Band 8b Principal Clinical Psychologist

Main area Mental Health Grade Band 8b Contract Permanent Hours

• Full time
• Flexible working

Site County Hall Town Norwich Salary £66,582 - £77,368 gross per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 11/10/2026 23:59 Interview date 21/10/2026

Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust provides child and adult mental health services, learning disability, wellbeing, older people's and eating disorder services across Norfolk and Suffolk.

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and want to reflect the diversity of our local communities within our teams. We welcome applications from all talented individuals with the relevant qualifications, skills, knowledge and experience.

Please note due to the nature of our roles and patient demographic, you will be required to undertake physical intervention training and remain trained, as required by your role.

Are you ready to lead transformation at the front door of mental health care?

We are seeking an experienced and innovative 8b clinical psychologist to play a key leadership role in our Initial Response Service (IRS) – a 24/7 single point of access service. The role focuses on psychologically informed triage; formulation; risk management; staff support and service transformation, to ensure people receive the right help at the first point of contact.

The postholder will need to have the ability to work flexibly, as IRS is 24/7, where peak demand is expected to be outside of normal working hours.

• Provide psychological leadership within IRS, CRHT and NHS 111 mental health option services.
• Lead psychologically informed triage, formulation, risk assessment and risk management for complex, urgent and crisis presentations.
• Deliver expert clinical consultation regarding managing crisis presentations.
• Provide structured consultation and supervision to IRS staff.
• Support NHS 111 clinicians with formulation, risk assessment and psychologically informed decision-making.
• Develop and align psychological practice across IRS, CRHT and NHS 111 to evidence-based and best-practice standards.
• Provide training, reflective practice sessions and post-incident reflections to multidisciplinary teams.
• Support the delivery of trauma-informed, autism-informed and psychologically informed care.
• Contribute to patient safety processes, after-action reviews and the production of reports.
• Provide one day a week of direct clinical work.
• Develop integrated pathways with system partners including NHS 111, primary care, crisis services and acute care pathways.
• Lead and support urgent care service transformation, pathway development and continuous quality improvement initiatives.
• Promote a standardized approach to safety planning, clinical decision-making and risk formulation across services.

As an employer, I and Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust are particularly committed to enabling our staff to do the very best they can through support and training, as well as opportunities for progression. We are confident, therefore, that the right candidate will have a real chance to make a positive impact to the lives of young people in Norfolk.

Here at NSFT we pride ourselves on being a welcoming, talented, friendly and supportive team who like nothing better than sharing experiences and learning from each other. In addition to ongoing training and development opportunities, we are committed to providing an environment in which you can thrive.

Why work for us? We have challenges as a Trust, but we have ambition aspirations, are pushing ahead with…