Assistant Psychologist

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 DESCRIPTION/PERSON SPECIFICATION
Please read the job description/person specification carefully and ensure your application reflects the knowledge, skills and experience needed.

YOUR APPLICATION
It is important that you complete a formal application form as CV’s alone will not be accepted.

We can provide all our job application materials in alternative formats so that these are accessible to everyone. Should you require any documents within this job pack in an alternative format, please do not hesitate to contact us at recruitment@nsft.nhs.uk.

Job overview

We are looking for an assistant psychologist with a keen interest and experience of working with people with learning disabilities and or/ autism to join our passionate community team working across Suffolk, for a fixed term of 12 months.

This is an exciting opportunity to work with and learn from a range of experienced clinicians as you will be an integral part of a multidisciplinary team which includes nurses, psychiatrists, occupational therapists, assistant practitioners, art psychotherapists, clinical psychologists, and social care colleagues, who are committed to providing a high-quality service to people with learning disabilities and autism.

You will also be part of a friendly and supportive clinical psychology and psychological therapies team. We have close relationships with the training course at the University of East Anglia, offering placements and teaching on the course. We also have an excellent research department in the Trust.

Main duties of the job

This role will involve supporting the delivery of psychological services to people with learning disabilities and/or autism who present with a mental health difficulty or behaviour that challenges.

The main duties are to support the delivery of psychologically informed assessments, formulations, and interventions to service users alongside psychologists and other colleagues under the close supervision of an experienced Clinical Psychologist. The post holder will work with individuals, families, support services and a range of other professionals and good communication skills are essential.

The post holder will also have a role in contributing to service development projects. A good understanding of psychological models and their application, as well as data analysis and report writing skills is desirable.

Working for our organisation

Within NSFT, the way we care for people with Learning Disabilities in Suffolk is changing as we have recently benefitted from a £1.3 million investment in our Acute services and the role out of a new Learning Disability and Autism Specialist Service. The development is fully driven by the national Transforming Care Agenda.

The Learning Disability and Autism Specialist Service is not only being invested in financially, with a fresh approach to ideas and service delivery being supported by the Trust, we are confident our new model of care is the very best for the people we care for.

Benefits included with this role are:

• NHS pension
• 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)
• staff physio service
• NHS discounts and many more.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Main responsibilities to include:

• Psychological assessment, formulation, and intervention as appropriate under close supervision of a clinical psychologist
• Co-facilitating psychologically informed groups
• Contributing to the practice of psychologically informed interventions within the team via teaching and developing resources
• Contributing to service development projects
• Evaluating outcomes and writing reports

You will have:

• A BPS Accredited degree in Psychology
• Experience of working with people with learning disabilities and/or autism

Interview date yet to be confirmed. Emails may go to your SPAM, so please keep checking all your emails if applying.

Person specification

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.