Principal Clinical Psychologist: Sponsorship Available

Job summary

Older Adult Community Mental Health Team and Memory Service – West – Maternity Cover 12 month fixed term post: Principal Clinical Psychologist Band 8b – 1 x 1.0 wte

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a 12 month fixed term maternity cover post within the older adult CMHT and memory service covering West Cheshire (Chester, Ellesmere Port and Neston, Northwich, and rural areas), with a base in Chester. CWP community mental health services are multi-disciplinary teams aiming to provide person centred, psychologically and trauma informed models of care. The memory service works closely alongside the older adult CMHT to provide an assessment and diagnosis service for dementia. Psychology has been integrated and is valued within the multi-disciplinary team, providing specialist assessment and interventions, as well as contributing to the clinical thinking and decision making of the teams. Psychological skills are also applied to delivering training, staff wellbeing initiatives and service development projects. We would like to recruit an experienced psychologist that will join an expanding older adult psychology workforce. You will support the development of a Mental Health Wellbeing Practitioner in your team. You will meet regularly with other senior psychologists throughout the Trust and an older adult psychology specialty group to ensure equitable service delivery.

Main duties of the job

The post-holder will join a supportive multi-disciplinary team who are passionate about working with older adults. The post holder will be responsible for providing assessments (including neuropsychological if required), formulations, and therapeutic interventions (both individually and in group format) to people with complex psychological and mental health difficulties. Psychology also provides specialist neuropsychological assessment to inform MDT decisions within the memory service. The post holder will support the wider team to develop psychological understandings of people’s difficulties through consultation, supervision, and training.

Based near the historic Roman city of Chester, the service has good links with the three local universities (Liverpool, Lancaster, and Manchester) providing opportunity to support trainees with research projects/audits and input into the teaching programmes.

The post holder will be expected to take a lead in service evaluations and ensure high standards of clinical effectiveness and clinical governance.

The service currently offers flexible working with a mixture of both remote and face to face encouraged.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996)
• HCPC registration
• Additional Psychotherapy qualification relevant to working with older adult clients with complex psychological and mental health difficulties

Desirable

• Post graduate diploma in clinical neuropsychology

Knowledge and Expertise

Essential

• Knowledge of and skills in working with older people presenting with longstanding and complex and specialist needs.
• Knowledge of and skills in conducting complex psychological assessment and intervention frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Skills in completing neuropsychological and psychometric assesssments, interpreting and reporting the results, and communicating this complex information sensitively and clearly.
• Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex and /or clinically sensitive information to clients and professional colleagues within and outside the NHS.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.
• Skills in providing Consultation to other professionals and non-professional groups.
• Evidence of supervisor training/qualification.
• Experience of supervising Assistant Psychologists, other psychological practitioners and/or MDT colleagues in psychological approaches
• Experience of research, audit/service evaluation.

Desirable

• Ability to apply psychological knowledge creatively in developing new initiatives
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the older adult population.
• Formal leadership/management training.

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working as a clinical psychologist therapeutically with older adult clients with varied complex, psychological and mental health difficulties.
• Experience of working within uni and muliti-professional teams.
• Experience of engaging and sustaining work with ambivalent clients.
• Experience of exercising clinical responsibility for clients’ psychological care,
• Experience of providing teaching and training.

Desirable

• Experience of liaison with other health professionals.
• Evidence of contributing to policy and service development.
• Experience of managing others.

Trust values

Essential

• Demonstrate alignment with Trust Values (6 C’s: Commitment, Communication, Care, Courage, Compassion, Competency)

Closing Date: 6 September 2026