Job overview
An opportunity has come available to join our compassionate, supportive and innovative team at Rehab. This post will be providing maternity leave cover for a fixed term of 12 months.
We are looking for someone to provide high quality, evidence based psychological care.
As a qualified Clinical or Counselling Psychologist (with HCPC registration), you will carry a clinical caseload, as well as offer expert consultation/case discussion, teaching, training and supervision. There will be opportunity to develop skills in leadership.
You will be supported by the Principal Clinical Psychologist. There are key opportunities to lead on aspects of service development, which may include supporting trauma informed care and practice and reducing health inequalities, as well as ensuring key performance targets are achieved.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will be responsible for the delivery of high-quality, highly-specialist psychological and psychotherapeutic services to service users and staff at Honeysuckle Lodge. Honeysuckle Lodge is a 14- bedded all-female inpatient High Dependency Rehabilitation Unit, based in Bolton. Honeysuckle Lodge is a recovery focused service that supports individuals experiencing severe and complex mental health problems, many of whom present with significant and complex trauma histories and challenging needs.
The post will include direct 1:1 and group work with service users, but also substantial amounts of team formulation work, completion of risk assessments, provision of support and supervision of staff, service development work, work with carers, and collaboration and consultation with other members of the multi-disciplinary team. The postholder will also be responsible for the supervision of an Assistant Psychologist. A creative approach to engagement and a focus on recovery will be an essential part of the role.
The post holder will be part of a team of psychologists and therapists working across the Rehabilitation Division and may be required to attend meetings and work into other rehabilitation settings as part of the role.
Working for our organisation
Greater Manchester Mental Health (GMMH) Foundation Trust employs over 7000 members of staff, who deliver services from more than 122 locations.
We provide inpatient and community-based mental health care for people living in Bolton, the city of Manchester, Salford, Trafford and the borough of Wigan, and a wide range of specialist mental health and substance misuse services across Greater Manchester, the north west of England and beyond.
Greater Manchester is one of the world's most innovative, original and exciting places to live and work. From the beauty of the surrounding countryside to the heart of the vibrant inner city with great shopping, entertainment and dining options.
Wherever you go you will experience a great northern welcome with people famed for their warmth, humour and generosity.
Our people enjoy their work, have opportunities to learn and develop their skills and are encouraged to generate new ideas that improve care for our service users.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see attached job description and person specification
Staff benefits
1. Pay Enhancements: – 30% additional for Evenings (8pm onwards) and Saturdays and 60% additional for Sundays and Bank holidays.
2. 27 days annual leave plus bank holidays rising to 29 after 5 years and 33 days after 10 years
3. Excellent pension
4. Cycle to work scheme
5. Salary sacrifice car scheme
6. Wellbeing programme
7. fuelGenie Fuel Cards (for applicable roles)
Person specification
Education/ Qualifications
Essential criteria
8. Professional qualification in Clinical or Counselling Psychology at Doctoral level (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS.
9. Further post-qualification, post-graduate training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.
10. Registered with the Health and Care Professions Council as a ‘Clinical or Counselling Psychologist’.
Desirable criteria
11. Training in trauma focused interventions ( CBT, EMDR)
12. Formal training in supervision of other psychologists.
13. Training in Rehab mental health
Experience
Essential criteria
14. Experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist, including relevant experience in service area.
15. Experience of working with client groups experiencing moderate-severe mental health problems across the life span. This includes maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the possible threat of physical abuse
16. Experience of working with trauma and providing trauma-focused psychological therapy.
17. Experience in the application of cognitive-behavioural approaches.
18. Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients’ psychological care and treatment.
19. Experience of working within a multidisciplinary team.
20. Experience of providing supervision and training.
Desirable criteria
21. Experience of working in Rehab mental health services.
22. Experience of working in a secondary care service (Psychology/CMHT)
Knowledge
Essential criteria
23. Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology.
24. Knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
25. Evidence of CPD as recommended by BPS & HCPC.
Desirable criteria
26. Knowledge of policy and legislation in relation to service specialism and of relevant mental health legislation.
Skills & Abilities
Essential criteria
27. Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
28. Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical, and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
29. Ability to organise time effectively.
30. Ability to use own initiative and to work under supervision where appropriate
31. Ability to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team and to liaise effectively with other professionals.
Desirable criteria
32. Skills in providing consultation to other professional groups.
33. Skills in supervising others
34. Skills in compassionate leadership
Other
Essential criteria
35. Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
36. Ability to identify, and employ, as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
37. Ability to travel to a range of locations across the GM footprint in a timely and efficient manner.
Desirable criteria
38. Experience of working within a multicultural framework.
The Trust mandates all post holders who require a DBS for their role to subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £16 per year and maintain registration throughout your employment with GMMH.
Applicants are encouraged to apply for posts at Greater Manchester Mental Health who have direct experience of mental health, learning disability or drug and alcohol services either as a service user or a carer.
The Trust is also committed to safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults and requires all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
We are aspiring to ensure our workforce is representative of the diverse communities that we serve, and we are strongly committed to removing barriers to employment for candidates from under-represented groups, for example BAME, Disabled and LGBT+ communities. If you would like to have an informal chat about the recruitment process for this role or would value some additional support, we’d love to hear from you.
Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) when writing job applications
A candidate may utilise the help of AI when writing job application. The assessment of an application is made on its entirety and most times AI-generated content does not fully grasp the context and requirements of the job one applies for thus producing inaccurate and misleading information, especially in the supporting statement section of an application that can lack real life examples of one’s achievements, success and challenges.
We have added a disclaimer to our application process advising that the use of AI is monitored. GMMH reserves the right to follow up with a candidate at the interview on specific responses and those examples used in the supporting statement to explore it further.
Sponsorship
We are proud to be an approved sponsor for the Skilled Worker visa. Applications from individuals who require sponsorship will be considered alongside all other applications. Please be aware that not all roles are eligible for sponsorship. You can review the list of eligible roles and salary requirements on the UK Government’s website – click .
If you are offered a role with us and you require sponsorship, we will check your eligibility in line with the information on the above website. Your offer of employment could be withdrawn if the role is not eligible for sponsorship, and you are not otherwise able to evidence your right to work in the UK.
The Home Office introduces new changes from 22/07/2025 that impact the health and care sector, you may wish to familiarise with it.
Do you have experience outside the NHS?
We want to attract and retain people with diverse skills and experience, to deliver inclusive healthcare services to our communities.
We will consider relevant experience outside the NHS to calculate your salary on appointment.