Consultant Practitioner Psychologist

Job overview

We are seeking an experienced, innovative and highly motivated Consultant Practitioner Psychologist to provide strategic and clinical leadership within the Community Perinatal and Maternal Loss Pathway across Coventry and Warwickshire.

This senior role offers the opportunity to shape and further develop the delivery of specialist psychological therapies and trauma-informed interventions within a well-established, compassionate, and multidisciplinary service. The postholder will play a central role in driving excellence , ensuring high standards of clinical practice, service innovation, and patient outcomes.

You will work collaboratively across the internal  Perinatal services and with key external partners, including maternity services, primary care, social care, and voluntary sector organisations. The role includes professional leadership of psychological staff, contributing to workforce development, and embedding evidence-based practice across the pathway.

As a senior clinical leader, you will provide highly specialist assessment, formulation, and intervention for complex perinatal presentations, including maternal loss and trauma. You will offer expert consultation and supervision to psychology colleagues and the wider MDT, while also contributing to service evaluation, audit, research activity, and strategic service development to continually enhance care for women, babies, and families during the perinatal period.

Main duties of the job

• To act as a specialist perinatal psychology resource to the wider Trust and across the professional community, supporting a team of staff who work with patients with moderate to severe presentations e.g. tokophobia, PTSD/ birth trauma, complex emotional needs).
• Demonstrate strong professional leadership for Psychological Services within our Perinatal Mental Health Services and  Loss Pathway across Coventry and Warwickshire.
• Provide highly specialist psychological advice including demonstrating expertise in specialist assessment methods, evidence-based psychological therapies and interventions relevant to the pathway.
• To be responsible for the good clinical governance of the work of psychologists and psychological therapists in the Perinatal Services and the Maternal Loss Pathway
• Work closely with the Operational Service Manager and other leads to interpret and deliver national clinical guidance and key targets in relation to the performance perinatal mental health.
• Ensure that psychological services staff are invited to contribute to business planning, service developments and any programmes of change within Perinatal Mental Health Services.
• Responsibility for monitoring and improving the quality of psychological services and practice offered within perinatal mental health services including routine use of paired outcomes measures and service-user feedback.
• Provide oversight of research, audit, service evaluation and quality improvement activities within the service.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please refer to the job description and person specification for a detailed  description of the main duties of the role. In summary

Leadership & Management

Provide strategic and operational leadership for psychological provision within the Perinatal and Maternal Loss Pathway. You will lead and professionally manage psychological staff, ensuring high standards of clinical practice, workforce development, and effective use of resources. The role includes contributing to service demand management, pathway oversight, business planning, and clinical governance arrangements. You will play a central role in shaping the long-term strategic direction of the pathway and embedding a culture of reflective practice, learning, and continuous improvement.

Clinical Expertise

Deliver highly specialist psychological assessment, formulation, and evidence-based interventions for women and families presenting with complex perinatal mental health difficulties, including trauma and maternal loss. You will hold clinical responsibility for complex and high-risk cases, providing expert consultation and specialist advice to multidisciplinary colleagues, partner agencies, and external stakeholders to ensure safe, effective, and trauma-informed care.

Service Development, Evaluation & Research

Lead on service innovation, quality improvement initiatives, and pathway development to enhance outcomes and reduce inequalities in access to perinatal mental health care. You will design and oversee audit, evaluation, and research activity within the service, ensuring findings inform practice development and commissioning priorities. The role includes contributing to research governance processes and promoting evidence-based, outcome-focused service delivery.

System Collaboration & Partnership Working

Work collaboratively across organisational boundaries, including maternity services, primary care, social care, voluntary sector providers, and commissioning bodies. You will provide psychological leadership within multi-agency forums, supporting integrated care pathways and strengthening system-wide approaches to perinatal and maternal loss support.

Education, Workforce Development & Supervision

Provide high-quality clinical and professional supervision to psychologists, trainees, and other MDT staff in line with professional and regulatory standards. Contribute to recruitment, appraisal, and workforce development processes. The role includes delivering training programmes, enhancing psychological skills within the wider workforce, and contributing to doctoral-level teaching and research supervision in partnership with academic institutions.