Assistant Psychologist

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust; Chorley; On-site; GBP 24,000 - 28,000; Full time

Job summary

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust is recruiting a Band 4 Assistant Psychologist to support a DBT-informed intervention on the female acute ward at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital. You will deliver individual sessions, facilitate group work and help with clinical documentation under supervision.

The role involves evaluating outcomes, collecting data, and contributing to service development within a busy multidisciplinary team.

Qualifications

• A 2:1 honours degree or higher in psychology.
• Eligibility for graduate membership of the BPS.
• Experience as a healthcare assistant in an acute or PICU inpatient setting with adults.
• Experience in working within multidisciplinary teams.
• Ability to communicate complex information clearly in oral and written formats.
• Ability to work independently with supervision and in teams.

Responsibilities

• Support the DBT-informed psychological intervention on the female acute ward.
• Deliver structured individual sessions and facilitate group interventions.
• Complete clinical documentation and reports under supervision.
• Assist evaluation through data collection, statistics and outcome measures.

Skills

Communication skills

Written notes and reports

Independent / initiative

Team collaboration

Education

2:1 psychology degree

BPS graduate membership eligibility

Job description

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust

Assistant Psychologist

The closing date is 10 November 2026

This role is not eligible for sponsorship. Applicants must have an existing right to work in the UK and be able to maintain that right for the duration of employment without sponsorship from the Trust

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Band 4 Assistant Psychologist to join the Central and West Adult Mental Health Inpatient Team at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital, Chorley. The Chorley Inpatient Unit comprises of a 15 bed female acute ward, a 15 bed male acute ward and a 6 bed female psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU). The Inpatient unit provides care for people with complex mental health needs in the least restrictive and safest way. The aim of inpatient admission is to provide a service which can offer a whole pathway of support locally, identified in both national plans and clinical guidance, which would include an inpatient service offer that is matched against the identified need of LSCFT population.

Main duties of the job

We are looking for a suitably qualified and experienced individual with a genuine interest and desire of working with this client group. The post will primarily involve supporting the implementation and evaluation of a DBT-informed psychological intervention on the female acute ward (Duxbury ward) who may experience high levels of distress, emotional and behavioural dysregulation and/or self-harming behaviours. This will involve (but is not limited to) delivering structured individual intervention sessions, facilitating group-based psychological intervention sessions and completing associated clinical documentation and report writing, under the supervision of the Clinical Psychologist, as well as supporting the evaluation of the intervention through the administration and scoring of outcome measures, collation of clinical activity data, recording of statistics and contribution to relevant evaluation reports. The post also involved providing assistant psychologist input to the wider psychology service across the other wards.You should have good verbal and written communication skills, be able to co-work effectively with colleagues and enjoy working in a busy multi-disciplinary team.

About us

LSCFT values diversity and inclusion, recognising that talent from varied backgrounds creates a flexible, creative, and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from all, regardless of age, disability (including those with experience of accessing or caring for someone who has accessed mental health or learning disability services), ethnicity, gender, religion, belief, or sexual orientation.

Our aim is to reflect the communities we serve, so we particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups. If you'd like to discuss your application, please ask.

We also welcome individuals with lived experience relevant to the role or service area, as your insight brings authenticity to our services.

LSCFT support flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as term time, part time, compressed hours and flexi-time.

The wellbeing of our people is at the heart of everything we do. We offer a wide range of resources, tools and support to help you thrive both in and out of work.

Explore our full wellbeing offer here: Keeping our workforce well

Job responsibilities

Please see the attached job description and person specification for more information about this role.

Person Specification

Education/qualifications

• A 2:1 honours degree or higher in psychology.
• Eligibility for graduate membership of the BPS

Knowledge

• Awareness of the psychological, social and systemic needs of adults with complex mental health difficulties.
• Awareness of the principles of psychological assessment, formulation and intervention.
• Understanding of the importance of confidentiality, consent, professional boundaries and working within limits of competence

Experience

• Experience of working as a healthcare assistant within an acute or PICU inpatient setting with adults and/or experience of working as an employed assistant psychologist in the NHS, supervised by a qualified clinical psychologist.
• Direct clinical and/or clinical research experience with service users presenting with complex, chronic and co-occurring mental health and/or substance use challenges, or who present with risk to self or others.
• Experience of working within multidisciplinary teams.

Skills and Abilities

• Ability to communicate complex and sensitive information clearly, sensitively and professionally in both oral and written formats.
• Ability to communicate with service users who may be distressed, ambivalent or withdrawn and where there may be significant clinical and systemic barriers to engagement.
• Ability to write clear, accurate and timely clinical notes, summaries and reports under supervision.
• Able to demonstrate and integrate self-awareness, reflective capacity and openness to feedback within practice, with guidance and under supervision.
• Ability to work independently and using own initiative on a day-to-day basis, using problem solving skills, whilst remaining within the limits of the role.

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.

Employer name

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust