in consultation with the postholder when necessary and in line with the service developments.

The post holder will provide specialist clinical psychology skills within a multidisciplinary team. The post holder will provide a high quality clinical service to the users of the service.

They will provide highly specialist psychological assessment and intervention while working collaboratively with non-psychologist colleagues, professionals from other agencies and carers. They will be clinically responsible to a senior clinical psychologist. Clinical oversight of all work will be held by the clinical lead in the service.

The job plan will be delivered in the services the post is based.

The post holder will work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team while observing Trust and National policies and procedures.

The post holder will provide support to Assistant Psychologists and Doctoral trainees. They will utilise research skills in audit, service development and research relevant to the post.

KEY RESULT AREAS:

To offer consultation, supervision and training when required by other agencies involved in the psychological, emotional and behavioural well-being of people referred to the service

To provide consultation, assessment and intervention in the service.

To work collaboratively in a multidisciplinary context.

• To provide assessment and treatment options for people experiencing moderate, severe and complex mental health problems.
• To exercise expert clinical judgement based on the highest standards of evidence based practise.
• To continually seek to expand and consolidate clinical skills using training, experience, and supervision.
• To be proficient in the use of Psychometric testing appropriate to the age range.
• To provide specialist risk assessment of and intervention to people who present to the service.
• To follow appropriate Adult and Child Protection guidelines in all Clinical work, including close liaison with all agencies.
• To liaise and consult with the wider professional network in the care of the client.
• To work jointly with other team members in delivering the most appropriate clinical service to people and their families.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients.
• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to effectively evaluate progress.
• To receive regular professional supervision from a senior Clinical Psychologist and where appropriate, other senior clinicians.
• To continue to access continuing professional development opportunities in line with agreed targets and agreed personal development plan.
• To assist in the supervision of Doctoral level Clinical Psychology trainees and trainees from other disciplines as appropriate.
• To contribute to the pre and post qualification teaching of Clinical Psychologists.
• To assist in the teaching and training of professionals
• To contribute to the Audit processes within the service.
• To contribute to research in the service area.
• To utilise theory, evidence based literature and research to support evidence based practise of self and others.
• To provide advice on research projects to other staff within the service around appropriate methodology, statistical analysis etc.
• To undertake project management as required to aid service development.
• To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the post-holders professional lead and service manager(s). To maintain membership of appropriate regulatory bodies (i.e. The Health & Care Professionals Council) and professional bodies such as the British Psychological Society.
• To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychology across the service, by continuing to develop the skills of reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology and related disciplines.
• To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the British Psychological Society, the Health & Care Professions Council and Trust policies and procedures.
• To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to the clients the service serves.
• The post-holder will be required to work flexibly both in terms of base and in hours of clinical availability.

For full job description, please see attached supporting documents.

We are aware that an increasing number of applicants are using AI technology to generate responses on NHS Job application forms. Over reliance on AI-generated content in application forms is strongly discouraged and we will conduct a thorough screening process before selecting candidates to progress to the next stage. If you are using AI to enhance your application, please disclose this in your NHS Jobs application form.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).