Principal Psychologist or Principal Psychological Practitioner

Job responsibilities

Please see attached job description and person specification for further information regarding the role and the essential and desirable criteria required to be met by applicants.

Please note, due to changes implemented by the Government to the UK immigration policy, individuals who require a Health and Care Visa or a Skilled Worker Visa may no longer be eligible for sponsorship where the UKVI salary threshold is not met or if the occupation is not included in the updated Immigration Salary List (ISL). Applicants must check their eligibility to be employed in any role they are interested in applying for, prior to completing an application for employment.Any applicants who do not meet the eligibility criteria will not be progressed. For further information visit theUK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

If you are applying under the Disability Confident Scheme or Armed Forces Covenant and you meet all the essential criteria for a post, you will be guaranteed an interview.

Relocation assistance may be available for successful applicants moving to the region for certain posts. Please see our Policy for eligible vacancies.

for any previous criminal convictions.

The cost of the DBS must be met by the successful candidate(s) through salary deduction. DBS charges are as follows if applicable to the post:

Standard Check: £21.50 + Administration cost of £5.90 = £27.40. Deducted from salary over a 4 month period or a one-off payment.

Enhanced Check: £49.50 + administration cost of £5.90 = £55.40. Deducted from salary over a 4 month period or a one-off payment.

NCIC can offer successful future employees the following benefits:

27-day holiday scheme rising to 33 after 10 years

Flexible working Scheme

NHS Discounts*

Salary Sacrifice schemes including lease cars and Cycle to Work*

Excellent opportunities for development*

Competitive NHS Pension scheme

Vivup is a free, confidential counselling and information service to assist with personal or work-related problems

*Subject to eligibility

Important Information

Please ensure that you document evidence of meeting all the essential criteria in the supporting information.

If sufficient response is received this post could be closed earlier than the specified closing date, please apply as soon as possible to ensure that your application is considered.

Candidates who have been successfully shortlisted for interview will be asked via an email notification to log on to their Trac account to select an interview time. This will usually be within 2 weeks of the closing date.

Qualifications

Essential

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS.
• Additional post graduate training in relevant skills, eg EMDR or other relevant therapeutic models OR Post graduate Diploma in CBT with additional training in: oEMDR oOther clinical models eg ACT oNeuropsychology

Desirable

• Post qualification leadership training.

Knowledge & Experience

Essential

• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings including outpatient, community, in-patient and residential care settings 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 clients' psychological care and treatment, within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan.
• Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
• Experience of working with patient groups
• Experience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision.
• Experience of Service development and clinical audit.
• Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group, mental health and mental capacity.
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists.
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office functions and a willingness to further develop these as required.

Desirable

• Experience of assessing and treating clients across the full range of care settings including in-patient
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of highly specialised psychological therapies and assessment methodologies.

Skills & Aptitudes

Essential

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Ability to integrate highly complex clinical information into a coherent formulation, and to apply this in treatment, management and rehabilitation
• Training in leadership and management skills.
• The ability to plan and organise in a manner consistent with a Service remit and the requirement of highly autonomous working
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical, and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS, including the ability to communicate effectively with people with severe communicative disabilities
• Demonstrable ability to exercise full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment
• Ability to articulate and interpret clearly the role of the profession of clinical psychology based upon a good understanding of the framework of government and national professional policy.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Ability to identify provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and challenging behaviours.
• Ability to identify, and employ, as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
• Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to 'hold' the stress of others.
• Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings.

Other requirements

Essential

• Ability to travel independently of public transport.
• Willingness to work flexibly across all service locations in Cumbria as appropriate and required by the service.

Desirable

• An awareness of own strengths and limitations.
• A sense of humour.

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 (Opens in a new tab).

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 Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).