Principal Psychologist in Cancer

Job overview

This post is based within the Wolverhampton Cancer Service and offers an excellent opportunity to work within a compassionate, psychologically informed, and highly collaborative multidisciplinary cancer pathway. The successful applicant will provide highly specialist psychological assessment, formulation, and evidence based therapeutic interventions for people affected by cancer, alongside support for families, carers, and wider systems where appropriate.

The service works closely with Macmillan Services, Living With and Beyond Cancer Services, oncology, haematology, palliative care, specialist nursing teams, and wider multidisciplinary colleagues, supporting patients throughout all stages of their cancer journey, including diagnosis, active treatment, survivorship, recurrence, palliative care, and end-of-life care.

The post holder will work with individuals presenting with a broad range of highly complex psychological and emotional difficulties associated with cancer and physical illness, including adjustment difficulties, anxiety, depression, trauma responses, fear of recurrence, existential distress, complex grief, relationship challenges, and co-morbid mental and physical health presentations.

Main duties of the job

Psychology is highly valued within the cancer multidisciplinary teams, with psychologists contributing through regular MDT attendance, psychologically informed consultation, reflective practice, formulation, clinical supervision, staff support, and teaching. The successful applicant will play a key role in strengthening psychologically informed approaches across cancer services and supporting the ongoing integration of psychology within physical healthcare pathways.

As a Principal Psychologist, you will play a significant leadership role within the service, contributing to strategic service development, pathway innovation, governance, and quality improvement initiatives. The role will include providing clinical leadership, highly specialist consultation, supervision, and support to psychologists and wider multidisciplinary colleagues, alongside contributing to the wider operational and professional development of the Clinical Health Psychology Service.

The successful applicant will work alongside other Principal Psychologists and applied psychologists, with support from a Consultant Clinical Psychologist within a robust leadership, supervision, and governance structure. The wider psychology network provides excellent opportunities for collaborative working, innovation, peer support, and professional development across physical health services.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Provides highly specialist psychological assessment of clients with highly complex and contentious conditions based on the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of data from a variety of sources, which may include neuropsychological testing.

1.2.     Responsible for recognising the potential for or signs of client harm, abuse or neglect, including poor clinical practice, reporting all such concerns and taking all reasonable steps to protect the client. Responsible for identifying and reporting concerns regarding the safeguarding of children who may be at risk.

1.3.     Undertakes risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and provides highly specialist advice to other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management and the high physical risks inherent in the client group.

1.4.     Formulates plans for highly specialist psychological therapy and/or management of clients’ mental health conditions based upon an appropriate conceptual framework and evidence-based practice. Negotiates the implementation of such plans with clients and/or their carers.

1.5.     Implements a range of highly specialist psychological therapies for individual clients, carers, families and groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations as required.

1.6.     Undertakes highly skilled evaluations and makes decisions about treatment options.