Principal Clinical Psychologist/MHTR Clinical Lead
Our Vision is to provide the best mental health, learning disability, autism, community, and physical health services for the populations we serve.
As an integrated Trust, Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCFT) delivers a comprehensive 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, and forensic services with low and medium secure care.
- Specialist mental health inpatient care for individuals with learning disabilities, alongside specialist community support for children and adults with learning disabilities and autism, including intensive support.
- Extensive community physical health and well-being services for children and adults, covering prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and long-term condition management.
The Trust was first established in 2002 and employs approximately 7,500 staff who provide care from more than 400 sites. The organisation offers opportunities for medics, mental health, general nurses, children’s nurses, allied health professionals, psychology, administration and clerical staff, apprentices and volunteers, as well as those specialising in learning disabilities and community physical health services.
For more information visit our website via Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS FT.
Job overview
An amazing opportunity has arisen for a permanent, full-time 8b Clinical Psychologist with experience of clinical/forensic settings. The post is permanent and will have its base in the Forensic Community Service (FCS) at Guild Park, just outside Preston.As a service and a trust we are committed to flexible working and some home/ remote working is also possible. We welcome interested candidates to contact us and discuss this role informally or alternatively visit our service.
What is MHTR?
The post holder will work in the Mental Health Treatment Requirement (MHTR) team. A MHTR is designed to meet a gap in provision for adults with lower level mental health and dual diagnosis issues in the community who have been charged with the type of offence that is eligible for a community or suspended sentence.The aim of the MHTR programme is to provide an effective alternative to custodial sentences for vulnerable individuals. The MHTR team provide a psychological approach to individuals mental health difficulties with clinical staff who screen, assess and provide psychological interventions.
This friendly, psychologically minded team are part of the Community Sentence Treatment Requirement (CSTR) programme, which is a partnership between the National Probation Service, NHS England and other external agencies.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will be the Clinical Lead for the team providing opportunities to develop leadership skills, pathway development work, supervisory skills as well as their own therapeutic skills.
As the Clinical Lead, the post holder will provide clinical oversight and supervision of a team of at least eight Mental Health Practitioners whose role is to provide psychological interventions for individuals referred through the court who have been identified as suitable to benefit from a therapeutic intervention as part of their community sentence.The post holder will be supported by supervision from a Consultant Psychologist as well as joining a team of friendly, motivated and experienced psychology and MDT colleagues, a team leader and admin support. This post offers a real opportunity to make a difference for individuals and develop professionally by gaining experience of leadership, consultation, supervision and pathway development alongside further developing therapeutic skills with a small caseload.
As this team is based on partnership working, an important part of the post holder’s role will be to engage with and maintain relationships with relevant partner agencies. They will also oversee and evaluate the team’s screening, assessment and formulation processes and model(s) of intervention (in accordance with the existing CSTR Programme Operating Framework).The Clinical Lead will also provide treatment for more complex cases.
Working for our organisation
LSCFT values diversity and inclusion, recognising that talent from varied backgrounds creates a flexible, creative, and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from all, regardless of age, disability (including those with experience of accessing or caring for someone who has accessed mental health or learning disability services), ethnicity, gender, religion, belief, or sexual orientation.
Our aim is to reflect the communities we serve, so we particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups. If you’d like to discuss your application, please ask.
We also welcome individuals with lived experience relevant to the role or service area, as your insight brings authenticity to our services.
LSCFT support 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 and flexi-time.
The wellbeing of our people is at the heart of everything we do. We offer a wide range of resources, tools and support to help you thrive both in and out of work.
Explore our full wellbeing offer here: Keeping our workforce well
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
For more details on this vacancy please review the attached job description and person specification.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria- 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
Essential criteria- 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.
- Formal training in supervision of other psychologists
Experience
Essential criteria- Substantial experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist.
- 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. Demonstrable experience of conducting complex audit/research and service evaluation
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 four 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.
Please note that further communication from 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.
Please ensure that you read the person specification as your application will be measured against this document.
If you use AI to assist with your application, you must declare this. Undeclared use may result in withdrawal. Please ensure your application reflects your own skills and experiences. While AI tools can assist, they may produce generic or inaccurate content.We encourage you to provide personal examples that demonstrate how you meet the essential criteria.
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).