Go back Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHSFT
Applied Psychologist Band 7-8a Development Role
The closing date is 17 May 2026
This post is being offered as a preceptorship opportunity from Band 7 to Band 8a, providing structured development, supervision, and support to enable the successful candidate to progress into a senior specialist psychological role within the service.
This is an exciting opportunity for an Applied Psychologist to join a team of psychological professionals supporting working‑age adults with complex emotional needs and/or severe mental illness. The postholder will be based within one of our CMHTs, whilst also providing clinical input across the wider Doncaster Care Group CMHTs, in line with service need.
We are looking for an experienced, resilient, and reflective psychologist who is able to work with enthusiasm, flexibility, and versatility. We are particularly keen to hear from applicants who are passionate about working in a trauma‑informed way with individuals with complex emotional needs and who can demonstrate a collaborative, team‑oriented approach.
Main duties of the job
To provide a psychologically informed service for those experiencing complex emotional needs, mental health conditions and psychological distress (assessment, formulation and intervention).
To work as an autonomous practitioner accountable for own professional practice in respect of assessment, therapy and discharge of clients within defined caseload and, where designated, of junior psychological practitioners.
Where/once appropriately trained to do so, to provide clinical supervision, reflective practice, training, and consultation.
To provide clinical advice and guidance to the multi‑disciplinary team, wider teams within RDaSH and partners organisations that support people experiencing mental distress.
To promote a culture in which there is a positive approach to managing risk and change, working closely with other senior clinicians, including medical staff.
Support the achievement of all quality and performance indicators relating to the MDT and psychology team.
Communicate in a way which recognises difference and ensures that people feel included and their individual communication needs are met.
To be pro‑active in supporting continual service improvements and to utilise research and evaluation skills for supporting service developments and research, as appropriate.
To always promote a positive image of people who use our services and a positive image of the service and wider Trust.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* Post‑graduate training (doctoral level equivalent) in clinical or counselling psychology (or its equivalent prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS
* HCPC registration as a Practitioner Psychologist
* Continued professional development through structured self‑study, specialist clinical supervision, and/or relevant combination of short courses
* Additional postgraduate advanced training/qualification in one or more relevant therapy approaches e.g. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, EMDR, SCM, Schema Therapy, Cognitive Analytic Therapy
Experience
* Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient 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 including 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 working within multi‑disciplinary settings/teams.
* Experience of exercising clinical responsibility for client's psychological care and treatment
* Commitment to multi‑disciplinary working
* Experience of providing training to a range of stakeholders
* Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts/multicultural framework.
* Ability to work within organisational stress, and to hold/support the stress of others.
Knowledge
* Doctoral knowledge and skills in the care of difficult to treat groups e.g. dual diagnoses, additional disabilities or severely challenging behaviour
* Knowledge of legislation, guidelines, policies and government‑led initiatives in relation to the client group and mental health.
* Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practised within the clinical fields of psychology.
* Post‑doctoral knowledge in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice, e.g., DBT, SCM, CFT etc.
Skills
* Skills in the use of methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management (including risk assessment and management) frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
* Ability to promote appropriate support to carers and staff exposed to highly challenging situations.
* Developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
* A willingness to be flexible in managing own time in order to respond to service needs
* Evidence of CPD as recommended by the BPS and HCPC
* Skills in providing training to other groups
* Willingness to engage in service development or quality improvement projects
* Post‑doctoral skills in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice, e.g., DBT, SCM etc
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
We reserve the right to close the vacancy early if there are a high amount of applications.
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