Assistant Psychologist | Northumbria Healthcare - NHCT Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust; Wallsend; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 32,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare organization in Wallsend is seeking a dedicated Assistant Psychologist to join their Community Learning Disability Team. The role involves supporting qualified staff, conducting research, and facilitating group interventions for individuals with learning disabilities. Ideal candidates will show empathy, emotional resilience, and a passion for improving client well-being. This position offers an opportunity to work collaboratively with a multidisciplinary team to enhance health outcomes and quality of life for clients.

Qualifications

• Experience working with people with learning disabilities, experience with dementia is desirable.
• Demonstrated emotional resilience and ability to maintain a compassionate approach in stressful situations.
• Experience using psychometrics or carrying out research, as this will be key.

Responsibilities

• Assist in research projects and related administration.
• Support assessment and intervention work under qualified psychologists.
• Facilitate group‑based interventions and shadow trained psychologists.

Skills

Experience with learning disabilities

Empathy

Emotional resilience

Adaptability

Job description

About the role

We are looking to recruit a highly motivated, committed and compassionate Assistant Psychologist to join our Community Learning Disability Team in North Tyneside. The newly appointed clinician will join our multi-disciplinary team, consisting of Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists, Community Learning Disability Nurses and Support Workers.

We are a lifespan service and provide a wide range of services to both adults and children with learning disabilities and physical health needs, mental health needs, forensic histories, behavioural expressions of need, and dementia, amongst other areas of work.

The ideal candidate will be passionate about working in collaboration with individuals, their carers, families, systems and professional colleagues to enhance health and well‑being, improve quality of life for our clients and their systems, address health inequalities, and promote positive health outcomes.

Role and responsibilities

The post holder will be managed and professionally led by the principal clinical psychologist for North Tyneside Community Learning Disabilities Team and supervised by other qualified staff. The role combines administrative support for qualified psychologists, a clinical focus on supporting qualified staff in assessments and therapeutic interventions, and support with research/service development and audit.

• Assist in research projects and related administration, conduct audits, and collect and interpret research data under the supervision of a qualified professional psychologist.
• Support assessment, formulation and intervention work, working under the supervision of qualified clinical psychologists.
• Facilitate group‑based interventions, including DBT skills and Compassion‑Focused Therapy (CFT) parent/carer support groups, and shadow psychologists trained in evidence‑based interventions.
• Support with research and service development, carrying out psychometrics or research activities where required.

Leadership and teamwork

• Role‑model compassionate and inclusive leadership, engaging, enabling and empowering others.
• Use coaching to promote ownership of learning and quality improvement.
• Facilitate team working and collaboration within, across departments and organisational boundaries.

Qualifications and experience

• Experience working with people with learning disabilities; experience with dementia desirable.
• Demonstrated emotional resilience and ability to maintain a compassionate approach in stressful situations.
• Experience using psychometrics or carrying out research (beneficial as this will be a key part of the role).
• Empathy, adaptability and responsiveness to the needs of patients.

Working environment

We manage three major locality hospitals at North Tyneside, Wansbeck and Hexham, plus a number of smaller community hospitals and clinics from Tynemouth to Berwick on Tweed, in addition to the state‑of‑the‑art Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, the first of its kind in England. We also care for people in their homes and provide services from facilities in local communities such as health centres.

Our aim is to give people greater choice and control over their care, helping them to live independently at home and avoid hospital admission where appropriate. High quality patient care is at the heart of everything we do and we strive to ensure every single patient and service user has an exceptional experience. We have one of the most extensive patient experience programmes of any trust in England.

Application deadline

This advert closes on Sunday 4 Jan 2026.