234225 Clinical Psychologist (AP)

NHS Lothian; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 46,000 - 58,000; Part time

Job summary

A healthcare organization in Edinburgh is seeking a Senior Principal Clinical Psychologist to lead clinical services in the Learning Disabilities Service. In this role, you'll provide psychological insights and leadership, support individuals with learning disabilities, and ensure high-quality care through collaboration with multidisciplinary teams. This part-time position requires substantial experience in psychology, clinical leadership skills, and a passion for working with vulnerable populations. The role offers a supportive environment within NHS Lothian.

Benefits

Supportive work environment

Professional development opportunities

Fair employment conditions

Qualifications

• Proven experience in clinical leadership roles within psychology.
• Significant post-qualification experience working with individuals with learning disabilities.
• Must possess PVG Scheme membership/record.

Responsibilities

• Provide direct psychological assessment and intervention.
• Lead and supervise qualified psychologists and multidisciplinary team members.
• Implement Positive Behaviour Support strategies.

Skills

Clinical leadership

Multi-disciplinary collaboration

Trauma-informed care

Psychological assessment

Formulation and intervention

Education

Psychology degree

Registered with a governing body

Post-qualification experience

Job description

Location

NHS Scotland is committed to encouraging equality and diversity among our workforce and eliminating unlawful discrimination. The aim is for our workforce to be truly representative and for each employee to feel respected and able to give their best. To this end, NHS Scotland welcomes applications from all sections of society.

Details

• Based at The Islay Centre, Royal Edinburgh Hospital
• Contract: Permanent
• Job type: Part Time
• Grade: Band 8B
• Hours: 21.09 (0.57 WTE)
• Please note: As this post is part-time, the salary will be pro-rata.

About the Role

We have an exciting new opportunity for a Senior Principal Clinical Psychologist, Band 8B, in the Department of Psychology’s Learning Disabilities Service. You will play a key clinical leadership role in our specialist learning disability inpatient services at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. Your clinical input will focus on the Islay Centre, our specialist service for people with learning disabilities who present with significantly distressed behaviours that cannot be safely managed in the community. You will provide direct assessment, formulation and intervention around complex casework requiring a multi-disciplinary approach, and provide psychological consultation to the MDT. You will also work closely with colleagues in other leadership roles to embed high quality psychological care across our inpatient learning disability services, with a particular focus on implementation of Positive Behaviour Support and trauma‑informed care. This is a newly created post, in recognition of the key clinical leadership role that psychology plays within the inpatient learning disability service.

You will possess demonstrable passion for providing excellent psychological services to people with learning disabilities and those who support them. As the post involves providing supervision and leadership to qualified psychologists, multi‑disciplinary colleagues, and pre‑qualified team members, it is essential you are skilled and confident in addressing the needs of people with learning disabilities who present with significant behaviours of distress and you will possess substantial post‑qualification experience of working with this group. You will also possess a demonstrable aptitude for systemic, multi‑disciplinary working.

Service Culture

NHS Lothian’s Learning Disability Psychology Service provides a friendly, supportive and stimulating environment in which to work. Staff within our service have a range of clinical interests reflecting a variety of theoretical and therapeutic orientations, and an emphasis is placed on good clinical supervision and support.

NHS Lothian is committed to fair and equitable conditions of employment and as an organisation it recognises that employees may require to change their place of residence as a result of taking up a post and so will ensure that where this is the case employees are reimbursed appropriately.

Contact

Potential applicants are encouraged to contact us for an informal conversation to find out more about the service. For informal enquiries please contact Dr Reed Cappleman, Consultant Clinical Psychologist / Professional Lead for Learning Disabilities.

Email: [e-mail]
Tel: [phone]

Application Notes

Please note: we anticipate a high level of interest in this position and may close the vacancy early once a sufficient amount of applications are received. Therefore, please make sure you complete and submit your application at an early stage.

We will fully support disabled candidates, and candidates with long‑term conditions or who are neurodivergent by making reasonable adjustments to our recruitment policy and practices.

To work in the United Kingdom, there is a legal requirement for an individual to demonstrate that they have the relevant permission to work in the country. This permission is, without exception, granted by the UK Visa and Immigration Service. Further information on what NHS Scotland Boards are required to do to check this as well as what your responsibilities include can be found in the further information for this vacancy.

This post requires the post holder to have a PVG Scheme membership/record. If the post holder is not a current PVG member for the required regulatory group (i.e. child and/or adult) then an application will need to be made to Disclosure Scotland and deemed satisfactory before they can begin in post.

Equal Opportunity

NHS Scotland is an equal opportunity employer. NHS Scotland welcomes applications from all sections of society and recognises and values diversity. We are committed to ensuring equal opportunities for all staff, and work to create a supportive and inclusive workplace environment.