Band 4 OPD Assistant Psychologist - North Somerset

Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust; Weston-super-Mare; Hybrid; GBP 24,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading mental health service provider in Weston-super-Mare is seeking an Assistant Psychologist to support the delivery of community OPD. This role involves case triage, psychological assessments, and collaboration with professionals. The position supports a hybrid working model with occasional travel required. Ideal candidates should reside within a reasonable distance from North Somerset Probation Office.

Qualifications

• Desired requirement to live within reasonable travel distance of North Somerset Probation Office.
• Ability to work independently under supervision of registered clinicians.

Responsibilities

• Support the delivery of community OPD including case triage and reviews.
• Provide psychological assessments and interventions.
• Assist in clinically related administration and audits.

Job description

We are looking to recruit an Assistant Psychologist into the Specialised PD Probation Service at AWP. Specialised PD, otherwise known as OPD, is a large, community based, multidisciplinary team that has developed innovative approaches to working with high-risk offenders with Personality Disorders. These service users are seen by the National Probation Service in Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire and OPD covers the caseload within these areas.

As a service we cover Probation Offices based in Bristol, Bath, North Somerset, Swindon, Chippenham, Salisbury, Gloucester, and Cheltenham. In addition, we cover 3 Male and 1 Female Approved Premises in Bristol, and 1 Male Approved Premises in Gloucester.

We support a hybrid working model where we encourage staff to work from home 40% of the working week, and in an office space for 60% of their working week. Each staff member has an allocated geographical area with a central office in that area. Though this post is based primarily in Bath & North Somerset there will be occasional travel to other areas covered by OPD, or for training, conferences, or external meetings.

It is a desired requirement of this post that the applicant lives within reasonable travel distance of North Somerset Probation Office as they will need to attend here or similar locations several times a week.

The proposed interview date is Tuesday 25th November 2025

Main duties of the job

To support the delivery of community OPD by delivering; case triage and identification, case reviews, case consultations, developing formulation, designing and delivering training, providing advice and consultation to other professionals, and contributing to the research within the team. The post will also involve direct work with service users who are now residing in the community and would involve providing psychological assessment and psychological interventions.

In addition, the post holder will be required to regularly assist in clinically related administration, conduct of audits, delivery orders, collection of statistics and development of audit and/or research projects.

The post holder would be expected to work independently according to a plan agreed with the professionally registered clinical and operational lead for the area/service and within the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedures.

For professionally unregistered staff all work is done under the supervision of professionally registered clinicians. Clinical supervision and line management are in play to support all clinical staff.