Job overview
We are looking for a highly motivated and enthusiastic Principal Clinical Psychologist for the LD inpatient service to provide psychological support to the 4 individuals at our Whalley site.
The MDT is led by a Consultant Nurse and will include nurses and support workers as well as occupational therapy and speech and language provision There will also be a full-time assistant psychologist.
If you are an enthusiastic Clinical Psychologist with experience of supporting people with behaviours that challenge and with complex needs, this post offers an exciting opportunity to develop clinical and leadership skills and further shape the development of the service.
You will receive regular clinical & professional supervision from a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, and you will also benefit from being a member of the Learning Disability Psychology Specialty as well as the wider Psychological Professions Community within LSCFT.
There are excellent links with the North West clinical psychology training courses in Lancaster, Manchester and Liverpool.
We would welcome any applicant who may find themselves hesitant in applying or wish to discuss their experience, to please contact us for an informal chat.
Main duties of the job
To provide a Clinical Psychology Service to four Individual Packages of Care services at Whalley Hospital Site including the provision of enhanced specialist psychological assessment and therapy, working within the policies, procedures and protocols applicable to the service.
To offer advice and consultation on individuals’ psychological care to psychology and non-psychology colleagues and to other, non-professional carers, working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service’s policies and procedures. To develop advanced skills in consultancy by implementing formal systems of consultancy within the nominated team(s), as directed and guided by your Locality Professional Lead and his/her deputies.
To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the designated area of responsibility.
To utilise research skills, audit, policy and service development and research and implement policy changes within the areas served by the team/service in agreement with the relevant manager.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see attached the job description and person specification for more information about this role.
Person specification
Experience
Essential
- 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.
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for client’s psychological care and treatment both as a professionally qualified care co-ordinator and also within the context of multidisciplinary care plan.
- Experience of teaching, training and supervising.
Qualifications
Essential
- Doctoral level training in clinical psychology or equivalent for those who trained prior to 1996, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
- Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
- Knowledge of legislation, and its implications in relation to the client group and mental health.
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS by completion of CPD log demonstrating a minimum of 40 hours per year.
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Applying for this NHS job
This advert is for Principal Clinical Psychologist with Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust in Preston, North West, England. It is listed as a Band 8 Psychologist role. The advertised salary is £66,582 - £77,368 per annum pro rata. The contract type is Permanent. The application deadline is 02 Aug 2026.
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