Principal Psychologist - Neurology

Job summary
We are advertising 0.4WTE 8a psychology post working within the Paediatric Neurology services as a part of the larger paediatric Psychological Medicine Service.

Neurology
The post holder will work alongside 8b and 8a and band 7 psychology colleagues to provide a specialist clinical psychology service to patients and their families referred to the Paediatric Neurology service.

This will include offering specialist psychological and neuropsychological assessment and interventions to patients (up to 17 years of age) and families. Part of this post will require input into the Multiple Sclerosis clinic, which takes place on a Thursday. The role offers the opportunity to work closely with a well-established team of Consultant Paediatric Neurologists alongside the wider multi-disciplinary team to offer support to children and their families.

Main duties of the job
The Psychological Medicine Service for Children Young People and Families is dedicated to meeting the needs of children, adolescents and young adults with complex medical and surgical needs in hospital-based settings at Addenbrooke's Hospital.

The job involves assessment and delivery of care involving both the patient and parents and family systems where there are complex social needs. The intervention level ranges from the specialist tertiary multidisciplinary team level and associated paediatric surgical ward nursing teams to community paediatric teams, social work, education and primary health care. Interventions routinely cross professional and Acute Health Trust and Community Mental Health Trust boundaries and sometimes involve Child Protection work.

The job involves physical effort of the nature of sitting in constrained position for extended patient / client therapy sessions, frequent intense concentration on assessment and formulation, it is sometimes highly distressing, dealing with such issues as chronic illness and family breakdown, and may deal with issues such as acute physical distress or illness, death, serious mental illness and child abuse.

About us
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 underrepresented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities.

All appointments for new employees to CPFT 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.

Details
Date posted: 22 July 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 8a
Salary: £57,528 to £64,750 a year per annum, pro rata
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Part-time
Reference number: 310-MCYPF-7820689
Job locations: Addenbrookes Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities

• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, psychological formulation, treatment and discharge of clients, working to the specified job plan. This includes managing and maintaining a caseload in line with service guidelines and PPN recommendations.
• To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the psychological medicine service, 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 clients 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 as well as health needs and impact of health problems on the family.
• To develop and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of hospital and community-based settings.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
• To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family, carers or group. To do this in the context of health and surgical interventions.

Person Specification
Qualifications - Essential

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the BPS, or a BPS Statement of Equivalence.
• Registered with the Health Care Professions Council.

Qualifications - Desirable

• Further training in systemic, paediatric neuropsychology and or trauma.
• Further training in clinical supervision

Experience - Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment, formulation 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 the application of clinical psychology in different contexts.

Experience - Desirable

• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience of working within a paediatric medical setting.
• Experience of working within a paediatric medical setting.

Knowledge and Skills - Essential

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, psychological formulation, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration. This requires the use of highly developed analytical and judgment skills.
• Skills in individual and group work and in programme planning.
• Planning and organising skills for caseload management.

Knowledge and Skills - Desirable

• High Level Knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.
• Knowledge of the impact of physical health on children, young people and their families.

Other - Essential

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, enabling formation of networks with professionals within the Trust and from other agencies to promote effective team working with clients.
• Able to contain and work with high levels of distress from clients.
• Able to contain and work with organisational stress.

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details
Employer name: Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
Address: Addenbrookes Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, United Kingdom

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact:
Lead Psychologist - Neurology
Dr Ella Rands
View email address on meeveem.com
View phone number on meeveem.com

All appointments for new employees to CPFT 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.