Senior Assistant Psychologist- PMHTR - Band 5

Integrated Care System; Radlett; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading NHS Trust in Radlett is seeking a Senior Assistant Psychologist to provide low-intensity interventions for court-ordered service users. The role includes managing referrals and conducting assessments, with a focus on improving mental health outcomes. Ideal candidates will have a degree in Psychology and experience in forensic settings. This full-time position offers a salary between £32,602 and £39,686 annually, with a fixed-term contract for 12 months.

Qualifications

• Evidence of continuing professional development.
• Further post-graduate training in relevant areas.
• Demonstrable experience within a mental health setting.

Responsibilities

• Deliver low-intensity psycho-educational interventions.
• Manage administrative tasks related to referrals.
• Conduct risk assessments for service users.

Skills

Ability to communicate sensitive information

Experience in forensic mental health

Ability to handle hostility and aggression

Education

First or upper second-class honours degree in Psychology

Job description

Go back Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

Senior Assistant Psychologist- PMHTR - Band 5

The closing date is 22 August 2025

A Senior Assistant Psychologist for the Primary Mental Health Treatment Requirement Team provides low-intensity (usually CBT-informed) interventions for service users who have been court ordered to take up mental health treatment as part of their community sentence. We work with low mood, anxiety, emotional dysregulation, sleep problems, and other symptoms of psychological distress.

Our work is all about being adaptable, responsive, and caring in working with a population that is often overlooked. We are passionate about being inclusive and are constantly looking for ways to improve our diversity and our accessibility, both in how we increase our referrals from under-served populations and in how we offer our interventions in different ways to accommodate different need.

Main duties of the job

You will assist with presentations to different teams to help them to understand our work, why they would refer a service user to us, and how to complete a referral

You will manage the admin of referrals, including passing them on for screening to the Clinical Lead, completing screening assessments, liaising with various court-related personnel and probation staff, and tracking the data associated with the referrals

You will assess if service users are likely to benefit from our service and support them in completing risk assessments

You will complete 12-week programmes of one-to-one interventions based on the specific needs and goals of each service user with our more complex service users

You will support and facilitate our Emotional Coping Skills Group.

You will audit our data and prepare for service evaluations

You will complete Risk Assessments for all service users given a PMHTR

You will assist in court screenings, including completing assessments on the day and making decisions as to who can access a PMHTR

About us

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) is an outstanding organisation with ambitions to match. We are one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of 'Outstanding' from the Care Quality Commission, and our aim is to be the leading provider of mental health and specialist learning disability services in the country.

Our family of over 4000 members of staff provide health and social care for over 400,000 people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. We also deliver a range of nationally commissioned specialist services including Tier 4 services for children and young people, perinatal services, plus medium and low secure learning disabilities services.

The care we provide makes a fantastic difference to the lives of our service users, their families and carers - everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout:

Our Trust values are:

Welcoming. Kind. Positive. Respectful. Professional.

These values are at the core of who we are, everything we do, and how we do it!

Would you like to be part of the HPFT family? Would you like work with us to ensure our service users live the fullest lives possible they can? Would you like to be supported in your career to be the best that you can be?

Then please read on...

Job responsibilities

The core work of an AP in the PMHTR is delivering low-intensity psycho-educational interventions for service users who are under a community-based court order.

The senior assistant psychologist can expect to have approximately 10 service users on your personal caseload who will be seen weekly or fortnightly, in sessions that are held in-person, by video, or by telephone (depending on the needs and preferences of the service user and our service). These will be slightly more complex than those seen by our Band 4 APs

This work will primarily be CBT-based, with future development possible in adding elements of ACT, CFT, and DBT-based interventions.

In addition to the one-to-one working, we are also in the process of developing our DBT-informed skills group for Emotional Coping Skills. This is a six week protocol with a rolling admission that is currently being administered virtually.

In the future, we will seek to develop a hybrid running of this group, which you would be a part of. We are very excited about our group programme, as it is the first of its kind, and we would be particularly interested to hear from candidates who value group working.

In order to ensure that the right service users--and as many as possible--are being referred into our service, we have to work consistently to ensure that other teams in Probation and Liaison and Diversion services understand who we are and what we do.

Therefore, part of your role will be in making presentations about our work and having useful conversations with our colleagues.

The Senior Assistant Psychologist will also complete our Risk Assessments, screen and assess service users in court, and provide next level peer supervision for the other APs

We have recently added a Peer Support Worker to our team and are currently developing a Support Clinic which will provide access to the peer support worker for practical, casual support, as well as an AP for additional skills work.

For a more detailed description, please see attached JD and PS.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• A first or upper second-class honours degree in Psychology or related subject
• Evidence of continuing professional development
• Further post-graduate training in relevant areas of professional psychology, mental health practice and/or research design and analysis

Experience

• Experience of working with people with physical or mental health problems who may at times have the potential to respond to staff with hostility and aggression. Being able to respond to hostility and aggression in a professional manner
• Ability to accept and use supervision appropriately and effectively.
• Ability to communicate sensitive information to patients, carers, and colleagues in a way that addresses psychological resistance.
• Ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in reports, letters, and other health correspondence to service users and their referrers
• Ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to mental health context.
• Knowledge of risk assessment fundamentals
• Experience of working in forensic mental health services.
• Experience of working with offenders, including people who may have committed violent and/or sexual offences.
• Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team.
• Demonstrable experience within a mental health setting.
• Understanding of current NHS/Social Care policies and practices relating to mental health.
• High standard of reporting writing.
• Experience conducting risk assessments

Knowledge

• An understanding of psychology applied to adult mental health problems.
• An understanding of knowledge of personality issues.
• Knowledge of psychoeducational interventions for depression, anxiety, and other primary care level concerns.
• An understanding of the criminal justice system
• An interest in developing a career as a professional psychologist
• Experience of psychoeducational interventions for depression, anxiety, and other primary care level concerns.

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

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

Address

£32,602 to £39,686 a yearper annum, pro rata (inclusive of 5% HCAS)

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

12 months

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

367-LD&F-9625

Job locations