Highly Specialist Neonatal Practitioner Psychologist
The closing date is 20 July 2026

Job summary
Neonatal Psychology is embedded as part of the Neonatal Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) and is available to all families as well as to support the MDT with complex situations and with staff wellbeing. It is a preventative service that should also offer specialist psychological assessment, intervention and monitoring where it is indicated.

Northampton General Hospital is a busy district general hospital with a level 2 Local Neonatal Unit (LNU) that typically admits around 450 babies per year. Our neonatal service provides intensive, high-dependency and special care for 20 babies (from 27 weeks gestation) as part of the East Midlands Neonatal Operational Delivery Network (EMNODN),Admissions to the unit comprise both Northampton-born babies and those born in other hospitals within EMNODN and referred to us for short-term intensive and high-dependency care.

This is an exciting opportunity to help shape and develop a newly created post within the UHN Neonatal Psychology Service. You will work alongside an established Principal Clinical Psychologist at Northampton General Hospital (NGH) as part of an expansion of the service. We are seeking a candidate with post-qualification clinical experience in an area relevant to the role. However, we also welcome applications from newly qualified psychologists who can demonstrate the skills, knowledge, and potential required to undertake a Band 7-8a preceptorship pathway.

Main duties of the job

• To work as an embedded member of the Neonatal MDT to provide highly specialist psychological support to babies, their families and staff on the Local Neonatal Unit at NGH.
• To liaise closely with the multi-disciplinary team to provide specialised advice and consultation around the support for babies and families psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues.
• To work systemically, supporting the neonatal MDT to deliver psychologically informed care to babies and their families.
• To contribute to the delivery of teaching, training and supervision for MDT colleagues to enable them to identify early families who will benefit from specialist input.
• To formulate plans to support families and staff where there might be a breakdown in communication or relationship.
• To utilise research skills for the purposes of audit, service evaluation, quality improvement and research.
• To contribute to service evaluation and service development in line with serviceobjectives under the guidance of the Lead Neonatal Psychologist.
• To liaise with multidisciplinary team colleagues, other health and social care agencies and staff involved with the care group, and with other psychologists both locally and nationally for professional development.
• When experienced to do so - To provide supervision for less experienced psychologists where appropriate including, undergraduate and postgraduate psychology placement students, assistant and trainee psychologists when trained to do so.

About us
Please submit your application as soon as possible, as we reserve the right to close adverts once sufficient applications have been received.

We recognise that AI tools can support application writing; however, candidates are asked to keep their use to a minimum. Responses should reflect your own experience, skills and knowledge, as over-reliance on AI-generated content may result in generic answers that do not accurately represent your abilities.

University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN) brings together Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust. As a group, we are committed to improving services for our communities through collaboration, modernising care delivery and striving for excellence. Working together enables us to share expertise, strengthen services and create greater opportunities, and there may be a requirement to work across sites depending on service needs.

Our Excellence Values are Compassion, Accountability, Respect, Integrity and Courage. UHN welcomes applications from all backgrounds and is committed to an inclusive working environment. We are proud signatories of the Armed Forces Covenant and hold the Gold Award under the Employer Recognition Scheme. Candidates who identify as members of the Armed Forces community and meet the essential criteria will be guaranteed an interview.

Details
Date posted: 07 July 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 8a
Salary: £57,528 to £64,750 a year pro rata/per annum
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Part-time, Flexible working
Reference number: 265-8053008-FAM
Job locations: University Hospitals of Northamptonshire, Northamptonshire, Northampton, NN1 5BD, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities
For a full list of all roles and responsibilities please refer to the attached job description and person specification

Person Specification
Qualifications & Experience
Essential

• HCPC registered Practitioner Psychologist (Clinical/Counselling/Health) or working towards HCPC registration as Practitioner Psychologist (Clinical/Counselling/Health)e.g. currently 3rd year Doctoral Trainee Psychologist or completing BPS Statement of Equivalence
• Doctoral level training in Clinical/Counselling/Health psychology. Qualification should include 3 years of supervised practice and recognised competencies in the use of integrative psychological formulation within psychological therapy, and the delivery of at least two or more distinct psychological therapies, models of psychopathology and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS).

Desirable

• At least 12 months of post-doctoral supervised NHS practice (part-time or full-time) as a HCPC registered Practitioner Psychologist (Clinical/Counselling/Health) providing direct clinical care including formulation based psychological interventions in any relevant clinical setting.
• Experience of working within NHS perinatal mental health, neonatal, PICU or a health psychology setting as a Trainee or Qualified Psychologist
• Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice
• Formal training in supervision of trainee or qualified practitioner psychologists e.g. from DClinPsy provided course or BPS accredited post-doctoral supervisor training.
• Experience of teaching, training and providing clinical supervision for psychologists and/or non-psychologists

Qualities & Values
Essential

• Passionate and committed to bring our Dedicated to Excellence values to life, improving the way we work with each other, particularly focusing on empowerment, equality diversity and inclusion of our staff, patients and service users
• Compassionate and committed to providing a values-based, patient-centred and holistic service

Key Knowledge & Skills
Essential

• Understanding of systemic factors and ability to apply these in formulations in the context of a complex healthcare system
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to utilise them to communicate effectively within a multi-disciplinary team-based environment as well as with patients/carers. Able to communicate both sensitively and effectively, and to work collaboratively with colleagues
• Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance, including regular supervision, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
• Ability to work inclusively, respectfully and sensitively with a range of people who experience a diversity of abilities, backgrounds and experiences regardless of personal abilities, attitudes and beliefs.

Desirable

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies relevant to working with families in an acute healthcare environment.
• Knowledge of relevant notional and professional policy, guidance or legislation relevant to working as an NHS Neonatal Psychologist
• Knowledge or experience of working with interpreters, community partners and in creative ways to support people to access psychological knowledge and support

Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact:
Neonatal Clinical Psychologist
Dr Mel Wiseman
mel.wiseman@nhs.net