Highly Specialist Applied Psychologist - Development post
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
March, PE15 0PR
Salary
£49,387 to £64,750
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Not specified
Closing date
7 September 2026
7 days left
Job description
The Fen's service are advertising an 8a position, which includes the opportunity for people at a band 7 level to apply for and develop up to an 8a. Th...
You will have a managerial role working within the Fens Services. This will require the post holder to have a solid working knowledge of personality disorders, challenging behaviour and trauma, recognising the implications and consequences that can arise for those who struggle to live with personality difficulties arising from adverse childhood trauma.
The post holder is required to have good leadership skills and a desire to work collaboratively with both HMPPS and other NHS staff who provide additional core services within the main prison. This post requires experience of working in a challenging environment, with an understanding of risk management to assist in reducing personal distress and improve wellbeing. You will be required to provide a clinical leadership role, that ensures the systematic provision of a high-quality Mental Health intervention accessible across both Fens and the Outreach Services.
The post holder will work autonomously within their professional guidelines and the overall framework of both the Trust's and The Fens Service's policies and procedures.
"I wanted to change, I was crying out to change. You know, it was a trust element....letting them see me warts and all....and that was the hard thing. Breaking down crying...getting the stuff out I needed to. I grew from that...if I don't like myself, how can anyone else like myself. How can I move on if I don't forgive myself... I've got to give myself a chance."Current service user
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health and social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting and empowering them to lead fulfilling lives.
Our clinical teams deliver a wide range of NHS services across inpatient, primary care and community settings, including children's, adult and older people's mental health, forensic and specialist mental health, learning disabilities, primary care and liaison psychiatry, substance misuse, social care, and research and development.
To achieve our goals, we recruit high calibre candidates who share our vision and values. As an equal opportunities' employer, we welcome applications from all sections of the community, particularly under represented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities.
All appointments are subject to the successful completion of a probationary period.
Please note we reserve the right to close adverts early should we receive sufficient applications.
Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all roles. If you apply for a post that does not attract sponsorship, your application will be withdrawn from the process.
For further information on CPFT, please visit our website at https://www.cpft.nhs.uk
Education/Qualifications
Essential
- Doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS, or a BPS Statement of Equivalence.
- Or chartered forensic psychologist
- Valid HCPC registration
Desirable
- Recognised training in specialist assessment tools (e.g.PCL-R, HCR-20, WAIS-IV or other clinical assessments)
Experience
Essential
- Working experience as a trainee/qualified psychologist within a locked/secure environment
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment, formulation and treatment of clients across a range of care 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 Skills at 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 psychological interventions in different contexts
Desirable
- Lived experience of mental health
- Experience of working within a multicultural framework
- Experience of interagency working
Skills & Abilities
Essential
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, psychological formulation, intervention and management.
- Skills in developing and/or delivering individual and group work.
- Skills in planning and organising caseload management.
- Skills in self-management, including time-management.
- Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information, including contentious and highly distressing information, to clients, other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS/HMPPS.
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
Desirable
- 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.).
- High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
- Knowledge of the OPDP services, and what working within an OPD service might entail.
- Knowledge or experience of using neurofeedback as a wellbeing tool.
- Knowledge or experience of using VR as a tool to support wellbeing or psychological interventions.
Knowledge & Understanding
Essential
- Good understanding of other professionals' theoretical perspectives of this client group.
- Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance, including regular supervision, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
- Knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
Physical Requirements
Essential
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, enabling formation of networks with professionals within the Trust and from other agencies (HMPPS) to promote effective team working with clients
- Able to contain and work with high levels of distress from clients.
- Emotionally robust.
- Able to contain and work with organisational stress.
- Interpersonally calm and able to defuse difficult, volatile situations.
- Ability to exercise appropriate levels of self-care and to monitor own state, recognising when it is necessary to take active steps to maintain fitness to practice.
- Motivated towards personal and professional development with a strong CPD record.
- Able to tolerate ambiguity and to take decisions in situations of incomplete information.
Other
Essential
- Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
- Able to tolerate prolonged periods of sitting.
How to apply
Applications are handled entirely by the employer on the original advert. We do not collect CVs, supporting statements or application data.
Provenance
Source
NHS Jobs
First seen
24 August 2026
Last checked
26 August 2026
Salary, closing date and description are taken from the employer's advert. The original advert always takes precedence.
About the employer
NHS organisation
This listing was structured from NHS Jobs. Vacancy details and the application process remain the responsibility of the original source.
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