Assistant Psychologist

NHS; Rugeley; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 34,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare organization in Rugeley is seeking an Assistant Psychologist to support psychological care for children and young people. Responsibilities include conducting assessments, assisting in care plans, and coordinating therapeutic groups. The ideal candidate will hold a degree in Psychology and have experience in mental health settings. Benefits include excellent career development support, NHS pension, and up to 27 days annual leave.

Benefits

Excellent NHS Pension scheme

Generous maternity and paternity leave

Flexible working options

Extensive Health and Wellbeing support

Up to 27 days annual leave

Qualifications

• Experience of working with psychology and/or mental health for children and young people.
• Work with children and young people with Autism or other disabilities.
• Experience in a multi-disciplinary setting.

Responsibilities

• Undertake protocol based psychological assessments of clients.
• Assist in the formulation and delivery of care plans.
• Carry a caseload of service users requiring basic psychological interventions.

Skills

Communication skills

Understanding of mental health needs

Microsoft Office proficiency

Report writing

Ability to apply psychological knowledge

Education

Honours degree or higher in Psychology

Graduate membership of the British Psychology Society

Tools

SPSS for Windows

Job description

Job summary: An exciting opportunity has become available for an Assistant Psychologist in the Children and Young Peoples Autism Service.

The successful candidate will support the delivery of psychological care to Children & Young People within the CYP-Autism service, providing psychological assessment and psychological interventions under the close supervision of a registered Applied Psychologist. This will require liaison with schools and professionals, observations, psychometric assessments and scoring of such assessments, delivery of group based programmes for CYP, parents/carers and psychological interventions for CYP under the guidance of the supervising psychologist.

You will also assist in clinically related administration, development of resources, conduct of audits, collection of statistics, administration of audit and/or research projects, teaching and project work as required.

Main duties of the job

Under the supervision of an HCPC registered Psychologist:

• To undertake protocol based psychological assessments of clients applying psychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with CYP, family members and others involved in the young person's care.
• To assist in the formulation and delivery of care plans involving the psychological treatment and/or management of a CYP needs.
• To carry a caseload of individual service users requiring basic psychological interventions.
• To assist in the coordination and running of therapeutic groups.
• To work with other staff to assess CYP and review their care in preparation for multi-disciplinary reviews.

About us

By joining Team MPFT, you will be helping your communities and in return for this, we will support you by:

• Supporting your career development and progression
• Excellent NHS Pension scheme
• Generous maternity, paternity and adoption leave
• Options for flexible working
• Up to 27 days annual leave (increasing with service up to 33 days) and the opportunity to purchase additional leave
• Extensive Health and Wellbeing support and resources
• If you work in our community teams, we pay for your time travelling between patients
• Lease car if you complete more than 500 business miles per annum, fully insured and maintained (including tyres), mileage paid at lease car rate
• Salary sacrifice car - fully insured and maintained (including tyres), your gross pay is reduced by the cost of the vehicle before tax, NI and pension deductions are calculated, mileage paid at business rates
• Salary sacrifice bikes up to £2k
• Free car parking at all trust sites
• Free flu vaccinations every year
• Citizens Advice support linked with a Hardship Fund for one off additional support up to £250 (if the criteria is met)

We are proud to be a diverse and inclusive organisation and there is a choice of staff networks that help you meet like-minded people.

Please note, we may be required to close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential:

• Honours degree or higher in Psychology
• Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychology Society

Desirable:

• Postgraduate qualification in relevant clinical or research area
• Further training in relevant areas of professional psychology, mental health practice, Autism, personality disorder and/or research design and analysis
• ADOS training or willingness to undertake within first 3 months

Experience

Essential:

• Experience of working with psychology and/or mental health CYP
• Work with Children and Young People with Autism, mental health problems and/or other disabilities
• Experience of working within a multi-disciplinary setting and multi agency setting
• Experience of research methods, audit or other service evaluation techniques
• Has worked with applied psychologists and has an awareness of professional standards/issues

Desirable:

• Experience of assisting in delivery of group based interventions
• Experience of training and undertaking psychometric assessments, psychological tests, rating scales and observations with CYP

Skills

Essential:

• High level of communication skills (written and verbal)
• An understanding of the needs and difficulties of CYP with mental health problems or disabilities
• Proficient in the use of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel etc)
• High standard of report writing
• Ability to communicate sensitive information to CYP, families/carers and colleagues in a way that addresses psychological resistance
• An ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to autism context
• An understanding of psychology applied to health care
• Ability to accept and use supervision appropriately and effectively

Desirable:

• Experience using computers for databases or data analysis, including SPSS for Windows
• Experience of using digital record management systems within the NHS such as RIO

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.