Principal Clinical Psychologist (XR09)

Weare excited to advertise 0.6wte of Principal Clinical Psychologist time, to support and lead the Paediatric Psychology Cluster Team. This team sits within the Long-Term Conditions Group in our Paediatric Psychology department and is responsible for the clinical outpatient and inpatient activity of several medical specialities, including Paediatric Rheumatology and Paediatric Allergy.

Your clinical role will focus on providing inpatient and outpatient assessments and interventions in relation to a wide range of Paediatric presenting problems to the families under the care of the Paediatric Cluster team. This will include opportunities for MDT working, supervision of MDT members, consultation and teaching and training activities. Your leadership will centre on supporting the delivery of clinical activity, access targets and service development of the team, as well as providing line managerial support to the clinicians working into the team.

This role provides ample opportunities to further develop your clinical skills, as well as, your leadership and line management skills. You will be joining a very well established and supportive team that values reflective and innovative team working. As such, you will have the opportunity to lead the team through the Affina OD team journey, starting in 2026. You will be further encouraged and supported to access additional training opportunities to develop your leadership or clinical skills further.

Main duties of the job Toprovide a qualified specialist clinical psychology service to patients who are seen within the designated clinical speciality/area, across all sites and sectors of care by:

• Providing specialist psychological assessments and therapy
• Offering advice and consultation on patients psychological and neuropsychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other non-professional carers
• Developing, supporting and maintaining effective working relationships with other disciplines within the service areas, including attending Team meetings
• Using research skills for audit, policy and service development and leading on research projects within the area served by the team/service
• Proposing and implementing policy changes within the specialist area served
• Line managing Early Career and Senior Clinical Psychologists in the Paediatric Psychology Cluster team, where the post is positioned and making a contribution to the general management, governance and supervision of the Paediatric Psychology service as agreed
• Working autonomously in the delivery of these duties within professional guidelines, the evidence-based literature and the overall framework of the Team, Department of Paediatric Psychology and Trust policies and procedures.

Expected Shortlisting Date

01/12/2025

Planned Interview Date

15/12/2025

About us You will be joining The Department of Paediatric Psychology (DPP), with over 30 clinicians, organised in four sectors of care: Long Term Conditions, Surgery & Oncology, Cardiology & Critical Care as well as Paediatric Neuropsychology. This particular post sits in the Long-Term Conditions Team, and you will be supporting children, young people and their families who live with a wider range of chronic health conditions.

The Department is academically ambitious with good links to the expanding DClinPsych Programme and Schools of Medicine and Psychology at the University of Leeds. Scholarly activity is an important part of what we do, and successful candidates will be encouraged to take the academic opportunities on offer.

Most importantly, we value the balance between work and home life.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals is committed to our process of redeploying 'at risk' members of our existing workforce to new roles. As such, all our job adverts are subject to this policy and we reserve the right to close, delay or remove adverts while this process is completed. If you do experience a delay in the shortlisting stage of the recruitment cycle, please bear with us while this process is completed, and contact the named contact if you have any questions.

Job responsibilities PRINCIPAL DUTIES & AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

Clinical

1. To provide specialist psychological assessments of patients referred to the service, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of highly complex data from a variety of sources including neuropsychological and psychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with patients, family members and others involved in the patients care.

2. To formulate, develop and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a patients psychological problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the patients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.

6. To provide highly specialised psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to patients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plans.

7. To ensure that all relevant professionals have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding and care of patients of the service, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of psychological research and theory.

8. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual patients and to provide general advice to other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management with particular reference to deliberate self-harm.

9. To act as care co-ordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans under enhanced CPA (or its equivalent in the acute physical health setting) including patients, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.

10. To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of patients under their care and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.

11. To provide expertise, advice and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by staff and agencies outside the Trust.

Teaching, training, and supervision

1. To receive regular clinical professional supervision from a more senior clinical psychologist and, where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues.

2. To gain additional highly specialist experience and skills relevant to clinical psychology and the service (as agreed with the Lead Psychologist and Head of Department) up to two sessions per week or pro-rata.

3. To develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision and to provide supervision to other MDT staff psychological work as appropriate.

4. To provide professional and clinical supervision of doctoral trainee and graduate/ assistant psychologists and to qualified clinical psychologists.

5. To contribute to pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical, health and/or counselling psychology, as appropriate.

6. To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the patient group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.

Management, recruitment, policy and service development:

1. To participate as a senior clinician in the development of a high quality, responsive and accessible service including advising both the Lead Consultant Clinical Psychologist for the designated clinical speciality/area and the Head of Department on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.

2. To assume line management responsibilities for other clinical psychologists and assistants as appropriate or requested.

3. To exercise responsibility for managing the psychological resources available to the post-holder, whether in the form of other qualified and unqualified graduate psychology staff, or in the form of psychological materials employed in the assessment and treatment of patients.

4. To exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the post-holder's area of responsibility.

5. To contribute to the planning and development of services for patients within the designated clinical speciality/area across the patient pathway including advising both the Lead Consultant Clinical Psychologist for the designated clinical speciality/area and the Head of Department on where changes need to occur.

6. To initiate and implement service developments and the designated clinical speciality/area.

7. To participate as appropriate in staff recruitment, both in the short-listing process and as a member of interview panels for assistant . click apply for full job details