Band 8b Principal Clinical Psychologist

Company: NSFT
Apply for the Band 8b Principal Clinical Psychologist
Location: King's Lynn
Job Description:

Main area Mental Health Grade Band 8b Contract Permanent Hours

  • Part time
  • Flexible working

22.5 hours per week (Flexible working will be considered) Job ref 246-WSN8275612-A

Site Chatterton House Town Kings Lynn Salary £66,582 – £77,368 gross per annum pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 02/11/2026 23:59

Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust provides child and adult mental health services, learning disability, wellbeing, older people’s and eating disorder services across Norfolk and Suffolk.

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and want to reflect the diversity of our local communities within our teams. We welcome applications from all talented individuals with the relevant qualifications, skills, knowledge and experience.

Please note due to the nature of our roles and patient demographic, you will be required to undertake physical intervention training and remain trained, as required by your role.

Job overview

This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to a new Intensive and Assertive Team designed to help our service users who present with psychosis and who also are likely to have complex needs and complex engagement patterns with services.

The cohort of patients under the service will be complex and vulnerable. This post would suit a person who is comfortable working with people presenting with high and complex risks, and is passionate about health equity. Understanding of how the wider systems and agencies work will be an advantage for this role.

Main duties of the job

In this 8b role, the main functions will be to provide:

  • Specialist assessment and formulation of the most complex cases (including neuropsychological assessment).
  • Multidisciplinary and multiagency consultation.
  • Support for other members of the multidisciplinary team including the provision of supervision, consultation, reflective practice and post event reflections.
  • Contribution to the development of the team’s working model and system pathways in line with national guidance and strategy (NICE guidance, National Guidance on Assertive and Intensive Community Mental Health Treatment).
  • Leading service improvement, QI and service evaluation projects.
  • To engage with family, carers and our other stakeholders (e.g. VCSE, police) in order to promote the wellbeing and safety of our service users

It would be desirable within this role to have had previous experience working in community services for adults with serious mental illness and to be trained to in CBT for Psychosis or some other relevant therapy model.

Working for our organisation

As an employer Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust are particularly committed to enabling our staff to do the very best they can through support and training, as well as opportunities for progression. We are confident, therefore, that the right candidate will have a real chance to make a positive impact to the lives of young people in Norfolk.

Here at NSFT we pride ourselves on being a welcoming, talented, friendly and supportive team who like nothing better than sharing experiences and learning from each other. In addition to ongoing training and development opportunities, we are committed to providing an environment in which you can thrive.

Why work for us? We have challenges as a Trust, but we have ambitious aspirations, are pushing ahead with exciting transformation work and we need dedicated individuals to support us on our journey. We have strong, established professional networks coupled with an exceptional leadership team who will ensure you are truly cared for and cared about.

Why Norfolk and Suffolk? The people here are warm and welcoming, you’ll never be far from the beautiful coastline or Broads National Park. We’re an hour and a half away from London and have an international airport in Norwich too. Our villages, towns and cities are packed full of history, independent cafes, shops and theatres. We have excellent shopping, eating out, top ranking schooling and affordable house prices too.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Whilst the post is located in West Norfolk, the Intensive and Assertive Team covers the geographical region covered by the trust. The post holder will be required to travel on the basis of need, but opportunities to work from other parts of the trust will be supported where possible.

Some of the benefits you can expect:

  • a comprehensive in house & external training programmes
  • career progression
  • starting annual leave of 27 days per annum increasing to 33 days pa based on length of service (plus paid bank holidays)
  • NHS discounts and many more.

Interview dates are yet to be set; you will be contacted via email and invited to book a time. These emails may go to your SPAM, so please keep checking all your emails if applying.

Person specification

Qualifications

  • Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology, or its equivalent, including eligibility for chartered status with the BPS
  • Further post-qualification, post-graduate training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice
  • Registered as a practitioner psychologist with the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC)
  • Evidence of CPD in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice

Experience

  • Specialist complex psychological assessment and treatment of people with a wide range of mental health problems, of varying severity and complexity.
  • Extensive experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist and evidence of specialist knowledge gained through practice and ongoing training.
  • Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups and presenting problems including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems.
  • Representing psychology within MDT setting (clinical and organisational contexts).
  • Experience of clinical work with clients that can be difficult to engage with severe mental illness

Skills

  • Use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management.
  • Assessment, evaluation and management of risk associated with mental ill health and related psychopathology.
  • Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively complex, highly technical and clinically highly sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
  • Production of reports suitable for public presentations and presentation in medico-legal setting.
  • High level knowledge in the assessment and evaluation of psychological therapies.

Knowledge

  • Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnosis, people with additional disabilities etc.)
  • Practitioner level knowledge of at least two models of psychological therapy.
  • Legislation and its implication for clinical practice and the appropriate management of people presenting with mental health problems

Other

  • Commitment to continuing professional development, to partnership working and to reflective clinical practice.
  • Able to identify, and employ appropriate clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice.
  • Ability to travel Independently
  • Undertake physical intervention training and remain trained in techniques, as required by role
  • Experience of working within a multicultural framework.
  • Experience of providing specific support intervention and strategy for staff.

Please be aware that, due to the high number of applications for certain roles, this vacancy may close earlier than the advertised closing date. We encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible.

YOUR APPLICATION

We can provide all our job application materials in alternative formats so that these are accessible to everyone. Should you require any documents within this job pack in an alternative format, please do not hesitate to contact us at recruitment@nsft.nhs.uk.

PLEASE NOTE: If you use a hotmail, msn or yahoo e-mail account, you will need to check your “junk” mail regularly as these email providers will divert any communication from this Trust/NHS JOBS straight into your ” junk” inbox.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES Apart from its legal duties in relation to equality and diversity, the Trust recognises and actively promotes the benefits of a diverse workforce and is committed to treating all employees with dignity and respect regardless of race, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief.

As a part of the Disability Confident Employer Guaranteed Interview Scheme we interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the job vacancy (outlined in the Person Specification).. We encourage you to indicate your eligibility through TRAC jobs when applying.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post may be 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 (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.

Name Dr Adrian Leddy Job title Associate Director of Psychology Email address adrian.leddy@nsft.nhs.uk Additional information

Dr Lynda Meina Director of Psychology (West Norfolk)

#J-18808-Ljbffr…

Posted: October 22nd, 2026