Principal Practitioner Psychologist

We are delighted to announce an exciting opportunity for a permanent Principal Practitioner Psychologist (Clinical, Counselling, Forensic) to join our Oldham Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team (CRHTT), based at Royal Oldham Hospital. This is a 0.8WTE Band 8b position, offering a key leadership role within our dynamic and supportive service. The vacancy comes at a time of significant new investment in the crisis pathway, supporting the transformation of our existing Home Treatment Teams into CRHTTs. The successful candidate will join a 0.8WTE Highly Specialist Psychologist as part of expanding psychology provision.

Our CRHTT provides intensive home-based assessment, intervention, and support as an alternative to hospital admission. The team works with adults experiencing acute mental health crisis, often presenting with high levels of distress, risk, and complexity. The service plays a crucial role in admission avoidance, early intervention, and supporting safe discharge from inpatient care. The successful candidate will join committed and experienced MDTs, working closely with medical, nursing, OT, and support staff to deliver psychologically informed crisis care. This is an excellent opportunity to contribute to a growing and evolving service, influence the development of psychologically informed crisis pathways, and make a meaningful difference to service users and their families during some of the most challenging moments in their lives.

Main duties of the job

• To provide consultation and formulation to colleagues within the CRHTT.
• To provide a qualified specialist psychology service for people referred to the CRHTT care pathway.
• To provide specialist assessment, formulation and interventions for a clinical caseload.
• To provide psychological leadership to the CRHTT care pathway and work systemically across services (e.g., acute services and secondary care) to develop a psychological understanding and context for other professionals, service users and carers.
• To lead the psychological CRHTT provision within borough and support the Trust wide acute pathway when needed, to help ensure equity in provision and service.
• The post holder will propose and implement evidence-based practice, utilising research skills for audit and service developments.
• The post holder will enhance psychological understanding and skill set through the delivery of training, supervision and reflective practice.
• This will include within the current CRHTT team but also making links with local universities and providing placements for trainee Psychologists.
• To be an integral part of local and national initiatives to improve care quality.

Person Specification

Education / Qualifications

• 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 or postgraduate training in Forensic Psychology or Counselling Psychology).
• Current registration as a Clinical, Forensic or Counselling Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council.
• Completion of further post qualification training within psychological therapies (e.g., DBT, CBT, CAT, CFT, MBT etc).
• Completion of further post qualification training in supervision.

Experience

• Demonstrable post-qualification experience of specialist psychological assessment, formulation and treatment of adult clients experiencing psychological difficulties.
• 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.
• Demonstratable post-qualification experience of working with complex mental health problems, including distressing psychosis, problems associated with complex relational and emotional needs and severe depression, anxiety and trauma.
• Demonstratable experience of working with people experiencing a suicidal crisis.
• Demonstratable experience of working with an MDT.
• Experience of clinical leadership within a previous role.
• Demonstratable experience of providing clinical supervision to psychologists, psychological practitioners or other core health professions.
• Demonstratable experience of providing teaching/ training upon clinical interventions.
• Demonstratable experience of managing demand for psychological services within a form of stepped-care framework.
• Experience of delivering brief interventions to meet need.
• Experience of clinical leadership.
• Experience of working within an acute service setting.
• Ability to demonstrate further specialist clinical experience and training.
• Experience of audit and service evaluation within psychological therapy services.
• Research experience within an area relevant to work within an adult service.
• Demonstratable experience of the application of psychological therapy in diverse cultural and ethnic contexts.

Knowledge

• Understanding of the national and regional legislation, guidance and policy directives in relation to the development and delivery of psychological therapies within acute services.
• Evidence of post-qualification CPD as recommended by the HCPC and, or BPS, or other professional body.
• Up to date knowledge of the needs of people with complex mental health problems, and of psychological approaches to recovery.
• Awareness of the principles of a trauma informed care approach.
• Familiarity with computing technology, including keyboard skills and use of word-processing, e-mail and internet software.
• Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies and approaches for adults with complex mental health problems.
• Publication of training, service evaluation, clinical audit and research material.

Skills and abilities

• Ability to work with service users, carers and families to engage with their needs and provide them with appropriate psychological support and intervention.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Skills in working within an MDT to bring and share a psychological understanding of distress.
• Well developed, effective communication skills, both oral and in writing, enabling complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to be shared with service users, their families, carers and other professional colleagues within the NMHS and other agencies.
• Ability to prioritise work, operate a waiting list, meet short deadlines and an unpredictable work pattern that requires regular revision of plans.
• Ability to sit in a constrained position for service user assessment, formulation and individual and group therapy sessions and for computer work.
• Ability to work at a high level of professional autonomy and responsibility, in a collaborative multi-disciplinary environment and also as a lone worker in circumstances where there may be exposure to verbal and sometimes physical aggression.
• Able to sustain the intense concentration necessary for service user assessment and formulation, individual and group therapy sessions.
• Ability to work and communicate highly sensitive, contentious information effectively in a highly emotive or hostile atmosphere, and to overcome barriers to acceptance/ psychological resistance to potentially threatening information.
• Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to staff and carers exposed to highly distressing situations.
• 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.
• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials, suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Ability to demonstrate an area of special interest/ skill in therapeutic intervention.
• Ability to move equipment (including case files, neuropsychological tests, self-help materials, audiovisual equipment) between office base and other work settings.

Work related circumstances

• 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.
• 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 to check for any previous criminal convictions.

£66,582 to £77,368 a year, pro rata.