Job summary
- Main area
- Clinical Psychologist
- Grade
- Band 7 - Band 8a
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- 37.5 hours per week (Full time)
- Job ref
- 350-MHC7853549-A
- Employer
- Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Rathbone Hospital
- Town
- Liverpool
- Salary
- £49,387 - £64,750 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 14/04/2026 23:59
- Interview date
- 22/04/2026
Employer heading
Clinical Psychologist Band 7/8a Preceptorship
Band 7 - Band 8a
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Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnically diverse, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.
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Job overview
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Clinical Psychologist to work within Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust Eating Disorder Service. This is a full time permanent post.
The service is based at Rathbone Hospital, Liverpool and has a satellite clinic at Hartley Hospital, Southport.
The service offers both group and individual interventions utilising a range of models including CBT, CAT, CFT, Psycho-education and Motivational Interviewing. Client presentations include Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder. We also see people with an Atypical Eating Disorder presentation. In addition, the service also provides psychological therapy for the local Weight Management Service.
The service also offers psychological support and training for the relatives of people within our service.
The successful applicant will be supported and offered training to develop therapy skills. Over the last few years preceptors have had attended full CFT, ACT,EMDR and MBT/DBT training .
The post is suitable for newly qualified and current Band 7/8a's clinicians; relevant training, support and experience will be provided to ensure successful applicant is eligible for preceptorship to an 8a clinical psychology post after 2 years of direct clinical experience.
Main duties of the job
To provide a qualified specialist psychology service to clients of the service team, across all relevant sectors within an equality and human rights framework.
To provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy, offering advice and consultation on clients’ psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other, non professional carers.
To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the Directorate’s and team’s policies and procedures. To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the area served by the team/service.
A workplan will be developed with the postholder which will be reviewed on a yearly basis depending on the needs of the service.
Working for our organisation
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care.
To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s psychological problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy.
To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses where appropriate.
To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment and treatment of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based enhanced care plans.
To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
To act as care coordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and reviewing of care plans under enhanced CPA including clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.
To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.
Person specification
VALUES
Essential criteria
- Continuous Improvement
- Accountability
- Respectfulness
- Enthusiasm
- Responsive to service users
- Engaging leadership style
- Strong customer service belief
- Transparency and honesty
- Discreet
- Support
- High professional standards
- Change oriented
Knowledge/Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment, formulation and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings
- 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
- Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision
- Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts
Skills
Essential criteria
- Expertise in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, formulation, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
- Well developed and effective communication skills, oral and written, to communicate complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and nonprofessional groups
- Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health
- Knowledge of IT systems including word processing, email and local electronic patient information systems
- Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc). Knowledge of the theory and practice of at least one specialised psychological therapy. 03/09/25 within public, professional and academic settings
- Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of service governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour
- Ability to self-reflect, use clinical supervision appropriately and consider complex organisational and team dynamics
Desirable criteria
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc)
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of at least one specialised psychological therapy.
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Doctoral level training in Clinical/Counselling/Health psychology, or its approved equivalent accredited by the BPS, allowing registration with the HCPC as a Practitioner Psychologist.
Desirable criteria
- Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology
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.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Amelia Woodhouse
- Job title
- Clinical Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 0151 4717751
- Additional information
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