Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

Principal Practioner Psychologist AOT/GRIP

The closing date is 11 January 2026

Job summary

The post could be offered as a 30 hours per week or Job share depending on applicants and we may be able to offer full time hours for the right candidate.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a dynamic highly skilled and experienced practitioner psychologist to join our mental health services focusing on working with adults with psychosis. This is an exciting time to be joining the Trust as we are looking at improving our services for people experiencing psychosis and bipolar disorder and expanding the psychological provision in our teams.

Working across a number of community teams you will provide expertise in both direct clinical work and leadership/supervision of teams in psychological approaches to care.

This is a key clinical leadership role, working within teams and responsible for continuing to drive and embed the significant work already undertaken to develop services for people with psychosis across Gloucestershire.

The post holder will be responsible for providing highly-specialist advice and consultancy to staff, teams, and patients with direct responsibility for the provision of psychological services within the teams, including supervision of assistants and trainees. They will also have a key role to play in service development and quality improvement across care pathways.

Main duties of the job

This role covers teams based in Gloucester, Cheltenham and across the county. All reasonable flexible working requests will be considered, but the post holder will be expected to work across sites in line with service need.

Our specialist mental health services work with adults with severe mental health problems. About 60% of the people we work with have experienced psychosis, and we aim to provide psychologically and trauma informed care and evidence based interventions including CBT-P and Family Therapy.

In this role you will:

Work as part of MDT's providing specialist psychological formulation, assessment and direct care.

Provide supervision, reflective practice and consultation/advice to colleagues and teams,

Contribute to quality improvement and service development, including research and development activities such as teaching.

Leading workstreams on psychological approaches to care, and specifically working as a part of our developing psychosis pathways

Line manage, supervise and support other psychological professionals, assistants and trainees.

The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.

About us

We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people's homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:

  • 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
  • 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
  • 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust's priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.

This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.

Details

Date posted

17 December 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8b

Salary

£64,455 to £74,896 a year per annum (pro rata)

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Part-time

Reference number

327-25-1069

Job locations

Pullman Place

Great Western Road

Gloucester

GL1 3NF


Job description

Job responsibilities

For the main duties and responsibilities for this role please read the attached job description and person specification. When completing your application please ensure your supporting statement reflects the criteria set out in these documents by showing how your experience and skills apply to this post.

Please read the job description and person specification carefully before making your application, in particular the requirements about professional registration, experience and qualifications in therapy modes.

The Trust is required to work in line with the Governments UK Visa and Immigration Rules and Regulations. For more information about sponsorship for certain roles, please visit - https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas

Job description

Job responsibilities

For the main duties and responsibilities for this role please read the attached job description and person specification. When completing your application please ensure your supporting statement reflects the criteria set out in these documents by showing how your experience and skills apply to this post.

Please read the job description and person specification carefully before making your application, in particular the requirements about professional registration, experience and qualifications in therapy modes.

The Trust is required to work in line with the Governments UK Visa and Immigration Rules and Regulations. For more information about sponsorship for certain roles, please visit - https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Appropriate qualification for role
  • HCPC or other appropriate professional registration

Desirable

  • CBT-Psychosis / Family Therapy Qualifications (0-1-2)

Experience

Essential

  • Working with client group adults smhp psychosis
  • experience of working in AMH MDT

Desirable

  • Experience of being care coordinator
  • Experience of working at highly specialist level

Skills

Essential

  • Hold driving license
  • Ability to participate in all mandatory and statutory training
Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Appropriate qualification for role
  • HCPC or other appropriate professional registration

Desirable

  • CBT-Psychosis / Family Therapy Qualifications (0-1-2)

Experience

Essential

  • Working with client group adults smhp psychosis
  • experience of working in AMH MDT

Desirable

  • Experience of being care coordinator
  • Experience of working at highly specialist level

Skills

Essential

  • Hold driving license
  • Ability to participate in all mandatory and statutory training

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).

Additional information

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).

Employer details

Employer name

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Pullman Place

Great Western Road

Gloucester

GL1 3NF


Employer's website

https://www.ghc.nhs.uk/who-we-are/jobs/ (Opens in a new tab)


Employer details

Employer name

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Pullman Place

Great Western Road

Gloucester

GL1 3NF


Employer's website

https://www.ghc.nhs.uk/who-we-are/jobs/ (Opens in a new tab)


Employer contact details

For questions about the job, contact:

Lead for Working Age Adult Psychological Services

Dr Jake Bowley

jake.bowley@ghc.nhs.uk

03004213436

Details

Date posted

17 December 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8b

Salary

£64,455 to £74,896 a year per annum (pro rata)

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Part-time

Reference number

327-25-1069

Job locations

Pullman Place

Great Western Road

Gloucester

GL1 3NF


Supporting documents

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