CYP Principal Clinical Psychologist 8b or 8a/8b Dev post

A Vacancy at Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS FoundationTrust.

An exciting opportunity has arisen to recruit a Principal Clinical Psychologist with a strong interest in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) to work within Children & Young People’s Mental Health Service (CYPMHS) Wirral 0-18 team. This leadership post provides an opportunity to develop Wirral’s offer for children and young people with complex and high risk difficulties working closely with colleagues and partner agencies.

You will hold the senior lead role for the service DBT programme, providing continuous improvement, strategic oversight for DBT, supporting the practitioners working within the DBT programme, and direct delivery of DBT. Accreditation as a DBT Therapist is expected to hold this 8b Clinical Psychologist role. If entering the role as an 8a-8b development post, DBT experience is expected and a commitment to achieving accreditation as a DBT Therapist in a timely manner.

You will also contribute to other parts of the clinical offer, including Wirral’s ‘Complex Care’ pathway, which delivers more flexible and intensive community support and interventions for young people, where you will also experience working closely with colleagues in CWP’s Urgent Support Team. You will be able to contribute also to wider initiatives, working alongside the Consultant Clinical Psychologist and the team’s other Clinical Psychologists, to support psychological thinking and quality of care across the service, and represent psychology as part of the senior leadership team.

You will work with the Consultant Clinical Psychologist, locality leadership and speciality clinical network to develop the psychological offer within Wirral 0-18 You will provide training, consultancy, supervision and support to multi professional staff, teams and managers, whilst taking a strategic approach to service evaluation, audit and research.

You will provide highly specialist psychological assessment and intervention, and formulation.

There will be opportunities to join internal and external professional and clinical networks, undertake research, and provide training and support to mental health and psychological colleagues. We have strong connections to the three DClinPsy regional training programmes (Liverpool, Lancaster and Manchester).

Clinical and professional supervision will be provided, and ongoing continuing professional development supported. We encourage applications from suitably qualified and experienced people with protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. All applicants must be HCPC registered Clinical Psychologists with significant, relevant experience as per the job description and person specification.

Cheshire and Wirral Partnership (CWP) provides health and care services for a population of over one million people, including mental health, learning disability, community physical health and all-age disability care, as well as the provision of three GP surgeries in Cheshire.

We employ around 4,500 staff across 73 sites and have services across Wirral and Cheshire, as well as Trafford, Warrington, Bolton, Halton, Liverpool and Stockport.

Our aim is to help improve the lives of everyone in our communities, adopting a compassionate, person-centred approach to everything we do. We are rated as Outstanding for Caring by the Care Quality Commission, with a Good rating overall.

As a Disability Confident Employer, Rainbow Badge Scheme member, Veteran Aware organisation and proud holder of the Armed Forces Covenant Employer Recognition Scheme Gold Award, CWP is committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible and developing a culture that values differences, and welcome applications from people who have direct experience of accessing our services.

All new starters will commence in post on one fixed start date each month, in line with our Prepare to Care (P2C) induction programme date. P2C offers up to 3 weeks training to support you to meet the induction / initial training requirements of the role.

Whether you are just starting out in your career or looking to use your existing skills and experience in a new role, you’ll find something to suit you at CWP.

Please download a copy of the job description (see ‘documents to download’ section below) for full details of the main responsibilities for this role.

At CWP, our recruitment selection processes are based on both competence (see person specification for details) and values.

CWP recruits people that can demonstrate the Trust’s Values in their everyday life and we use a values-based approach in our interviews, which explores not only what you do but how and why you do it.

Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trust’s Values and think about how these align with your own personal values. The supporting information section in your application should reflect your understanding of the Trust’s Values and associated behaviours and you should provide examples from your work experience and/or personal life which demonstrate these values through your behaviours.

An applicant guide to help and support you through your recruitment journey can be accessed at the bottom of this page. Further help and support for completing your application can be accessed via our website. If you need any further guidance to help you complete your application, contact our recruitment team via email at: View email address on findajob.dwp.gov.uk or by calling View phone number on findajob.dwp.gov.uk.

If you have a disability that meets the definition set out in the Equality Act 2010, and you can show that you meet the ‘essential’ criteria described in the person specification for an available position, please answer ‘YES’ to the question: ‘Do you wish to be considered under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme?’

Please inform the team if you have any special support needs to be considered as part of the interview and selection processes.

The trust offers a Guaranteed Interview Scheme to any armed forces community applicants who meet the essential criteria for the post and encourages applications from armed forces reservists or cadet force adult volunteers.

Please note applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment. You are encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service. A small annual fee of £16 per year applies.

New entrants to the NHS will commence on the minimum of the scale stated above.

Applicants are advised to apply early as if a large number of applications are received for this post we reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the advertised date.

Good luck with your application. We hope to welcome you to Team CWP very soon!

This advert closes on Tuesday 2 Jun 2026

Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme

Disability Confident

About Disability Confident

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident .