Clinical Associate Psychologist

Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust; Ipswich; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player in mental health services is seeking a qualified Clinical Associate Psychologist to join their supportive team in East Suffolk. This role focuses on developing service pathways for older individuals with complex emotional and relational needs, including those with dementia. You will work closely with experienced clinical psychologists, engaging in assessments, interventions, and quality improvement initiatives. With a commitment to compassionate care and professional development, this opportunity offers a chance to make a meaningful impact in the community while enjoying the beautiful surroundings of Suffolk. If you are passionate about mental health and eager to contribute to a dedicated team, this position is for you.

Benefits

Comprehensive training programs

Career progression

27 days annual leave increasing to 33

NHS discounts

Qualifications

• Masters qualification in Clinical Psychology required.
• Experience in delivering psychological assessments and interventions.

Responsibilities

• Provide psychological assessment and interventions for older people.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams for clinical pathways.

Skills

Psychological assessment

Interpersonal skills

Time management

Empathic communication

Education

Masters Clinical Associate in Psychology

Job description

Search the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS website

Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust provides child and adult mental health services, learning disability, wellbeing, older people's and eating disorder services across Norfolk and Suffolk.

At any one time, around 23,000 people in Norfolk and Suffolk are receiving care and attention from the Trust. We believe in whole life care - seeing people in the context of their whole lives, understanding the importance of good physical health, friends, family, spirituality, culture, home, work, education and a sense of purpose and achievement to experience good mental health.

Nearly 3,800 full and part-time practitioners care for our service users in hospitals, in the community and in their own homes, whilst an additional 1,400+ staff provide non-clinical support, including cleaning, catering, delivering supplies, ward administration, information technology, human resources and financial services.

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and want to reflect the diversity of our local communities within our teams. We welcome applications from all talented individuals with the relevant qualifications, skills, knowledge and experience.

We are committed to delivering quality driven mental health services. Every individual makes a valuable contribution. We are proud of our staff who have been commended for the care they provide. Do you value working positively, respectfully and together? If so, we’d love you to join us!

We will consider flexible working arrangements for our roles, please indicate in your application if this is something you require.

Job overview

Are you ready for a diverse, well supported post in a great location? Would you like to inspire and be inspired by others who share a common passion and commitment to working alongside and advocating for older people? Then this is the post for you. We are looking to recruit a qualified clinical associate psychologist (CAP) into our older peoples’ community mental health services in East Suffolk. The primary focus will be to contribute to the development of our service pathway and provision for older people living with complex emotional and relational needs. The people who use our service may or may not also be living with a diagnosis of dementia. This will give rise to a diverse post covering different aspects of service quality and development including the provision of training, formal quality improvement initiatives and clinical interventions. We pride ourselves on our compassionate and mutually supportive stance within our service to enable colleagues to work to the best of their ability, in turn enabling high quality service provision.

Main duties of the job

As a Clinical Associate Psychologist, you will work closely with the existing clinical psychologists and the wider multidisciplinary teams. Your duties could include:

• The provision of psychological assessment, formulation, individual and group interventions, for older people and people of all ages with a dementia and co-morbid complex emotional and relational needs.
• Working closely with qualified Clinical Psychologists to set up the clinical pathways.
• Undertaking appropriate clinical work under the supervision of a Clinical Psychologist.
• Active participation in multidisciplinary case discussion and formulation meetings.
• Involvement in development of policies and project work.
• Data gathering for audit and research purposes.
• Training and consultation.

Working for our organisation

Here at NSFT we pride ourselves on being a welcoming, talented, friendly and supportive team who like nothing better than sharing experiences and learning from each other. In addition to ongoing training and development opportunities, we are committed to providing an environment in which you can thrive.

Why work for us? We have challenges as a Trust, but we have ambitious aspirations, are pushing ahead with exciting transformation work and we need dedicated individuals to support us on our journey. We have strong, established professional networks coupled with an exceptional leadership team who will ensure you are truly cared for and cared about.

Why Suffolk? Suffolk is a beautiful county with picturesque towns and villages and easy access to the coast. There are easy transport links to London and affordable housing.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The successful applicant will join our professional and friendly multidisciplinary team. We are proud to say that our team’s high standards of care attract positive feedback from our service users and carers on a weekly basis and Community Older People Teams in our Trust are consistently rated as ‘Good’ by CQC. Would you like to do a job that makes a difference every day, using your skills, experience, and compassion with older people and people of all ages with dementia? Then join us.

The post holder will need to be confident in completing assessments, running groups and delivering mental health interventions in person. They will also be required to support and work collaboratively with our colleagues within the CMHT service along with and the other organisations and allied teams in our care group.

Please find attached our Job Description and Person Specification for more detail on your Key Accountabilities, then if you feel you have what it takes to make a difference in your local communities, click APPLY!

Some of the benefits you can expect:

• A comprehensive in-house & external training programmes.
• Career progression.
• Starting annual leave of 27 days per annum increasing to 33 days pa based on length of service (plus paid bank holidays).
• NHS discounts.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Masters Clinical Associate in Psychology qualification.
• Eligibility for registration on the BPS Wider Psychological Workforce register as an Associate Psychologist.

Experience

• Relevant supervised experience of delivering psychological assessments and interventions in a relevant setting/service user group.
• Experience of working in a setting with Service Users presenting with moderate to severe mental health difficulties.
• Experience of working within a multidisciplinary team.

Knowledge

• Masters level knowledge of psychological theory and research, including psychological assessment, formulation, intervention and evaluation.
• Skills in managing time and workload in the context of multiple competing demands.
• Excellent interpersonal skills including the ability to build rapport, communicate empathically and sensitively in a manner appropriate to the context and recipient.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES Apart from its legal duties in relation to equality and diversity, the Trust recognises and actively promotes the benefits of a diverse workforce and is committed to treating all employees with dignity and respect regardless of race, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief.

As a part of the Disability Confident Employer Guaranteed Interview Scheme we interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the job vacancy (outlined in the Person Specification). We encourage you to indicate your eligibility through TRAC jobs when applying.

DISCLOSURE AND BARRING SERVICE CHECK (formerly CRB)
FOR POSTS WITH DIRECT SERVICE USER CONTACT - Please be advised that due to recent changes in the DBS Service, organisations no longer receive copies of DBS Disclosures – these are sent directly to candidates only. Therefore, it will be your responsibility, if successful, to ensure that this is taken to the appointing officer as soon as you receive it.

Alternatively, if you have subscribed to the update service, we will be able to check your status once we have your authority to do so.

The Trust has now introduced a DBS Update Service which is a contractual requirement. You need to subscribe when you have applied for your DBS clearance and there is a time limit to subscribe of 19 days after receipt of your DBS disclosure. Please ensure that this is completed within the set time scale.

This update service is an annual subscription at a cost of £13 to you. This will enable the Trust to have instant online access to your DBS record, with your consent, and so will remove the need for you to have to apply for this repeat check again.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.