Senior Assistant Psychologist - 1 Year Fixed Term

NELFT NHS Foundation Trust; Barking; On-site; GBP 4,000 - 6,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in the UK is seeking an Assistant Psychologist to join a multidisciplinary autism service. The role requires strong expertise in neurodevelopment and at least 2 years in autism. Applicants must have an honours degree in Psychology. The position offers opportunities for professional development within a supportive environment, fostering a culture of care and wellbeing.

Benefits

Flexible working opportunities

Health and wellbeing support

Training and development opportunities

Qualifications

• 2+ years of experience in the field of neurodiversity.
• Experience working with pre-school children.

Responsibilities

• Contributing to developmental assessments
• Supporting qualified team members in MDT processes
• Facilitating post-diagnostic interventions

Skills

Developmental assessment

Risk assessment

Autism assessment

Education

Honours degree in Psychology

Job description

This job is brought to you by Jobs/Redefined, the UK's leading over-50s age inclusive jobs board.

Joining #TeamNELFT means you'll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We're CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for three consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video

Job overview

An exciting vacancy for the post of an Assistant Psychologist Band 5, in a Specialist 0-18 Autism service within NELFT. This post is part of a newly commissioned multidisciplinary autism service at NELFT. This post would suit someone with a strong interest in neurodevelopment and at least 2 years experience in Autism. It will be based in East London and will include travel within East London as part of clinical activity. Suitable candidates will have specialist skills in assessing neurodivergence and will contribute to post assessment offers within the service.

Eligible staff includes those with an honours degree in Psychology and at experience of working with pre-school children.

There is also a strong trust wide assistant psychologists' group which can be linked in for support and advice. This post will be an excellent opportunity to further develop specialist skills within neurodevelopment services under supervision.

Please contact Dr Afua Appiah ([e-mail]) for further information.

Main duties of the job

• Contributing to developmental assessments
• Supporting qualified team members in triage and MDT processes
• contributing to MDT discussions
• Supporting qualified team members in risk assessment
• Facilitating/co-facilitating post diagnostic interventions

Working for our organisation

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period. Internal applicants are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or currently a bank member of staff).

Starting with NELFT

NELFT place a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers and attend a number of drop in sessions focussing in engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

High Cost Area Supplement - Outer London

This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (with a minimum of £4,313 to a maximum of £5,436 p.a. pro rata for part time).

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Assisting in the provision of a psychological service to children, young people and families within the specialty under the direction of the supervising clinical psychologist
• To be responsible for the planning and prioritisation of own workload and activities following the direction and guidelines given by the supervising clinical psychologist
• To contribute to assessments of children to inform the diagnosis of possible social communication disorders in clinic, school, home and nursery settings
• To undertake research activities as required and directed by the supervising clinical psychologist
• To work within guidelines given by the supervising clinical psychologist.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• atleast a degree in psychology with 2:1

Desirable criteria

• Masters degree in relevant area (e.g child neuropsychology)
• ADOS Trained
• Child development qualification

Experience

Essential criteria

• experience atleast 2 years in the field of neurodiversity

Desirable criteria

• Experience facilitating aspects of autism assessments (e.g school observation, clinic observation)
• Experience delivering/co-delivering autism specific psychoeducation
• Experience administering and scoring cognitive assessments
• Previous experience working therapeutically with pre-school children

Skills

Essential criteria

• Developmental , risk and autism assessment using assessment tools

Desirable criteria

• Use of neuroaffirmative language
• Knowledge of up to date evidence base regarding neurodevelopment assessment and/or intervention

Benefits

We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:

• A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
• A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our effortsto support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a 'Top 10 Family Friendly Employer' from the Working Families Charity.
• Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
• Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.

Supporting our Armed Forces

We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community make to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Gold Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme. We have supportive policies, guaranteed interview schemes for veterans. reservists and military spouses and give additional leave to our Reservists so that they can attend their annual camp.

Equal opportunities employer

We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic.

We are a Disability Confident employer and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with disabilities. If you require this application in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape please contact the recruitment team on 0300 300 1530 or email [e-mail].

Correspondence with us

You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post.

As part of our recruitment process, we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same.

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.

Application numbers

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, we encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible to ensure consideration.

If you require any additional support during the application process please contact [e-mail]. We are happy to make reasonable adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment journey.
Documents to download

• Autism band 5 Assistant Psychologist JD/PS (PDF, 504.3KB)
• NELFT Application - Hints and Tips (PDF, 38.4KB)