Assistant Psychologist - Clinical Research

Job overview

We are seeking an Assistant Psychologist to join us in delivering a new national centralised clinic. The clinic will recruit patients at NHS mental health trusts across the UK to take part in two of our trials: Feeling Safer (ISRCTN93974770) and Sleeping Better (ISRCTN71800376).

Feeling Safer is testing a six-month supported online programme for patients experiencing persecutory delusions. Sleeping Better is testing a 12-week remote intervention for helping improve sleep with patients with psychosis and young people at ultra-high risk of psychosis. This role will support the liaison with clinical teams and NHS R&D offices across the UK, recruiting patients, and carrying out the trial assessments.

You'll be part of the Oxford Cognitive Approaches to Psychosis (O-CAP) clinical research group based in the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford. We are a large clinical research team (40 people) working to understand why mental health problems happen and how they can be best treated psychologically. It is a thriving and supportive clinical research group that aims to carry out work to the highest standards for patients.

If you have experience of psychological research including participant recruitment and a Degree in Psychology (2:1 or above), we'd love to hear from you!

Main duties of the job

• Supporting a clinical psychologist to form excellent relationships with NHS mental health trusts in the UK to work effectively in helping patients with psychosis and young people at ultra-high risk of psychosis take part in Feeling Safer or Sleeping Better.
• Screening and recruitment of patients experiencing persecutory delusions (in the context of the treatment of psychosis) into the Feeling Safer trial. Screening and recruitment of patients at ultra-high risk of psychosis experiencing sleep difficulties into the Sleeping Better trial. This will involve: speaking to referrers regularly, including clinical team members and Research Delivery Network (RDN) staff; checking eligibility; and explaining the trial to potential participants. There will be monthly recruitment targets.
• Completing eligibility screening assessments and seeking informed consent from patients.
• Carrying out the assessments at multiple timepoints.  You will need to arrange these interviews and administer clinical interviews and self-report questionnaires.
• It will be crucial to maintain very high follow-up rates , meaning you will need excellent engagement skills.
• The post is based in-person at the O-CAP team base in Oxford.

Please refer to the job description attached for a comprehensive list of duties.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The primary base will be in the Oxford Cognitive Approaches to Psychosis (O-CAP) team in the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford. Although based at Oxford and liaising with collaborating NHS primarily remotely, you are likely to travel to project sites.

Interested applicants will find the type of work described in these two publications:

Freeman, D., Emsley, R., Rosebrock, L., Morrison, A., Chapman, K., Common, S., ... & Waite, F. (2025). Efficacy of a 6-month supported online programme (Feeling Safer) for the treatment of persecutory delusions: protocol for a randomised controlled trial. BMJ open, 15(6), e104580.

Waite, F., Černis, E., Kabir, T., Iredale, E., Johns, L., Maughan, D., ... & Freeman, D. (2023). A targeted psychological treatment for sleep problems in young people at ultra-high risk of psychosis in England (SleepWell): a parallel group, single-blind, randomised controlled feasibility trial. The Lancet Psychiatry, 10(9), 706-718.

We hope that the advert has given you a clear understanding of the skills we are seeking and the opportunity at hand. You will need to use the “supporting statement” element of your application form to demonstrate your suitability for this role and you should refer to the job description, person specification and the guidance notes attached to this role to help you tailor your application.

The essential and desirable criteria will be used to shortlist for interview, and you should ensure that you refer to these within your application to increase your chances of being selected for interview.

We are aware that some candidates may choose to use AI tools to support their application. We kindly remind applicants that submissions should remain an honest and accurate representation of their experience and must take care to ensure the use of AI tools does not generate an application that does not accurately reflect their knowledge, skills and values.