Assistant Psychologist

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a full-time Assistant Psychologist for a one-year fixed contract. The role involves supporting psychological care within the Community Forensic Learning Disability Service, conducting assessments, and contributing to client care plans under supervision. Ideal candidates will have a degree in psychology and strong communication skills.

Qualifications

• Degree in psychology or equivalent.
• Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society.
• ECDL or proficiency in Microsoft Office.

Responsibilities

• Conduct psychological assessments under supervision.
• Assist in the formulation and delivery of care plans.
• Contribute to training and support of other staff.

Skills

Communication

Interpersonal skills

Organisational skills

Education

First or Upper Second honours degree in psychology

Graduate membership of the British Psychological Society

Tools

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Excel

SPSS

Job description

Employer heading

Band 4

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Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.

We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnic minorities, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.

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Job overview

We are looking to recruit a full time, 37.5 hours per week assistant psychologist on a one year fixed contract. This post will be to contribute and support the psychology provision within our Community Forensic Learning Disability Service in Lancashire & South Cumbria.

Main duties of the job

The Assistant Psychologist will support and enhance the psychological care of clients within the service, providing psychological assessment, formulation and interventions under the close supervision of a qualified Practitioner Psychologist. They will also work independently according to a plan agreed with the multi-disciplinary team and within the overall framework of the Secure Care Division and service specific policies and procedures.

Working for our organisation

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

All of the following clinical activities will be carried out under the supervision of a Qualified Practitioner Psychologist.

To undertake psychological assessments of clients - applying psychological tests, including neuropsychological, 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 review a variety of data sources, including medical records, case files, and depositions to inform standardised risk assessments for qualified members of the Secure Care Division.

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 qualified psychologist.

To contribute to the development of outcome measures for clinical interventions, and to assist the design and implementation of service development projects within the Secure Care Division To communicate and liaise with staff and other disciplines with regard to assessing clients and reviewing their care in preparation for multidisciplinary review meetings. Under the supervision of a qualified psychologist or clinical nurse specialist, to prepare reports on clinical assessments with individuals, the results of psychometric assessments, case note reviews and research/audit projects.

To assist in clinically related administration, conduct of audits, collection of statistics, development of audit and/or research projects, training and project work.

To contribute to the training and support of other staff in psychological care, including contributing to the organisation of training seminars and conferences for others.

To receive regular individual and group clinical supervision in accordance with professional practice guidelines and the Directorate policy.

To develop skills and competencies that assist in the delivery of current duties.

To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participant in appropriate CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the post holder’s professional and operational managers.

To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing in accordance with professional codes of practice of the British Psychological Society, the Health Care Professions Council, Clinical Business Unit, and Trust policies and procedures.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

A First or Upper Second honours degree in psychology OR a lower class with a post-graduate qualification. (e.g., Master’s degree)

Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society (GBR)

ECDL or demonstrable proficiency with Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Publisher and SPSS

Knowledge

Essential criteria

Knowledge of psychological approaches to working with people who have mental health needs or behaviours that challenge (e.g., Positive Behaviour Support, Trauma Informed Care, Person Centred Care etc)

Good written and spoken English

Good keyboard skills

Good inter-personal skills

Good organisational skills

Ability to carry out instructions, use own initiative but recognise own limits and can utilise and tolerate supervision effectively

Skills

Essential criteria

High level communication skills (written and verbal) including an ability to communicate and work in settings in which the atmosphere may be highly emotive.

An understanding of the needs and difficulties of people with mental health problems, learning disabilities and/or behaviours that challenge.

An understanding of psychology applied to health care.

Able to use library effectively, conduct literature searches, etc.

Ability to accept and use supervision appropriately and effectively.

Recognises the limits of own competence and need for supervision.

Ability and willingness to travel for work

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Please ensure you check the email account from which you apply for all correspondence. All information regarding your application will come from apps.trac.jobs not NHS Jobs.

Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we offer a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants who consider themselves to be disabled who meet the minimum (essential) criteria for the role in the person specification. If you would like your application to be considered under the Trust’s guaranteed interview scheme you can indicate this in the personal information section of your online application form.

Should you require a reasonable adjustment to our recruitment process please email [email protected] to ensure that measures can be put in place to support you.

We reserve the right to close any vacancies from further applications when we have received a minimum number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

The Trust expects all post holders who require an enhanced DBS for their role subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £16 per year and maintain registration. Trans applicants who require a DBS check and do not want to reveal details of their previous identity can contact the DBS Sensitive Applications Team (01516761452 or email [email protected] ) with their application number once they have completed their DBS application form. The team can prevent any previous identity showing on the DBS Certificate, unless the applicant has a conviction under their previous details in which case this will need to be disclosed.

Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

Please be advised that the use of Artificial Intelligence on applications is monitored and if you choose to use this, you must declare this on your application form.

Please note: new entrants to the NHS will commence on the first pay point of the relevant band.

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Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

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.