Senior Clinical Psychologist: Staff Psychology & Bariatric Surgery

Senior Clinical Psychologist: Staff Psychology & Bariatric Surgery NHS AfC: Band 8a

Main area: Clinical Health Psychology
Grade: NHS AfC: Band 8a
Contract: Permanent - It is necessary for the post-holder to work on Thursdays as well as either Wednesdays or Fridays.
Hours: 22.5 hours per week

Job ref: 372-MED2335
Employer: Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type: NHS
Site: Huddersfield Royal Infirmary/Calderdale Royal Hospital
Town: Huddersfield
Salary: £53,755 - £60,504 pro rata
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 25/03/:59
Interview date: 10/04/2025

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT) is committed to equal opportunities and welcomes applications from all sections of the community, regardless of any protected characteristics.

We are committed to recruiting to our values. Leading One Culture of Care underpins our values by creating an environment, tone, and behaviors across all parts of the Trust that are fundamentally rooted in compassionate care.

We are open to considering a wide range of flexible working arrangements. There are opportunities to flex the days of the week, hours and times of work, and place of work including: part-time, job-share, flexible working hours, and the possibility to work from home when appropriate. Please talk to us during the interview process to discuss any flexibility that you may require.

Our Future Plans

The Department of Health and Social Care has awarded capital funding to invest in local health services at both Calderdale Royal Hospital and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary. This is a significant investment and an opportunity to enhance services for our populations in Calderdale and Huddersfield and West Yorkshire for generations to come.

We are delighted to offer this new permanent post for a Senior Clinical or Counselling Psychologist for a split post working into the Staff Psychology and Bariatric Surgery services. The successful candidate will join a rapidly expanding Clinical Health Psychology Department within Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT). This post is for a total of 0.6 WTE, with 0.4 WTE in Staff Psychology and 0.2 WTE in Bariatric Surgery. To meet the needs of the services, we hope that a candidate could work Thursdays plus either Wednesday or Fridays as part of their working days.

Clinical and professional supervision will be provided by the Principal Clinical Psychologists who are clinical leads for the relevant services.

Main duties of the job

Staff Psychology - This post will involve providing psychological services to the workforce of an acute hospital trust. You will be joining an existing team at an exciting time of service development. The service has recently concluded a pilot phase of new staff support services like group debriefing and is looking to now consolidate and embed these services across the trust.

Bariatric Surgery - This post involves psychological assessment and therapeutic input to patients preparing for and adjusting to bariatric surgery. Experience of working with adults with complex mental health problems is key and experience in bariatric surgery or weight management services is desirable.

Working for our organisation Detailed job description and main responsibilities

In the Staff Psychology Service (0.4 WTE), the successful candidate will play a valuable role in an existing team to refine and further embed a post-incident group debriefing service into the Trust's staff support offer. The successful candidate will provide clinical oversight of the service which is delivered by multi-disciplinary colleagues and provide reflective practice to these colleagues. Another dimension of the role will be to engage the workforce in recently developed interventions, like a self-guided online resource for colleagues.

Within the Bariatric Surgery service (0.2 WTE), the post primarily involves the delivery of psychological care and pre-surgery psychological assessment to patients seeking and adjusting to bariatric surgery. The post-holder would be joining an existing service provided by the Principal Clinical Psychologist in the team to broaden capacity within the service.

Person specification QUALIFICATIONS / TRAINING

• Post graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, two or more distinct psychological therapies, as accredited by the British Psychological Society.
• Doctoral level qualification in clinical or counselling (or equivalent prior to 1995) by course accredited by the BPS and registration as a practitioner psychologist with HCPC.
• Completion of formal clinical supervisor training sufficient to be able to supervise doctoral trainees.
• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.

KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE & EXPERTISE

• Experience of working with clinical presentations equivalent to or relevant to this role.
• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of patients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care, and inpatient settings.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to patients, their families, carers, and other professional colleagues.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design, and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience of working in multi-disciplinary teams and offering systemic interpretations to have impact on the team functioning in patient care.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the patient group and mental health.
• Relevant experience of developing and setting up new services.
• Experience of working with NHS staff and teams or equivalent.

COMMUNICATION AND RELATIONSHIPS (INCLUDING MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES)

• Ability to exercise the full clinical responsibility for patient's psychological care and treatment within the clinical specialty and to co-ordinate the psychological care provided by others.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behavior.
• Maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems.
• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Ability to provide emotional support, consultation, and professional mentorship to multidisciplinary team members.

Our vision is to provide One Culture of Care for one another in order that we can provide compassionate care for the people who use our services. We are passionate about creating a workplace where we work together to get results, encouraging colleagues to have their say, in order to co-create the change we want to see. We take pride in the diversity of our workforce, that's why we encourage applications from all. Reasonable adjustments will be made for disabled applicants.

Please ensure your application is submitted with referees who can verify your employment/education history over the last three years and include valid email addresses for them.

If you are appointed to a post, information will also be transferred into the NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

You may be required to undertake a DBS. The Trust will administer the DBS check on your behalf and will recover the cost (Enhanced £54.40, Standard £26.40, or Basic £26.40) from your salary when you commence in post (including Internal staff). This is a condition of your employment.

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. Heather Langham
Job title: Principal Clinical Psychologist
Email address:
Telephone number:

If you have problems applying, contact

Address: Workforce and Organisational Development
Acre Mill
Acre Street
Lindley
Huddersfield
HD3 3EB
Telephone: