Highly Specialist Practitioner Psychologist

NHS; Oldham; On-site; GBP 53,000 - 61,000; Full time

Job description

Job summary

We are excited to advertise a 10-month fixed term 0.8 WTE (4 days) practitioner (clinical, counselling, forensic) psychologist post to work in Oldham's adult acute inpatient service.

The two 22-bedded adult acute wards, Oak and Aspen, are based at Royal Oldham Hospital and provide specialist assessment, care and treatment for men and women aged 18 to 65 years old with a variety of mental health needs. People will often be admitted via A&E, Liaison, Home Treatment Team, a Mental Health Act Assessment within the community or from an outpatient clinic and are often experiencing distress, a mental health deterioration and/or may be in crisis.

Oak and Aspen are friendly, dynamic ward teams who are keen for a full MDT to help them provide the best possible care they can. The wards are engaged in NHS-E Culture of Care project and are committed to provide care in a trauma informed, autism informed and culturally competent manner.

This post will suit a skilled, compassionate and motivated practitioner psychologist with an interest in developing a range of direct and indirect approaches and skills, combined with a desire to work within acute inpatient settings.

The successful postholder will have a network of colleagues around them. Working closely with Oldham's secondary care psychology service, complex, emotional and relational needs team, early intervention team, liaison team and home treatment team.

Main duties of the job

As outlined in the job description, the main duties of the job include:

• To provide a high quality specialist psychology service within the adult acute inpatient service.
• To hold a clinical caseload undertaking evidence-based psychological assessment, formulation, and intervention (individual and/or group) for service users admitted the wards. This may include evidence-based treatments for a range of mental health difficulties at the point of crisis including experiences of psychosis, depression and/or Complex Emotional and Relational Needs (CERN).
• To provide specialist psychological support, consultation and guidance to other professionals contributing directly to the service users' assessment, formulation and intervention plan.
• To ensure that all members of the team have access to a psychologically-based framework for understanding and caring for the service user, through the provision of advice, consultation and the dissemination of psychological research and theory.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual service users and to provide general advice to other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.
• To communicate and receive highly complex and contentious information in a skilled and sensitive manner, in the course of psychological assessment and therapy.
• To provide training and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the teams.

About us

Our acute and crisis pathway provides an evidence-based, high quality service across adult acute wards, Home Treatment Teams and Mental Health Liaison teams covering half of Greater Manchester. The Trustwide acute and crisis psychology team meets regularly for team meetings, CPD and a facilitated reflective group and is led by an 8c consultant clinical psychologist Trustwide acute psychology team.

We are passionate about staff well-being and compassionate leadership. Our staff survey results support this. In the latest National Survey (2023) Pennine Care was ranked as the best mental health and learning disability trust in the North West.

We support staff to work flexibly and recognise and respect the roles our colleagues hold outside of working hours. This focus helps us to retain staff and ensure people are happy in their place of work.

Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the top of our agenda. We know a diverse, inclusive and engaged culture is vital; that everyone's value should be recognised and respected.

There are also opportunities to link with local higher education providers and the research & innovation (R&I) team to engage with related research projects.

We are committed to staff development and have an extensive psychological therapies training programme. Our psychology colleagues have fedback that this is a particular strength within the Trust.

Date posted: 08 April 2025

Pay scheme: Agenda for change

Band: Band 8a

Salary: £53,755 to £60,504 a year per annum, pro rata

Contract: Secondment

Working pattern: Part-time, Flexible working, Compressed hours

Reference number: 311-O627-25-B

Job locations

Royal Oldham Hospital

Parklands House, Rochdale Road

Oldham

OL1 2JH

Person Specification

Qualifications Essential

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology, including specific models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychological assessments, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan development psychology as accredited by the BPS.
• Current registration with the HCPC.

Desirable

• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and / or other fields of applied psychology.

Experience Essential

• Experience of specialist psychology assessment and treatment across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in-patient settings.
• 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.
• MDT working

Desirable

• Experience of teaching training and / or supervision
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.

Knowledge Essential

• 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.
• Knowledge of the practice implications of National guidance and policy, e.g. Nice Guidance, MHA, etc.

Desirable

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnosis, people with additional disabilities etc).
• High-level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to working age adults and mental health.
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists.

Skills Essential

• 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 service users, their families and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Ability to teach and train others using a variety of complex and multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.

Desirable

• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.
• Strong interest and experience of working with service users with severe / complex needs.

Work Related Circumstances Essential

• Use of a car or access to a means of mobility to travel across the Trust footprint in line with service needs
• Willing to carry out all duties and responsibilities of the post in accordance with the Trust's Equal Opportunities and Equality and Diversity policies
• Appointments to regulated and controlled activities require an enhanced DBS disclosure.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.

Employer details

Employer name: Pennine Care NHS FT

Address: Royal Oldham Hospital, Parklands House, Rochdale Road, Oldham, OL1 2JH

Employer's website

https://www.penninecare.nhs.uk