Principal Psychologist | Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust


Company:	Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
Salary:	£66,582 - £77,368 per annum
Hours:	Full-time
Location:	Cambridge, CB4 1PR
Job type:	Permanent
Posting date:	7 Sept 2026
Closing date:	7 Oct 2026

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Summary

We have an exciting opportunity for someone with a passion for working with people who have experienced severe mental illness. This is an excellent career development opportunity for someone who is looking to lead a team of psychologists and psychological practitioners. The psychology team work as part of a larger multi-disciplinary service, with a wide range of professionals contributing to the excellent care of the people that we support. The well-established service is located in the vibrant University city of Cambridge.

There is significant scope for the strategic development of models of service delivery, supporting the development and delivery of evidence-based psychological interventions to this client group. You will have a clinical caseload as well as clear management and supervisory components to your role. You will also oversee a psychologically informed wider workforce in the MDT. This will also involve proactive engagement with third sector stakeholders to expand on strong pre-existing relationships.

There are ample training opportunities, and the team has benefitted from recent training in CBTp, EMDR, the modular ‘Feeling safe programme’ for persecutory delusions and ‘family interventions’ in psychosis.

The main duties of the post holder include:

1. The provision of clinical leadership and line management related responsibilities, including strategic thinking and monitoring of service delivery, to the psychology staff in CALT

2. Providing specialist psychological assessment and direct and/or indirect intervention in accordance to the NICE guidelines

3. Offering advice and consultation on clients' psychological care to MDT colleagues and carers

4. Liaising with external care providers and statutory agencies to support people and their families on their journey to wellbeing

5. Training and on-going supervision for staff

6. Working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team's policies and procedures

7. Utilising research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the area served by the team/service

Supporting and developing psychologists within the team is of upmost importance to us. CPFT fully supports professional clinical supervision requirements. Supervision will be provided by colleagues with expertise and experience of working with a variety of mental health problems.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health and social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting and empowering them to lead fulfilling lives.

Our clinical teams deliver a wide range of NHS services across inpatient, primary care and community settings, including children’s, adult and older people’s mental health, forensic and specialist mental health, learning disabilities, primary care and liaison psychiatry, substance misuse, social care, and research and development.

To achieve our goals, we recruit high calibre candidates who share our vision and values. As an equal opportunities’ employer, we welcome applications from all sections of the community, particularly under represented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities.

All appointments are subject to the successful completion of a probationary period.

Please note we reserve the right to close adverts early should we receive sufficient applications.

Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all roles. If you apply for a post that does not attract sponsorship, your application will be withdrawn from the process.

For further information on CPFT, please visit our website at https://www.cpft.nhs.uk

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities

• To provide clinical leadership and line management related responsibilities to the psychological professions in CALT.

• To provide psychological assessments of clients referred to the locality team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care

• To develop psychological formulations of presenting problems or situations that integrate information from assessments within a coherent framework that draws upon psychological theory and evidence and which incorporates interpersonal, societal, cultural and biological factors

• To use psychological formulations to develop and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, and to use these plans to inform and lead the work of non-psychology members of the team.

• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups.

• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients, and manage and maintain a caseload in line with service guidelines and under the overall co-ordination of a Consultant Clinical Psychologist.

• To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.

• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management in line with Trust and inter-agency policies and procedures.

• To communicate, in a skilled and sensitive manner, to clients, family carers and others as appropriate, information that may be contentious or highly distressing concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care.

• To produce reports on clients, in a timely manner, that convey the key findings of psychological assessment and formulation and treatment outcome in a way that does justice to the complexity of the problems described, but that are understandable to the recipients of the reports, including clients and referrers.

This advert closes on Monday 21 Sep 2026

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