Clinical Psychologist - Band 8a or Band 7-8a Development post

Job overview

This is an exciting opportunity to be a Clinical Psychologist (Band 8a) within the Adult Acute Inpatient Service as part of the First Response pathway. This post is also suitable for a newly qualified or soon to be qualified Clinical Psychologist as a Development Post where the Post Holder would start at a Band 7 and move into 8a on completion of the development period. Transition to the next Agenda for Change band will only occur when the Development Post Holder has achieved a sufficient level of competency development to warrant that transition, with a minimum requirement of meeting the higher banded person specification essential criteria and competencies, as listed in the relevant job description. For soon to be qualified Clinical Psychologists, the offer of employment will be made conditional upon completing and passing all elements of the DClinPsy and gaining HCPC registration. This post is part of an ongoing initiative to develop our acute pathway psychology provision in the Trust and demonstrate CWP’s commitment to improving the psychological and trauma informed care provided to patients, families, and staff in the inpatient services pathway within Cheshire West. This post is part of the next phase in creating an established and sustainable Psychology workforce within the acute adult mental health pathway with Consultant Clinical Psychologist posts based in inpatient services firmly established.

The post involves working predominantly into two acute inpatient wards and a PICU (Psychiatric Intensive Care Ward) within one mental health hospital site, Bowmere hospital. The post is 0.9 wte. You will join an established psychology team and work within a team of two Consultant Clinical Psychologists, a Clinical Psychologist, Trainee Clinical Psychologists, and Assistant Psychologists. The team is established within Rehab services and is developing into acute care so there are opportunities for adapting the nature of the work to suit the interests and skills of the successful applicant.

This post is part time 33.75 hours per week.

Main duties of the job

As the Clinical Psychologist you will be responsible for providing clinical and professional leadership predominantly within the acute services in the West locality. You will provide highly specialist psychological assessment and intervention, and input to care and treatment planning and discharge planning for individual patients, working as part of the multidisciplinary team and as an autonomous Clinical Psychologist. We are keen to support our inpatient staff therefore the post includes offering staff support which can include facilitating reflective practice, formulation meetings, and supporting staff in debrief following incidents.

This will include developing and maintaining a systematic, high quality, evidence-based psychology service for patients accessing the First Response Service in the locality. You will work with the Consultant Clinical Psychologist, locality leadership team(s), and speciality clinical network to enhance and evaluate the psychological care offer provided by a multi-professional workforce. Providing training, consultancy, supervision and support to multi-professional staff, teams, and managers will be essential. There are strong links with the three local DClinPsy training programmes and there is an expectation to provide placements for our Trainee Clinical Psychologists.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please download a copy of the job description (see ‘documents to download’ section below) for full details of the main responsibilities for this role.

At CWP, our recruitment selection processes are based on both competence (see person specification for details) and values.

CWP recruits people that can demonstrate the Trust’s Values in their everyday life and we use a values-based approach in our interviews, which explores not only what you do but how and why you do it.

Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trust’s Values and think about how these align with your own personal values. The supporting information section in your application should reflect your understanding of the Trust’s Values and associated behaviours and you should provide examples from your work experience and/or personal life which demonstrate these values through your behaviours.

An applicant guide to help and support you through your recruitment journey can be accessed at the bottom of this page. Further help and support for completing your application can be accessed via our website. If you need any further guidance to help you complete your application, contact our recruitment team via email at: [email protected] or by calling 01244 393100.

If you have a disability that meets the definition set out in the Equality Act 2010, and you can show that you meet the ‘essential’ criteria described in the person specification for an available position, please answer ‘YES’ to the question: ‘Do you wish to be considered under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme?’

Please inform the team if you have any special support needs to be considered as part of the interview and selection processes.

The trust offers a Guaranteed Interview Scheme to any armed forces community applicants who meet the essential criteria for the post and encourages applications from armed forces reservists or cadet force adult volunteers.

Please note applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment. You are encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service. A small annual fee of £16 per year applies.

New entrants to the NHS will commence on the minimum of the scale stated above.

Applicants are advised to apply early as if a large number of applications are received for this post we reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the advertised date.

Good luck with your application. We hope to welcome you to Team CWP very soon!