Main area Inpatient - Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) Grade NHS AfC: Band 8b Contract Permanent Hours
- Part time
- Flexible working
- Compressed hours
33.75 hours per week Job ref 311-T760-26
Employer Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Tameside General Hospital Town Ashton-under-Lyne Salary £66,582 - £77,368 per annum, pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 18/11/2026 23:59
NHS AfC: Band 8b
If you are Kind, Fair, Ingenious and Determined then we want you to come and join our#PennineCarePeople
We are excited to advertise a permanent 0.9WTE Principal Practitioner Psychologist post (Clinical, Counselling, Forensic) to work in Walkerwood Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), based at Tameside General Hospital.
We are looking for a highly skilled and compassionate Practitioner Psychologist who is passionate about providing high-quality psychological care within our PICU and working with people experiencing significant levels of distress and complexity.
Walkerwood is a 10-bedded PICU providing specialist assessment, care and treatment to men aged 18 years and over who are experiencing a psychiatric crisis and often present with a variety of complex mental health needs and heightened levels of risk .
Walkerwood is a friendly, dynamic multidisciplinary team committed to delivering the highest standards of care. The team works in a trauma-informed way and utilises the RAID model of care to support recovery, engagement and therapeutic relationships. Our aim is to provide care in the least restrictive way possible whilst maintaining safety and promoting positive outcomes for service users.
The successful applicant will join an Acute Care Pathway Psychology Team with a strong network of colleagues around them, including supervision from a Consultant Clinical Psychologist.
Main duties of the job
As outlined in the job description, the main duties include:
- To provide clinical leadership and direction in the continual development and provision of excellence in applied psychology for the PICU.
- To provide a high quality clinical psychology service to adults presenting with complex mental health problems.
- To provide highly specialised psychological assessment and therapy while also offering advice and consultation on service users’ psychological care to other colleagues and different professional groups.
- To work as part of the wider MDT, bringing a psychological perspective and understanding to presenting distress. This will include to formulation driven care, risk assessments and formulations and contributions within team meetings.
- To support inpatient colleagues through the provision of supervision, reflective practice and post-incident reflective spaces where appropriate.
- To contribute to audit, policy/service development, and research. To propose and implement policy changes within the areas served.
- To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the Trust’s policies and procedures.
- To provide clinical supervision to individuals and groups of staff working across the inpatient services, including psychology staff.
Working for our organisation
Our acute pathway provides an evidence-based, high quality service across adult acute wards, PICUs, Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Teams and Mental Health Liaison Teams covering half of Greater Manchester. The Trustwide acute psychology team meets regularly for team meetings, CPD and facilitated reflective group and has leadership from a Clinical Lead.
We are passionate about staff well-being and compassionate leadership. Our staff survey results support this. In the latest national NHS Staff Survey (2024) Pennine Care was ranked as the best mental health and learning disability trust in the North.
Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the top of our agenda. We know a diverse, inclusive and engaged culture is vital; that everyone's value should be recognised and respected.
We support staff to work flexibly and recognise and respect the roles our colleagues hold outside of working hours. This focus helps us to retain staff and ensure people are happy in their place of work.
If you come and work for us we offer a range of benefits and opportunities, including:
- Generous annual leave entitlement for Agenda for Change staff.
- Involvement in improvement and research activities
- Health and Wellbeing activities and access to an excellent staff wellbeing service
- Access to staff discounts across retail, leisure and travel
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
For a more detailed overview of the roles job description and main responsibilities, please see the attached job description and personal specification.
Person specification
Education/ Qualifications
- Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical/counselling/forensic psychology, (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS. or post-graduate doctoral level 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 assessment and treatment of adult clients and those with psychological difficulties in an inpatient setting.
- Demonstrable 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.
- Demonstrable experience of working with people experiencing a suicidal crisis.
- Demonstrable experience of working within inpatient adult multidisciplinary teams.
- Experience of clinical leadership within a previous role.
- Demonstrable experience of providing clinical supervision to psychologists, psychological therapists or other core health professions.
- Demonstrable experience of providing teaching/ training upon clinical interventions
- Demonstrable experience of managing demand for psychological services within a form of stepped-care framework (i.e. an approach based upon the provision of direct care, and supporting other professionals in their provision of direct psychosocial work
- Experience of clinical leadership
- Experience of working within an inpatient 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
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