Clinical Psychology Assistant Practitioner

South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust; Pontefract; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading NHS Foundation Trust in the UK seeks a Clinical Psychology Assistant Practitioner to support the dementia pathway. The position offers an exciting opportunity to develop skills in assessment and psychological intervention within a multidisciplinary team. Candidates should possess a relevant degree in psychology and experience with mental health challenges. This is a full-time fixed-term role until January 2027, with the potential for career exploration in Professional Psychology.

Qualifications

• Further post-graduate training in relevant areas of professional psychology.
• Practical experience of working with people with mental health problems.
• Experience administering neuropsychological assessments.

Responsibilities

• Undertake psychological assessments of clients using various methods.
• Assist in formulating and delivering care plans under supervision.
• Coordinate and run therapeutic groups or clinical projects.

Skills

Experience with mental health problems

High level communication skills

Ability to work independently

Experience with neuropsychological assessments

Education

Honours degree in Psychology (2:1)

Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society

Tools

SPSS

Job description

South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust

The closing date is 13 January 2026

Clinical Psychology Assistant Practitioner

If you are interested in a career in Clinical Psychology and passionate about working with older people, this role is for you!

An exciting opportunity has arisen to work as an Assistant Psychologist within Wakefield Older Peoples OPS Psychology Team to support the dementia pathway, based at The Poplars. The service provides consultation, assessment, treatment and psychological interventions with people who have a diagnosis of dementia as well as offering support to their families/carers.

We have a full-time fixed term post until 8th January 2027. The successful candidate will support psychological provision within the Inpatient Dementia pathway and will be supervised by a Clinical Psychologist. This offers an excellent opportunity to gain a range of core psychological skills in a vibrant multi-disciplinary team.

All employees of the Trust are strongly encouraged to have their up-to-date flu vaccination to protect staff and patients.

Main duties of the job

The successful applicant will have the opportunity to develop a range of skills including assessment, formulation, systemic interventions, staff training, service evaluation and multidisciplinary team working. They will assist the qualified psychologist to complete psychosocial, behavioural and mood assessments and provide psychological interventions both directly and indirectly with patients and through working with the wider team.

We are seeking someone who has experience of working with people with complex mental health problems or other disabilities. We would value experience of working within the NHS, experience with common psychometric assessment tools and knowledge around behaviour that challenges in dementia. We seek someone who is highly organised (managing multiple demands) and has a passion & motivation for working with this client group. There will be travel across Wakefield & the District.

At the time of advertising, this role does not meet the minimum requirements set by UK Visas and Immigration to sponsor candidates to work in the UK. For this reason, we are unable to sponsor anyone for a skilled worker visa for this role.

We are happy to accept applications from candidates who can prove their right to work in the UK or via alternative visa routes. Such applications will be considered alongside all other applications.

About us

We are a specialist NHS Foundation Trust that provides community, mental health and learning disability services for the people of Barnsley, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield. We also provide low and medium secure services and are the lead for the west Yorkshire secure provider collaborative.

Our mission is to help people reach their potential and live well in their communities. We do this by providing high-quality care in the right place at the right time. We employ staff in both clinical and non-clinical services who work hard to make a difference to the lives of service users, families and carers.

We encourage and welcome applications from all protected characteristic groups, we value diversity and want our workforce to be reflective of our communities.

Being a foundation Trust means we are accountable to our members, who can have a say in how we are run. Around 14,300 local people (including staff) are members of our Trust.

Join us and you will be one of over 4,500 staff committed to supporting and improving the mental, physical and social needs of the thousands of people we meet and help each year.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expect all colleagues and volunteers to share this commitment.

We do reserve to right to close vacancy before the advertised closing date if necessary, so please apply as soon as possible.

Job responsibilities

JOB SUMMARY

This job description is an outline of the main duties of the post. The postholder will be required to undertake other duties commensurate with the grade as directed.

The content of this post will be reviewed in consultation with the postholder when necessary and in line with the service developments.

To support and enhance the professional psychological care of clients within the service, across all sectors of care; providing psychological assessment and psychological interventions under the supervision of a HCPC registered Practitioner Psychologist, working independently according to a plan agreed with a HCPC Registered Practitioner Psychologist and within the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedures. To assist in clinically related administration, conduct of audits, collection of statistics, and development of audit and / or research projects, teaching and project work.

