Assistant Trainee Clinical Associate Psychologist

Job summary

We are recruiting for a Band 5 Clinical Associate in Psychology (CAP) apprenticeship post.

Clinical associate in psychology fills an identified skills gap between assistant psychologists and qualified clinical psychologists. CAPs are trained to work with a particular service user group and in this case you will work within the Pain, Fatigue and long-term conditions services. They can practice autonomously with support, working within their scope of practice, under the supervision of a registered clinical psychologist. CAPs provide a more prescribed range of activities than Clinical Psychologists. The purpose of this role is to provide high quality, evidence-based psychological interventions to our service users. The apprenticeship is an 18 month full-time training divided between work-based experience (up to 4 days a week) and academic teaching & study, which leads to a master's level qualification.

The successful candidate will initially start in a Band 5 Assistant Psychologist role & will move onto the CAP apprentice role & job description at the start of the apprenticeship programme (Course start date September 2024)

The service comprises of qualified Clinical & Counselling Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Doctors, Nurses, Physiotherapists,& Occupational therapists who contribute to our successful multidisciplinary team. The post holders will be fully integrated within multi-disciplinary teams therefore will work alongside a variety of experienced professionals from different backgrounds.

Main duties of the job

We are particularly keen to hear from applicants with a Psychology degree who have a commitment to working in the local region, from those with diverse backgrounds and from people who bring lived experience relevant to living with a long term condition or mental health condition. Ideally, we would wish to recruit someone with familiarity in working with people experiencing long term conditions and / or mental health problems or who has experience of working within a multi-disciplinary team. The Clinical associate in psychology role is a new psychology career path in its own right, therefore the selection process will aim to recruit those suitable for and committed to training for this role. If successful in their training, on qualification, CAPs will be eligible to apply for a Band 6 CAP role.

Please note that since April 2022 if you are successful in being selected to undertake the CAP apprenticeship training, in line with national Health Education England policy, you will not be eligible to access further HEE funded training (including the doctorate in clinical psychology) for at least two years after completion of the original CAP training. Further information on the main responsibilities can be found in the job description.

About us

Make a difference with us

If you are looking for somewhere you can make a real difference and are passionate about keeping people safe, well and out of hospital, a career with us may be just what you're looking for. At Solent NHS Trust, we strive to make a difference to the health and wellbeing of our communities.

We are proud to be an organisation which is focused on our people and we welcome people who share our values to come and work with us.

To deliver great care that is safe, simple and easy to access

To be a caring, flexible and supportive place to work

To deliver the best value for money

Our shared values support the development of a strong working culture. They breathe life into our organisation -- guiding and inspiring all of our actions and decisions. They enable us to be better at what we do and create a great place for our staff to work, whilst ensuring we provide the highest quality of care to our patients.

In creating our values, we spent time listening to our employees and members. Based on what people told us, we created our HEART values to reflect the deep belief that we are caring organisation at the centre of our community: Honesty, Everyone counts, Accountable, Respectful, Teamwork.

We are an accredited Real Living Wage employer.

We encourage and support our staff to be vaccinated as this remains the best line of defence against Covid-19.