Job overview
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a clinical psychologist with experience and enthusiasm in working with older people, to join the friendly and supportive Older Adult Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) for Preston, Chorley and South Ribble. You will have an interesting and varied role from running therapeutic groups to formulating complex case presentations. The role involves: holding psychology consultation sessions with staff, direct clinical work, running formulation sessions, chairing complex case meetings, conducting staff training, group work, supporting staff well-being and supervising psychology and non-psychology colleagues when required. There will be an expectation that the post holder will also offer placements for trainee clinical psychologists. The successful applicant will work closely with the team Principal Clinical Psychologist, the wider multi-disciplinary team, the team manager and clinical lead to continue to develop a high quality, community-orientated service for older people. The post is professionally attached to the locality older adult psychology team and wider network, both of which offer a friendly and supportive space, with a strong commitment to providing quality services for older people in Lancashire. The postholder will receive regular clinical supervision from the team principal psychologist.
Main duties of the job
- To provide a qualified Clinical Psychology Service to patients of the nominated team(s) 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 patients’ 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 utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the area in which the postholder works.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see the attached job description and person specification for more information about this role.
Person specification
Personal
Essential
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- Well developed skills in communicating effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
- Formal training in supervision of other psychologists
- Ability to sustain intense levels of concentration responding and participating as required.
Knowledge
Essential
- An increased level of knowledge relevant to this post equivalent to a post-graduate diploma (in addition to entry level qualification)
- Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS by completion of CPD log demonstrating a minimum of 40 hours per year.
- Knowledge of legislation relevant to the patient group.
Experience
Essential
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of patients across a range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings
- Experience of working with a wide variety of patient 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
- Demonstrable evidence of a continuing commitment to developing expertise in psychological assessment and intervention
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for patient’s psychological care and both as a professionally qualified care co-ordinator and also within the context of multidisciplinary care plan
Education/ Qualifications
Essential
- Doctorate 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.
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Applying for this NHS job
This advert is for Senior 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 £57,528 - £64,750 pa. The contract type is Permanent. The application deadline is 07 Jul 2026.
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