Band 8b Principal Clinical Psychologist

Ministry of Defence (Defence Medical Services)

This job is now closed

Job summary

Here at the Defence Primary Healthcare (DPHC), we are an inclusive and dedicated organisation working to provide excellent care to our entitled personnel!

Are you a Band 8b Principal Clinical Psychologist (Civilian) looking for a fascinating role, working alongside the military, that offers numerous benefits and opportunities for career-development in an excellent team?

Look no further!

Main duties of the job

As our chosen candidate you will be providing a specialised clinical psychology service to clients of the service team, across all sectors of care, providing highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy at the same time as offering advice and consultation on clients’ psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other, non-professional line management and carers, working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedures.

Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specificaiton for additional information.

About us

Our success depends on our people, our Whole Force regular and reservist military, civil servants and contractors, all working as one, working together seamlessly to deliver for us.

Our civil servants are a central part of this Whole Force, developing strategy, making policy, supporting ministerial decision-making and Parliamentary processes. In fact, with over 2,000 different roles working across 650 sites around the world, now really is an excellent time to join one of the largest, most exciting departments in government.

The Ministry of Defence is committed to attracting and retaining people from across the full range of backgrounds and enabling flexible ways of working as the norm. We offer maternity, adoption or shared parental leave of up to 26 weeks full pay followed by 13 weeks of statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid, and paternity leave of 2 weeks full pay.

In return, you can expect a department that helps you learn and develop that recognises your expertise and contribution, both as an individual and part of a team.

If you've ever wanted to do more, see more, go further or be better, we have roles in more professions and vocations than ever before. Let's see where your future will take you, together.

Date posted

08 September 2022

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8b

Salary

£54,764 to £63,862 a year (Pro rata for part time) *pay award pending

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Part-time, Job share

Reference number

K0003-22-3568

Job locations

Seymour Block, 1st Floor, HMS Drake

HM Naval Base

Devonport

PL2 2BG

Job description

Job responsibilities

You will belong to a network of psychologists providing mental healthcare to serving military personnel within the South-West region. Remote video consultation facilitates hybrid working and you will have a choice of clinical base. 20% of your time will be spent working with the MOD Defence Survival Training Organisation (DSTO) at RAF St Mawgan, Cornwall. This involves training instructors in relevant psychological theories and research, coordinating with DSTO Command on clinical psychological matters, acquiring knowledge on the psychology of survival and capture, applying that knowledge to support the reintegration of isolated service personnel (RISP) and engaging in international liaison with partner nations.

In your core clinical role you will work with multi-disciplinary teams of military and civilian mental healthcare colleagues. You’ll assess and treat (mainly) complex presentations. We'll encourage you to pursue your own areas of clinical interest, deliver supervision, audit, research, service development & training activities. Discover how rewarding it is to apply your skills with a new client group!

The post is full time offering 37.5 hours per week. Part time candidates will be considered but due to the nature of the role it needs to be on a job share basis. We have a proven track record for providing ongoing training in psychological therapies and host specialist third year Doctoral Clinical Psychology training placements. Come and join a diverse working environment with the following employee benefits:

NHS Pension
Free-parking
Access to gym
Learning and development opportunities

The selection at sift stage will be based on your application. To be eligible to be considered for this role, qualifications and memberships detailed must be held in full, prior to submission.

At interview, you will be tested against the following Civil Service Behaviours:

Changing and Improving
Communicating and Influencing
Delivering at Pace
Leadership
Making Effective Decisions
Working Together

The Ministry of Defence is committed to providing a safe and healthy working environment for its staff which includes educating them on the benefits of not smoking, protecting them from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke and supporting those who want to give up smoking. Under the Smoke-Free Working Environment policy, Smoking and the use of all tobacco products (including combustible and chewing tobacco products) will not be permitted anywhere in the Defence working environment by 31st December 2022. The policy is Whole Force and includes all Defence personnel, contractors, visitors and other non-MOD personnel. All applicants seeking, considering, or accepting employment with the Ministry of Defence should be aware of this policy and that it is already in place at a number of Defence Establishments.

Travel to interview costs will not be reimbursed.

There is no requirement to deploy as this is met by our uniformed personnel, but you will form the continuity of care required by our patients when based at home.

If found successful for this position, you will be required to provide evidence of your immunity to Hepatitis B. Failure to provide evidence of your immunity may result in the offer of employment being withdrawn.

This vacancy is part of the A Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative. For more information copy and paste the following in to your browser or search gov.uk: Making-the-civil-service-a-great-place-to-work-for-veterans.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check.

All employees joining Ministry of Defence who are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a 6-month probation period (unless otherwise advised) effective from the employment start date.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came in to effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact dbscivpers-sgdmsresourcingteam@mod.gov.uk.