Specialist or Highly Specialist Applied Psychologist

Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust

The closing date is 01 February 2026

Band 8a full time post, with Band 7 - 8a preceptorship opportunities available

This post offers an exciting opportunity for a dynamic psychologist within the Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale Community Learning Disability Team, part of the wider North Yorkshire, York & Selby Learning Disability Service.

We are seeking to appoint a Clinical or Counselling Psychologist who is passionate about working with people with learning disabilities. The vacancy is open to an existing Band 8A psychologist or a Band 7 psychologist wishing to progress in their career. We will also consider offering a preceptorship option for a newly or recently qualified clinical or counselling psychologist who may not yet meet the essential criteria;

to progress from a band 7 into the band 8a position.

The post offers many exciting developmental and creative opportunities.

The post holder will have a key role in providing psychological assessments, formulations, and interventions to service users, their families, carers, and staff teams. This may be through direct therapeutic support using various adapted psychological approaches or indirect work with a service user's support system using psychologically informed thinking.

An additional element to this role is offering neuropsychological assessments to service users, alongside reflective practice, consultation, and supervision. An interest in working with Trauma Informed Care approaches would be welcomed.

Applicants should ideally have experience in working within Learning Disability services and show strong patient-centred values. The successful applicant will be enthusiastic, motivated, and demonstrate a commitment to delivering excellent health care and evidence-based practice. You will be working alongside a supportive team and opportunities to develop special interests and co-work will be encouraged.

In addition, the post holder will have a valued role in the team's collective leadership group, alongside opportunities for research and service development. Our service has strong links with the Doctoral Clinical and Counselling Psychology Programmes at Teesside, Hull, and York St Johns Universities. The post holder will be involved in offering trainee placements and University teaching. There are excellent opportunities for peer support/ supervision, CPD, training, research, and audit within the wider trust and psychological professions network.

We are very keen to support practitioners obtain further professional training with relevance to the service (e.g., EMDR; Flash; CBT; CAT; PBS; Systemic Family Therapy, etc). You will be working in an area of natural beauty across the North Yorkshire coast and North York Moors. Our trust is also invested in staff wellbeing opportunities, which is very much supported by the team.

We are committed to co-creating safe and personalised care that improves the lives of people by involving them as equal partners. The most important way we will get there is by living our values, all of the time.

Psychological Professions staff will be expected to display the Trust values at all times, working as part of the collective leadership team with shared accountability and responsibility for ensuring the safety and effectiveness of patient care is delivered in a patient-centred manner. They will also contribute to ensuring the culture of our services is built upon the Trust Values and the trust's strategy - Our Journey To change (OJTC).

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for further detailed information to ensure that you meet the role criteria before applying.

Psychologists & Psychological Therapists provide key leadership roles within the Trust. To support this we have developed leadership profiles for each psychology band and the profile card associated with this post is attached on NHS Jobs. You can find more information about the NHS Leadership Academys Healthcare Leadership Model and the profiles at their website. We encourage…