Principal Clinical/Forensic Psychologist
Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust
Gloucester, GL1 3WL
Salary
£66,582 to £77,368
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Not specified
Closing date
14 September 2026
10 days left
Job description
This role is offered on a permanent basis . The hours are part-time, 30 hours per week.Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (GHC) is p...
The role has a clinical, consultation and leadership function. The successful candidate will divide their time between each of these dimensions.
Clinical work primarily will primarily focus on assessments (including system wide access assessments), ensuring interventions (not just psychological) are formulation driven and focussed on reducing risk and enhancing protection.
Consultation will include chairing and leading risk clinics (alongside other clinical leaders within Montpellier) and care team meetings in addition to internal consultation to Montpellier colleagues and wider consultation to GHC colleagues.
Clinical leadership within Montpellier to assist with bringing a psychological voice to the MDT. There is expectation to lead MDT's CPA's and other professional meetings as required. There are many opportunities for teaching. Specifically it is expected that the successful candidate will provide teaching on risk assessment, formulation and risk management using a SPJ approach.
There may be other, wider requirements, as directed by service need and the Consultant Clinical Psychologist.
Clinical
Assessment and Intervention: To provide expert forensic clinical psychological assessment, formulation and treatment planning and where appropriate, implementing specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups and to demonstrate awareness of diversity issues. To ensure that interventions are maintained within the boundaries of best practice within risk management and ensure all treatment records are completed according to Trust policy.
To participate in access assessments for Gloucestershire patients alongside other clinical leads within Montpellier.
Consultation and Guidance: To provide advice, guidance and consultation on:
o forensic (risk) matters
o psychological aspects of patient care
to colleagues, other service providers, patients and carers.
To lead and contribute to service user planning and review meetings.
Works primarily within a multi-disciplinary approach/team where a variety of opinion and expertise is brought to bear on a situation.
Safeguarding: To be responsible for the protection of individuals from abuse and harm in line with local safeguarding policies and procedures, ensuring the appropriate sharing of information.
Teaching, training, supervision and consultancy
To ensure that other staff, professionals, and managers (across a range of agencies and settings) have access to a psychologically based framework for the understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation and the sharing of psychological research and theory.
To provide training to others as relevant to service need.
To provide training on the Clinical or Forensic Psychology Doctoral Course as agreed.
Leadership and management
To provide delegated line management for psychological staff as appropriate.
To provide clinical supervision to Psychology Assistants, Trainees and Qualified psychologists.
To hold delegated professional management for specified clinical psychology staff and assistants.
To participate as a senior lead clinician in the planning and development of a high quality, responsive and accessible service. Includes leading on and making proposals for policy implementation and service development for the service. Includes advising both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where forensic, psychological and / or wider organisational matters need addressing.
To participate in supervision of own practice, completing any agreed actions. To participate in own line management sessions.
Research activities, service evaluation and development
Within forensic and secure services, uses professional skills and knowledge including research, service evaluation and audit to suggest ways to improve and develop practice.
Ensures reflective scientist-practitioner approach in own practice and that of supervisees
To provide research advice to other staff undertaking research
To supervise and where necessary organise the research activities of Assistant Psychologists, Doctoral trainees and other staff.
We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people's homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.
Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:
- 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
- 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
- 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust's priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.
This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.
Qualifications
Essential
- Post Graduate Doctoral level training in Clinical or Forensic Psychology, as accredited by the B.P.S (or equivalent level health- relevant Applied Psychology training, as accredited by the B.P.S )
- Registered as Practitioner Psychologist with the HCPC
- Further training in forensic focussed assessments and interventions
Desirable
- Further training in forensic clinical psychology
Length and nature of experience
Essential
- Experience of working in forensic clinical psychology services
- Broad and specialist knowledge of forensic clinical psychology services
- Experience of undertaking leadership roles
- Experience of working in a range of settings or agencies
- Advanced knowledge and experience of psychological assessment and formulation in a forensic/mental health service which includes risk assessment
- Experience of working with multi-agencies
- Experience of completing and communicating risk assessments in the context of forensic and/or criminal justice services
- Experience of leading the development, implementation and evaluation of strategies and/or clinical policies in multi-disciplinary or multi-agency contexts
- Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues, both within and outside the NHS. Well organised and an effective team player
- Evidence of maintaining effective communication when there are barriers to understanding and in circumstances where hostility, manipulation, conflict, and antagonism are present.
- Proficient in the manipulation of complex Psychological test equipment for use in formal testing situations
- Evidence in application of Psychological knowledge to improve and develop practice and contribution to service development
- Experience of acting as a Care Programme Approach (CPA) coordinator, key-worker or similar
- Experience of clinical supervision and supporting the psychological work of other clinical staff who provide psychologically based care and treatment. Experience of conducting appraisals and monitoring performance of staff
- Receipt of at least 50 hours clinical supervision while working at highly specialist level with delegated responsibility for a largely autonomous and systematic service provision. Post qualification experience demonstrates effective work in a multi-disciplinary setting
- To demonstrate ability to draw on experience to apply knowledge and understanding of professional guidelines and governance issues to the service area
Specialist knowledge
Essential
- Core Knowledge: Highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology, models for psychopathology, psychometrics, up to date practice with client group, and two or more psychological therapies. Knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex multivariate data analysis consistent with Practitioner Psychologist status
- Advanced knowledge: HCPC Registration qualifies Psychologists to work in any of a wide range of disciplines. This post requires person to have gained theoretical and practical knowledge of forensic clinical psychology and to have experience of clinical leadership that is significantly beyond the core levels necessary to achieve Registration. The knowledge may have been developed in a variety of ways. Appropriate evidence could include
- Formal training
- Skill development through significant post graduate employment
- Supervision experience with trainee Clinical/Counselling Psychologists/ other professions.
- Learning acquired through participation in relevant short specialist courses.
- A minimum of 70 hours post-qualification CPD
- Receipt of a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision working as a qualified clinical psychologist Ability to adapt style and/or assessment and intervention strategies to meet the challenges of complex clients / situations
Desirable
- 280 hours post-qualification CPD demonstrating examples of assuming increasing responsibility within a largely autonomous area of service
Personal attributes, skills and abilities
Essential
- Emotional robustness to frequently work with the intense distress of others.
- Empathic towards and able to engage effectively with the client group. Experience of maintaining working relationships and a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical aggression. Ability to cope with workload pressure. Self-aware and emotionally resilient.
- Ability to undertake all statutory and mandatory training including Breakaway (subject to Health Clearance)
Other
Essential
- Keyboard skills and ability to use word -processing, spreadsheet, and statistical analysis software.
- Ability to get to required locations in timely and efficient manner.
- Ability to attend and participate in all mandatory and statutory training events where required
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
3 September 2026
Last checked
4 September 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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