Job summary
- Main area
- Clinical Psychologist
- Grade
- Band 8a
- Contract
- Fixed term: 9 months (Cover for maternity leave)
- Hours
- Part time - 26 hours per week
- Job ref
- 351-PEN1055-CL
- Employer
- Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Pennine Lancs SPCMHT
- Town
- Blackburn
- Salary
- £55,690 - £62,682 pa pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 10/02/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Senior Perinatal Clinical Psychologist
Band 8a
Our Vision is to provide the best mental health, learning disability, autism, community, and physical health services for the populations we serve.
As an integrated Trust, Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCFT) delivers a comprehensive range of services, including:
- Primary and secondary mental health care for children and adults, including specialist inpatient child and adolescent mental health provision, perinatal mental health, and forensic services with low and medium secure care.
- Specialist mental health inpatient care for individuals with learning disabilities, alongside specialist community support for children and adults with learning disabilities and autism, including intensive support.
- Extensive community physical health and well-being services for children and adults, covering prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and long-term condition management.
The Trust was first established in 2002 and employs approximately 7,500 staff who provide care from more than 400 sites. The organisation offers opportunities for medics, mental health, general nurses, children’s nurses, allied health professionals, psychology, administration and clerical staff, apprentices and volunteers, as well as those specialising in learning disabilities and community physical health services.
For more information visit our website via Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS FT.
Job overview
Would you like to make a real difference to the lives of women, their babies and families? Are you ready to enhance and develop your compassionate leadership skills in a specialist area of mental health? If so, then consider joining us! We have a fixed-term opportunity for a Senior Clinical Psychologist, to cover maternity leave in our Pennine Specialist Perinatal Community Mental Health Team (SPCMHT).
You would be based in our Blackburn team. You will work clinically across the Pennine Lancs area, with some limited travel across the service footprint to attend service wide Psychology/therapies meetings, etc. The Pennine SPCMHT has a kind and compassionate Team Leader and supportive MDT.
As a fixed-term post, the role would require immediate supervision of other members of the Pennine psychology/therapy team, clinical consultation and oversight of referrals and allocations. You would be well-supported by senior psychology colleagues in the role.
This is a great opportunity for a candidate who has perinatal clinical experience and wants to further develop their supervisory and leadership skills in a contained and supported way.
Main duties of the job
The Specialist Perinatal Community Mental Health Team (SPCMHT) aims to provide excellent comprehensive Perinatal Mental Health care for the women/birthing people of Lancashire and South Cumbria.
The service focuses on improving outcomes for women/birthing people experiencing perinatal mental health difficulties, their infant and their families.
We provide multidisciplinary integrated team working and ensure effective prevention that responds to local need by:
• Intervening earlier at preconception, during pregnancy and up to 2 years following delivery
• On-going training of professionals from multiple disciplines
• Improving pathways and processes for mothers, their families and professionals
The service prioritises access and care for women/birthing people with moderate to severe mental health difficulties who are most in need of specialist, comprehensive, multi-agency coordinated care. SPCMHT works closely with general adult services, maternity services, maternal mental health services, primary care and social services.
Working for our organisation
LSCFT values diversity and inclusion, recognising that talent from varied backgrounds creates a flexible, creative, and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from all, regardless of age, disability (including those with experience of accessing or caring for someone who has accessed mental health or learning disability services), ethnicity, gender, religion, belief, or sexual orientation.
Our aim is to reflect the communities we serve, so we particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups. If you’d like to discuss your application, please ask.
We also welcome individuals with lived experience relevant to the role or service area, as your insight brings authenticity to our services.
LSCFT support flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as term time, part time, compressed hours and flexi-time.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see the attached job description and person specification for more information about this role.
Person specification
Education/ Qualifications
Essential criteria
- The Graduate Basis for Registration (further to completion of an honours degree in psychology accredited by the British Psychological Society, or, in the case of courses that are not accredited or where the first degree is not in psychology, by completion of the Society’s Qualifying examination, or completion of a Society accredited Conversion Course).
- Satisfactory completion of a British Psychological Society accredited Doctoral Level postgraduate professional training course in clinical psychology
- Registered as a Practitioner Psychologist with HCPC
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Well-developed theoretical and practical knowledge of the field of clinical psychology, consistent with doctoral level professional training and further post qualification study, training and supervised experience.
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment consistent with doctoral level training, including specialist clinical interviewing, behavioural observation, complex psychometric testing and specialist neuropsychological testing.
- Skills commensurate with doctoral level training in the formulation of problems from a psychological perspective and in the implementation of highly specialist psychological therapies, interventions and management techniques that are appropriate for use with complex presenting problems.
- When communicating with patients, carers and colleagues, has the high level interpersonal skills necessary to obtain and convey highly complex, sensitive or contentious information in emotionally charged and extremely emotive settings
- Skills in providing clinical supervision and consultation to members of other professional and non-professional groups.
- Ability to provide teaching and training on relevant psychological topics, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment and individual and group based intervention with clients across the full range of care settings, including primary and secondary/ specialist care and inpatient/residential, outpatient and community team settings.
- Experience of working with perinatal and parent/infant cases in a clinically relevant setting
- Relevant post qualification and training, enabling the post holder to provide supplementary supervision to clinical psychology trainees
Skills and Abilities
Essential criteria
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to patients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
Work Related Circumstances
Essential criteria
- 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.
- Ability to interact effectively with staff from all disciplines.
- Is a ‘team player’ and has demonstrated ability to work and deliver to team and organisational objectives
- Ability to maintain a high degree of professionalism, and to reflect on and manage own emotions and those of others, when faced by highly distressing material, problems and circumstances
- Capacity for tolerating frustration, change and high levels of demand with an ability to work effectively under pressure.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Application numbers
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Jo Gorry
- Job title
- Consultant Clinical Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07971671346
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