KEY RESULT AREAS:

• Clinical:
  • To undertake protocol based psychological assessments of clients applying psychological theory, including neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care.
  • To assist in the formulation and delivery of care plans involving the psychological treatment and / or management of a client’s problems, under the supervision of a HCPC registered Practitioner Psychologist.
  • To assist in the coordination and running of therapeutic groups or clinical projects.
  • To work with other staff to assess community patients and review their care in preparation for multi-disciplinary reviews.
  • To assist in the development of a psychological based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings where care takes place.
  • To attend and contribute to appropriate multi-disciplinary meetings.
  • To respect diversity. To treat everyone with dignity and respect and act in ways that acknowledge and recognise peoples expressed beliefs, preferences and choices.
• IT responsibilities (clinical):
  • To use highly developed IT skills.
  • To access knowledge through Internet searches (e.g. Psych. Lit, Medline) to keep up to date with clinical and professional development.
  • For the preparation and presentation of materials of effective teaching and training (e.g. PowerPoint, graphic representations) to record and analyse data for research and audit (e.g. databases, spreadsheets, statistical analysis packages e.g. SPSS).
  • To create graphs or charts to collate or summarise data on individual interventions or treatment programmes.
  • To assist in producing visual or material or user friendly information for interventions with clients.
• Teaching, training and supervision:
  • In common with all HCPC Registered Practitioner Psychologists, to receive regular clinical supervision in accordance with professional practice guidelines.
  • To gain wider experience of professional psychology within the NHS over and above that provided within the principal service area where the post holder is employed.
  • To develop skills and competencies that assist in the delivery of current duties.
  • To contribute to the training and support of other staff, working within the Service in psychological care.
• Management, recruitment and service development:
  • To assist in the design and implementation of service development projects with the service as required.
  • To attend meetings in which service developments are planned and discussed.
• Research and service evaluation:
  • To assist in the design and implementation of audit and research projects.
  • To undertake data collection, analysis, the production of reports and summaries, using IT and statistical programmes.
  • To undertake searches of evidence-based literature and research to assist HCPC registered Practitioner Psychologists in evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

For full job description, please see attached supporting documents.

We are aware that an increasing number of applicants are using AI technology to generate responses on NHS Job application forms. Over reliance on AI-generated content in application forms is strongly discouraged and we will conduct a thorough screening process before selecting candidates to progress to the next stage. If you are using AI to enhance your application, please disclose this in your NHS Jobs application form.

Person Specification

Training

• Further post-graduate training in relevant areas of professional psychology, mental health practice and/or research design and analysis.

Experience

• Practical experience of working with people with mental health problems and/or learning disabilities and/or psychological/behavioural/ neurological problems.
• Experience of paid work in direct care provision, particularly in the care group of the specialty of this post.
• Experience of administering and scoring neuropsychological assessments.

Special Knowledge & Skills

• High level communication skills (written and verbal) including an ability to communicate and work in settings in which the atmosphere may be highly emotive.
• Ability to communicate sensitive information to patients, carers and colleagues in a way that addresses psychological resistance.
• Ability to communicate information which may be perceived as contentious to patients, carers and colleagues in a manner that promotes understanding and acceptance.
• An understanding of the needs and difficulties of people with mental health problems, learning disabilities and/or other disabilities.
• An ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to health and social service contexts.
• An understanding of psychology applied to health care.
• Experience using computers for databases or data-analysis.
• Experience using microcomputers for databases or data analysis especially SPSS for Windows.
• High standard of report writing.

Physical Attributes

• Ability to undertake the duties and demands of the post. A satisfactory sickness record over the previous 2 years (subject to the need to act with fairness and equality of opportunity, particularly where the sickness is related to a disability and/or pregnancy).

Personal Attributes

• An ability to interact effectively with staff from all disciplines.
• An ability to interact effectively with people with mental health problems or learning disabilities.
• Ability to work independently, reliably and consistently with work agreed and managed at regular intervals.
• Ability to accept and use supervision appropriately and effectively.
• Able to travel throughout the catchment area, without unnecessary delays.
• A Current driving licence and access to a car during the working day is essential (reasonable adjustments will be considered for any applicants who are unable to drive due to a disability).
• An interest in working with people with mental health problems.
• A desire to explore a career in Professional Psychology.

Qualifications

• An Honours degree in Psychology (2:1).
• Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society.

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

South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust