Principal Clinical Psychologist in North Shields

This is an innovative career opportunity in Adolescent Health within Clinical Health Psychology, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust. We would be interested in receiving applications from candidates with an interest in psychology in physical healthcare settings, and supporting the development of young people who are managing the interactions of adolescent life and healthcare. The post provides supported opportunities for skills and career development and will suit someone who understands the importance of advocating for the choices and voices of young people.

The focus is on the delivery of high quality, MDT integrated, and timely psychological provision. The therapeutic work will have a focus on the specific challenges for young people aged 11-20 who are living with long-term health needs. Working as a Psychologist, this work will take full consideration of the range of family, contextual, biopsychosocial factors that can impact upon, and support, psychological wellbeing during teen and young adult life.

Within the Northumbria Healthcare Clinical Health Psychology Grouping, we strive to embed psychologically-informed care by supporting the MDT teams and stakeholder partners to deliver an effective, integrated approach to the provision of care. We aim to support person-centred and psychosocial approaches across MDT pathways and systems, and in every contact a person has with the medical and surgical teams. We want to put patients at the heart of healthcare provision and help to re-configure potential barriers to whole-person formulation and care, including overcoming any artificial separation of mental and physical health, and by focussing on the person and family.

We manage three major locality hospitals at North Tyneside, Wansbeck and Hexham, plus a number of smaller community hospitals and clinics from Tynemouth to Berwick on Tweed, covering one of the largest geographical areas of any NHS trust in the country. Leading in innovation and quality - opening a state of the art Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, the first of its kind in England. Do you want to work in one of the best performing NHS organisations in England? Work in an organisation that supports its staff and focuses on staff experience as much as it does the experience of its patients? You can live and breathe in an area that has the cleanest air, cost effective living, great nightlife, some of the best schools with a wealth of history available on your doorstep.

The postholder will undertake a range of responsibilities aimed at integrating high quality and evidence-based psychological care into the wider network of support, including direct clinical care and other roles such as case consultation with MDT colleagues, offering staff training, undertaking audit and service development work, etc., as appropriate to the competency level of the successful candidate. The successful candidate will receive high quality supervision and CPD opportunities to develop their skills across clinical work, and these team-based clinical care ways of working.

The successful candidate will work under the management and supervision of a senior, service lead psychologist and receive professional guidance from the wider Clinical Health Psychology Grouping. They will develop close working relationships with the healthcare team(s) being worked into and liaise closely with primary care and other agencies, such as the Local Authority and third sector services, where required. The Trust has close links with local universities with opportunities to share specialist skills with psychology and medical students.

There is a long-standing commitment to integrated psychological provision within the Trust and the Clinical Health Psychology Grouping work into other services including obstetrics and gynaecology, pain management, neonatal care, adult long-term health conditions, and cancer services. The grouping has good professional links with the NHCFT mental health teams, including in MHSOP and CAMHS, and other Trust psychology teams including the Learning Disability Service and Community Psychology. We have excellent working links with our management and executive teams, and receive timely support with operational, professional, clinical and governance matters.

The post will be based across the Trust-wide footprint and the post-holder will therefore be expected to work routinely across the main sites in the Trust and undertake such travel as part of the job. The post holder will work autonomously within HCPC, British Psychological Society, and NHS Trust professional guidelines. They will be required to work within the governance structures of the Trust.

Applicants must be registered with the Health & Care Professions Council as a Practitioner Psychologist. Applicants must have completed Doctoral level Postgraduate training in Clinical or Counselling Psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996 and/or hold a BPS Statement of Equivalence for such doctoral level training), as accredited by the BPS.

It is an essential requirement of the role that the post holder has a valid driving licence and is either a car owner and able to use the car for work purposes, or has a Trust personal lease vehicle which may be used for the role. However, the Trust would consider making reasonable adjustments to the role, if necessary, to enable a disabled person to undertake the role.