Principal Psychologist - Outpatients Service

Career Level C / NHS 8b

Full time 37.5 hours a week (part time 30 hours / 4 days may be considered)

We are open to an informal discussion around flexible working

You can achieve more at St Andrew’s Healthcare

We are St Andrew's. We are a mental health Charity and our purpose is to inspire hope for those living with complex mental health needs.

We are looking to a future with less stigma, more community support, more research and education, and we aim to be at the forefront of inspiring real change. We want to ensure we can all live in a society where everyone with complex mental health needs is heard, valued and has hope for their future.

With our current Clinical lead relocating, we have an exciting opportunity for an individual to join our outpatient therapy service. 

Come and join us, and support us to help people transform their lives.

This service is part of our Community Partnerships Division who this year had their CQC rating as good.  Below are some of the comments from service users our services support:

“Changed my life and staff were incredible, faultless, supportive, skilled, lovely and polite”.

The therapy that has been provided with was like “no other I had received in 30 years”. 

We have different community services based all around the UK so if this role / location isn’t quite right for you but you are a Qualified or soon to Qualify Psychologist or Therapist looking for your next career move please send your CV to or call for an informal discussion around the opportunities and development we can offer.

Therapy Services

We are seeking a Principal Psychologist who can support us with expanding and leading the development of our Clinic and private therapy services.   We are based in in Northampton where the majority of sessions take place, we have a growing on-line clinic and ambitions to further expand the services we offer during 2024. 

The successful candidate will join our existing team of passionate permanent and associate clinicians and lead on the delivery of a range of psychotherapeutic interventions to private and healthcare funded clients.  The successful candidate will therefore join the team equipped with extensive experience in providing and supervising a range of NICE approved psychotherapy interventions such as CBT, Cognitive Analytical Therapy, EMDR, DBT and Schema Therapy along with assessment skills in psychometric tools.

You will form part of the wider Community Partnerships senior leadership team and have access to other senior clinicians working in our other services as well as those working within the wider Charity for peer support as well as a robust CPD programme. 

The Role

This role will suit an experienced Senior Psychologist who is ready to progress or already at Principal Level. The role will partly draw upon the clinical expertise of the applicant when working directly with patients, and partly involve leadership responsibility for the clinical running of MDT diagnostic team.

The successful applicant will work closely with the Consultant Psychiatrist and senior leadership team developing the outpatient service commercially and clinically.  The Principal Psychologist will play a central role in leading on the quality aspects of our service delivery and will therefore experience of leading and developing a Multi-Disciplinary Team through training and supervision in a hybrid working environment is required. 

We expect our clinical staff to deliver a minimum of 20 patient facing sessions per week and with the current emphasis on delivering services digitally, the successful applicant will need to have experience offering face to face and online.

The post holder will report to the Consultant Psychiatrist and receive clinical supervision and mentoring from the Associate Director of Psychology.  They will also be able to take advantage of the extensive CPD opportunities that St Andrew’s offers.

About You

In order to be eligible, you will need to be registered with HCPC and have experience leading effective therapeutic teams.  You may be required to travel within the UK as part of your role and hence a full UK driver’s license is desirable. 

You will be professionally qualified Psychologist and have extensive experience in leading and developing community services as well as having experience of managing people, particularly multi-disciplinary teams.

You will play a central role in leading on the quality aspects of our service delivery and will therefore be able to demonstrate experience of leading and developing a Multi-Disciplinary Team through training and supervision in a hybrid working environment. 

Your skills in managing risk concerns in a patient-centred and effective manner will be key in ensuring the service prioritises the safety of its service users.  You will be equally confident in your ability to gather, interpret and analyse data to ensure treatment is being delivered effectively to both on an individual and service development level.

We have ambitious plan for our therapy services including introducing a new DBT service in late 2024 and you will have the opportunity to directly shape future service delivery and hence be confident in liaising with both internal and external stakeholders both individually and in public forums to ensure responsiveness.

Interested?

If this sounds like you then we’d love you to apply here.  If you would like an informal and confidential discussion about this role please contact James Farrelly on or 

Closing Date: Monday 1st April 2024

Interview: TBC but early applications are encouraged as interviews will take place when suitable people have been identified.