Clinical Psychologist

Here at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust,

Our mission is:
Providing high-quality, compassionate care for our communities

Our vision to 2030 is:
To be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service

Job overview

We are recruiting for a Clinical Psychologist who shares our vision to be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service to our patients.

This is an exciting new hub role post-split between three sites, Lister Hospital Stevenage, Princess Alexander Hospital Harlow and Watford General, Watford.

Post base is at Lister Hospital, Stevenage.

As part of the Neonatal critical care review, we are looking to employ a Neonatal Clinical Psychologist to support our Services.

This is an exciting opportunity for the successful candidate to plan, develop and lead the Neonatal Services across 3 sites which will include the provision of consultation and training to colleagues within the multidisciplinary team, psychological assessment and brief interventions and liaison with partnership services. Research and service evaluation is a key part of this role.

The successful candidate will have psychological skills and experience of working with parents and colleagues within a healthcare setting and experience in mental health.

Our Values are I nclude, R espect and I mprove. It is important that you understand and refer to our values during your recruitment process and beyond!

Main duties of the job

Our level 2 unit at the Lister hospital consists of 28 cots, 10 of which are designed to ITU/HDU. We are part of the East of England Neonatal network, providing expert care for sick and preterm babies in our area and supporting services in the network.

We also manage a 6 bedded Transitional care area, located on the postnatal ward, where patients can remain with their babies up until they are discharged.

Clinical supervision will be provided by the Paediatric Psychology Service Lead and monthly Supervision by the ODN East of England Lead Clinical Psychologist.

The post holder will liaise closely with the multi-disciplinary team to provide specialist advice and consultation on babies and families psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues.

Working for our organisation

At East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, we are proud of the range of general & specialist services we provide & our 6,000 or so dedicated staff ensure our patients get the best care. Our ability to be flexible & innovative in the way in which we work and deliver our services to our catchment has never been more important than it is now.

We run the following hospitals:

• The Lister Hospital, Stevenage
• New Queen Elizabeth II (New QEII), Welwyn Garden City
• Hertford County, Hertford

We have ambitious plans to become an outstanding, patient-led Trust where dedicated staff provide high-quality, compassionate care to our patients. We continue to undergo significant transformation; our staff & patients are at the heart of delivering this ambitious agenda.

We understand that finding and starting a new job is an important life decision. If you need reasonable adjustments for a disability, or a life event, such as menopause - so that we can consider your application fairly & to get the best out of you during the selection process, please let us know.

We are committed to a positive work life balance for our employees. Employees are entitled to seek to work flexible working patterns & we are committed to listen and consider all requests. Such requests, of course, have to be made & considered formally, & will need to be balanced against service needs, but our starting point will always be to find ways to support making them happen.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification applicant pack for further detailed information regarding this role.

Person specification

Qualifications / Training

• Doctoral level training in clinical/counselling/psychology, including models of psychopathology, psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS.
• Registered with the Health and Care Professions Council as a Practitioner Psychologist
• Further training in psychological approaches to trauma, parent-infant relationship work or systemic/family therapy
• Pre or post-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology
• Conference presentations and publications in the current clinical or related area

Previous Experience

• Experience delivering highly skilled psychological assessments, interventions, follow-up and data monitoring utilising at least 2 therapeutic models
• Experience of supervising pre-qualified psychologists/qualified psychologists and/or professionals from other disciplines
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups and across the full range of clinical severity
• Experience of liaising with carers and families and external organisations that support these groups
• Ability to show autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients and liaising with other professionals as and when necessary
• Experience providing group based interventions using evidence based psychological approaches
• Experience designing, conducting and leading on research activities at a doctoral level including service related research and audits
• Experience of teaching and training health professionals in psychological concepts
• Experience of working in a neonatal, perinatal or critical care environment
• Formal training in supervision
• Experience of setting up new services
• Formal QI training
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts

Knowledge and skills

• Ability to work independently and collaboratively within a team.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies as applied in a clinical health psychology setting.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Ability to cope with a fast paced work environment, maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems.
• Ability to assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information, including contentious and highly distressing information, to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Knowledge and awareness of safeguarding issues
• Skills in self-management, including time-management.
• Planning and organising skills for caseload management.
• Knowledge of facilitating reflective practice groups and/or debriefs.
• Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies relevant to working with families in an acute healthcare environment.
• Excellent presentation skills.
• A commitment to the evaluation of services, enthusiasm for both multi-professional and uni-professional audit, and a desire continue to develop expertise in the area.

Other requirements

• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Able to tolerate prolonged periods of sitting
• Experience and evidence of engagement around equality, diversity and inclusion issues in relation to policy, service development and service delivery in respect of both services to users and the management of staff
• Role model our Trust values every day

Our values

We want our staff to believe in, demonstrate and live our values in everything we do.

Include
We value the diversity and experience of our community colleagues and partners, creating relationships and climates that provide an opportunity to share, collaborate and grow together.

Respect
We create a safe environment where we are curious of the lived experience of others, seek out best practice and are open to listening and hearing new ideas.

Improve
We are committed to consistently delivering excellent services and continuously looking to improve through a creative workforce that feels empowered to act in service of our shared purpose.

Committed to our Community

East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion for all job applicants, staff, patients and the wider community. We want to create a workforce which represents the communities we serve. We are on a journey to become a more inclusive organisation and we welcome applications from everyone regardless of their background. In particular we encourage applications from candidates with disabilities, and candidates from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds who are currently under-represented in various parts of our workforce .

We understand the importance of balancing work and home life. We are committed to support flexible working for our staff wherever possible and all our employees are given the opportunity to discuss potential for flexible working.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and achieved our status in 2019.

We will remove barriers that prospective candidates might face at any stage of our recruitment process. If you have a disability and would like the advert in an alternative format, or would like to talk about how we can adjust the interview process to best support you, please contact us by emailing

We are also proud to support our UK armed forces by supporting Reservists, Cadet Instructors, Veterans and military spouses/partners into employment and offering supportive policies that value their contribution to the community and to our Trust.

When you apply...

Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date in certain circumstances. Please ensure that you make your application as soon as possible.

All correspondence relating to vacancies will be via the e-mail address you have provided on your application form. Some servers automatically send e-mails to your junk mail so please check as well as your inbox.

As a publicly funded employer, we need to ensure we utilise our funds responsibly, this may mean we are unable to support sponsorship required to gain the right to work for particular positions. We strongly advise you to contact the line manager or a member of the Resourcing Team before applying to confirm if we will be able to support with sponsorship for that post.

We look forward to receiving your application!

Prince's Trust Support

If you’re aged between 16 and 30 years-old, you can get FREE employability support from The Prince’s Trust. The Prince’s Trust will help build your CV and cover letter, offer advice and top tips for future interviews and support you with research about working in the NHS. Please contact Enquiries.H& for support.

Secondments/Fixed term

Where a vacancy is advertised as a temporary position, the duration will be specified in the advert. If the vacancy becomes permanent towards the end of the specified duration, the successful applicant may not be required to re-apply and can be slotted into the role on a permanent basis if appropriate.

If you are an internal applicant applying for a temporary working arrangement, please see the attached notes on secondments

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.