Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust

Assistant Psychologist Circle of Security Pilot

This job is now closed

Job summary

NHFT has an exciting opportunity to partner with North Northamptonshire County Council Family Hub's to deliver a Circle of Security Parenting (COS-P) pilot to parents living in North Northamptonshire who are experiencing parent infant relationship difficulties.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Band 4 Psychology Assistant to join the newly developed Parent Infant Relationship Pilot. You will be working according to a plan agreed with a qualified Psychologist and within the overall framework of the team's policies and procedures. You will assist in clinically related administration, conduct audits, collect statistics, develop audit/and or research projects, teaching and project work.

Circle of Security Parenting (COS-P) is a parenting programme for caregivers of children between the ages of 4 months and 6 years. It is a targeted-selective programme delivered in a variety of settings and aims to improve the parent-infant relationship.

COS-P is based on attachment theory and aims at helping parents reflect on their own experiences of being parented to reduce their negative mental attributions to the child's normal attachment-seeking behaviours. Parents can then better provide a secure base for their distressed child and their exploratory behaviours, improving the parent-infant relationship.

Main duties of the job

The programme will be delivered both face-to-face and online. In-person delivery locations will align with the Family Hub early adopter areas Wellingborough and Corby, later moving into Kettering and virtual delivery in East Northants when these sites are online.

The programme can be delivered to individual parents or couples, foster carers or childcare providers and is often delivered to parents with mental health conditions or other risk factors that may contribute to parent-infant relationship difficulties.

The Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Interim Strategic Lead for Perinatal Mental Health Services will oversee this project. Still, it will sit outside the perinatal team and service a unique cohort of families that cannot access Parent-Infant Relationship Support.

Following a period of induction and training , the main clinical work undertaken by the post-holder will be to support assessment for suitability, delivery and outcome measurement of the COS-P Pilot under the supervision of a qualified professional Psychologist. You will be working independently according to a plan agreed with a qualified Psychologist and within the overall framework of the pilot's policies and procedures. You will assist in clinically related administration, conduct audits, collect statistics, develop audit/and or research projects, teaching and project work.

About us

NHFT is an integrated primary care and mental health Trust, providing physical, mental health and specialty services in both hospital settings and out in the community. Because we put the person at the centre of all we do, we focus on delivering care that is as easy to access as possible. This means many of our services can be provided at home, work or in schools. We also provide health services to various prisons and detention centres in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.

NHFT welcomes applications from people, regardless of age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, marital or civil partnership status or pregnancy or maternity status.

NHFT is committed to building a diverse workforce, ensuring staff are treated fairly at work and ensuring all staff have the learning and development they need on equality in order to undertake their job role.

We aim to use monitoring information provided by our staff and by job applicants to ensure that we do not discriminate in employment and to use this information to plan any Positive Action to address inequality.

NHFT supports three staff equality networks to help us to develop our equality practice, as well as providing peer support for staff. These are:NHFT Staff Disability & Allies Network / NHFT BME Staff Development Network / NHFT LGBT & Allies Network

Date posted

19 December 2023

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 4

Salary

£25,147 to £27,596 a year per annum, pro rata

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

18 months

Working pattern

Part-time, Flexible working

Reference number

270-TE631-MH

Job locations

Countywide Campbell House Northampton or Rectory Road Rushden

Northamptonshire

NN1 3EB

Job description

Job responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description for further details.

Knowledge and experience of perinatal mental health conditions and parent infant relationship difficulties. A keen interest and passion for working with parents and their infants is a must, as is the ability to work closely with a range of professionals. You must demonstrate some awareness of and interest in perinatal mental health and parent infant relationship working, however, previous experience of directly working in a perinatal or parent infant relationship service is not essential.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description for further details.

Person Specification

Knowledge and Experience

Essential

An upper second class honours degree or higher in psychology
Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society
Experience of working with people with mental health problems and/or disabilities.
An understanding of the needs and difficulties of people with mental health problems or disabilities.
An ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to a mental health context.
An understanding of psychology applied to health care.

Desirable

Further post graduate training in relevant areas of professional psychology, mental health practice and/or research design and analysis
Experience of paid work in direct care provision.
Experience using microcomputers for databases and data-analysis, especially SPSS for Windows.
High standard of report writing
Knowledge of perinatal mental health conditions and treatments
Knowledge of approaches to working with people with perinatal mental health and parent infant relationship difficulties

Skills and Abilities

Essential

High level of communication skills (written and verbal) including an ability to communicate and work in settings in which can be emotive.
Ability to communicate sensitive information to patients, carers and colleagues in a way that addresses psychological resistance.
Ability to accept and use supervision appropriately and effectively.
Ability to interact with parents and babies.
An interest in working with people with perinatal mental health or parent infant relationship difficulties.

Desirable

A desire to explore a career in professional Psychology.

Person Specification

Knowledge and Experience

Essential

An upper second class honours degree or higher in psychology
Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society
Experience of working with people with mental health problems and/or disabilities.
An understanding of the needs and difficulties of people with mental health problems or disabilities.
An ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to a mental health context.
An understanding of psychology applied to health care.

Desirable

Further post graduate training in relevant areas of professional psychology, mental health practice and/or research design and analysis
Experience of paid work in direct care provision.
Experience using microcomputers for databases and data-analysis, especially SPSS for Windows.
High standard of report writing
Knowledge of perinatal mental health conditions and treatments
Knowledge of approaches to working with people with perinatal mental health and parent infant relationship difficulties

Skills and Abilities

Essential

High level of communication skills (written and verbal) including an ability to communicate and work in settings in which can be emotive.
Ability to communicate sensitive information to patients, carers and colleagues in a way that addresses psychological resistance.
Ability to accept and use supervision appropriately and effectively.
Ability to interact with parents and babies.
An interest in working with people with perinatal mental health or parent infant relationship difficulties.

Desirable

A desire to explore a career in professional Psychology.

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.