Principal Clinical Psychologist - £7k Incentive*

Our Vision is to provide the best mental health, learning disability, autism and community based services for the populations we serve.

As an integrated mental health, learning disability and community Trust, Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust provides a range of services including:

• Primary and secondary mental health care for children and adults including specialist inpatient child and adolescent mental health provision, perinatal mental health, forensic services including low and medium secure care.
• Specialist community support for children and adults with learning disabilities and autism, including intensive support.
• Community physical health and well-being services for children and adults.

The Trust was first established in 2002 and employs approximately 7,000 staff who provide care from more than 400 sites. The organisation offers opportunities for medics, mental health and general nurses, allied health professionals, psychology, administration and clerical staff, apprentices and volunteers.

Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust supports flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as; term time, part time, compressed hours, home/remote working, and flexi-time.

For more information visit our website via Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS FT.

Job overview

Principal Clinical Psychologist (Band 8b, 26.25 hours available, 0.7wte)

Available as a preceptorship progressing from 8a to 8b

Base: Whitegate Drive Health Centre.

The preceptorship route would be completed over a period of 12-24 months depending on development needs; you would be joining a service with experience of supporting successful preceptorships and established governance around the process.

The successful candidate will have experience of working with children, young people and their families. You will have an area of specialist interest that is relevant to the clinical area and which they wish to develop further. We are particularly keen to hear from candidates who have interest and therapeutic experience in areas including attachment and developmental trauma or neurodiversity.

Main duties of the job

We offer a range of psychological therapies including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (and third wave), Eye movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), Video Interactive Guidance (VIG), Theraplay®, Family Therapy. As a standalone specialist psychological therapy service, we work closely (and are co-located) with neighbouring services for children and young people (including CAMHS, Primary Mental Health Services, School Nurses), in addition to working closely with external agencies including Children’s Social Care and Education.

As a senior clinician in our service, you will lead an area of clinical provision and develop and evaluate that aspect of the service. You will also identify areas for future development and quality improvement. You will be well supported in this work - our service has an excellent track record of supporting clinicians in their development; we have a robust pathway for supervision in place locally, in addition to peer support/supervision groups across the network for more specialist therapies and interests (e.g. EMDR, neuropsychology).

• The £7k Welcome Bonus package applies to this role.

For example, a Band 6 Occupational Therapist / Social Worker / Mental Health Nurse at another Trust in the LSC ICS would not be eligible for the bonus if moving to a Band 6 Occupational Therapist / Social Worker / Mental Health Nurse role at LSCFT or in a role such as Mental Health Practitioner Role that requires the same profession.

• University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust
• East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust
• Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Bank only workers for Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust are eligible for the scheme if they have not held a substantive role in Lancashire & South Cumbria Integrated Care System in the last 12 months (subject to all other terms and conditions being met).

These incentives are subject to recovery clauses within the first 6 months of employment. This bonus is applicable from 1st July 2024 – 31st December 2024.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The £7k Welcome Bonus package is designed to attract and retain the very best staff in post. The amount a new starter would receive is shown in the Welcome Bonus Payment Schedule below:

• £3,000 after 2 months of employment (counted from start date with LSCFT)
• £2,000 after 12 months
• £2,000 after 24 months

PLEASE NOTE: This bonus scheme is subject to a Repayment Clause should the post holder leave this role within 6 months of commencing employment.

For more details, please visit our website - Welcome bonus and relocation packages terms and conditions :: Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (lscft.nhs.uk)

If you have any questions, we would be happy to discuss them – please contact [email protected].

We have good links with the North West Clinical Training courses, particularly the Lancaster and Manchester courses. We encourage staff to offer core and specialist placements, deliver teaching and offer supervision of doctorate research projects.

All aspects of this role will be captured in an individualised job plan. Job Plans are based on BPS guidance for psychological professions and ensure adequate time for all aspects of the role to be completed. This also takes caseload into account.

Person specification

Qualifications

• 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

Experience

• Substantial experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist at senior level
• 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

Skills

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate 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

Please note that further communication from Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCft) will normally be to the email address given on the application form. You should also ensure that email addresses and telephone numbers are provided for your referees, to enable LSCft to contact them.

Personalisation is essential when submitting an application form to convey your skills, knowledge, and experiences effectively.

Please ensure that you read the person specification attached below as your application will be measured against this document. Applications from job share partners are welcome and other forms of flexible working will be considered for all posts.

For all posts which require a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check please be aware of the Disclosure and Barring Service Code of Practice, a copy of which is available by logging on to the DBS website. If the post is subject to DBS disclosure, a charge will be made to the successful candidate(s).

You are advised to consider applying for LSCft vacancies as soon as possible as in some instances vacancies are closed as soon as a sufficient number of applications have been received. If you are not invited to interview within three weeks of the closing date then please assume that on this occasion you have been unsuccessful, as it is not possible to contact all unsuccessful candidates.

LSCft is committed to celebrating difference as an asset and we know that recruiting talent from diverse backgrounds helps to create a more flexible, creative and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from people regardless of age, disability (particularly those with experience of accessing or caring for someone who has accessed mental health or learning disability services), ethnicity, gender, religion or belief or sexual orientation.

Our goal is for the Trust to be truly representative of the communities we serve so we are particularly keen to receive applications from people in under-represented groups. If there is anything you’d like to discuss in relation to your application then please ask.