Assistant Psychologist

Job overview

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is looking to recruit a passionate, knowledgeable and dynamic Assistant Psychologist to join our growing psychology team in the East Sussex Rehab pathway.

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SPFT) is committed to improving access to psychological professions, utilising funding from NHS England, to offer paid assistant psychologist positions to aspiring clinical psychologists. Please note that the funding is specifically intended to break down barriers to gaining appropriate experience in the profession. Whilst the role is open to anyone who can suitably reflect on structural inequalities, we are particularly keen to encourage applications from those that identify as belonging to a group that are nationally recognised as being under-represented in Clinical Psychology. These are:

• Individuals from ethnic minority back-grounds
• Those from low socio-economic back-grounds as defined by Gov.uk
• Individuals with unpaid caring responsibilities as defined by NHSE

The East Sussex Rehab Pathway aims to support those with severe and enduring mental health difficulties including Psychosis to make meaningful recovery. We work across both inpatient facilities at Amberstone Hospital and community bases at both Eastbourne and Hastings. We are committed to increasing access to Psychological therapies and recovery orientated, trauma informed care.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will support and enhance the professional psychological care to those currently supported through the rehabilitation pathway in East Sussex. This will involve clients currently admitted to Amberstone hospital and those under the care of our community teams based at Eastbourne and Hastings. The role will be to deliver psychological interventions under the guidance of a qualified psychologist. It will be to liaise with the MDT and with families/carers, other professionals and organisations to promote communication and good practice.

Experience of working with psychosis and severe and enduring mental health presentations and experience of using therapeutic models associated with this client group.is desirable but not essential

You will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team providing psychological assessments and interventions within the scope appropriate to level of experience and training.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

REQUIREMENTS

To be a successful Assistant Psychologist in our team you will be/have:

• Honours degree at 2:1 or above in Psychology or equivalent.
• Eligible for graduate membership with British Psychological Society
• Have access to a car- Travel between sites is essential to the role and unfortunately public transport is limited.
• Please note that the funding is specifically intended to break down barriers to gaining appropriate experience in the profession. Whilst the role is open to anyone who can suitably reflect on structural inequalities, we are particularly keen to encourage applications from those that identify as belonging to a group that are nationally recognised as being under represented in Clinical Psychology. These are:• Individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds• Those from low socio-economic backgrounds as defined by Gov.uk• Individuals with unpaid caring responsibilities as defined by NHSE
• You must be able to demonstrate a caring, compassionate and non-judgmental attitude, and show a commitment to making a difference when supporting clients and their families on their recovery journeys

Clinical experiences may include:

• Supporting group sessions
• Present clinically prepared information to patients within workshops / webinars, un-der the supervision of a qualified clinician
• Quality improvement work to include research / audit / support with clinical pathway coordination and analysis
• Liaison with a range of services to include health, social care and voluntary agencies to support patient pathways
• Observe supervisor or other members of MDT conduct assessments, take notes during assessment and write these up afterwards for supervisor to check.
• Gather information about a service user from the Clinical Information System to assist overall assessment of a service user.
• Observation of full neuropsychological assessments, scoring of neuropsychological tests to be checked by supervisor and discussed in supervision.

Non-clinical experiences may include:

• Administration and scoring of outcome measures
• Involvement in service evaluation, audit and research projects (including but not limited to: database and questionnaire design, data analysis, preparation of NHS ethics forms and audit proposal forms, literature review)
• Collation of information of local services, preparation of service user information leaflets and creation of displays about local services/psychological themes for ser-vice user waiting areas.
• Assistant psychologists will receive one hour of supervision per week and may re-quest a reference from their supervisor.
• A specialised induction programme and ongoing support will also be available to assistant psychologists to support learning in these posts.

See attached Generic Job Description and Person Specification for full details.

Please apply using the link in this advert, or for more information explore the attachments or contact:

sarah.mansfield10@nhs.net

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.