Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

CAAAS Assistant Psychologist

The closing date is 21 October 2025

Job summary

This role is offered on a fixed term basis for up to 6 months. The hours are part time for 22.5 hours a week.

This is an exciting opportunity for a Band 4 Assistant Psychologist to join the Children's Autism and ADHD assessment Service (CAAAS). Gloucestershire is transforming its neurodiversity provision for Under 18's by developing a NICE compliant autism and ADHDassessment pathway for children to support the delivery of the Gloucestershire All Age Autism Strategy. This is in line with the NHS Long Term Plan for Under 18's and is an exciting opportunity to transform autism and ADHD assessment services in Gloucestershire.

We are looking for a thoughtful, efficient enthusiastic team member who can support with assessments such as the QB, join Multi-disciplinary Autism and ADHD assessments and support the team to evaluate the service and complete audits.

The Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy when sufficient applications have been received.

Main duties of the job

We are looking for an enthusiastic, personable and well organised assistant Psychologist to join our newly formed multi-disciplinary team. The successful candidate will have good interpersonal skills, experience of working with neurodiverse children and young people and experience ofmulti-disciplinary team working, in addition to a willingness to be involved in developing their skills in areas such as report writing and cognitiveassessment. The post holder will work closely with and be supervised by Clinical Psychologists within the team alongside the service lead, andwill be offered support and training where required. We are keen to welcome an Assistant Psychologist who has a positive, can do attitude and is able to work both independently, using their initiative, and as part of the team.

About us

We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people's homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:

72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust's priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.

This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.

Date posted

09 October 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 4

Salary

£27,485 to £30,162 a year Per annum

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

6 months

Working pattern

Part-time

Reference number

327-25-798

Job locations

Evergreen House

Charlton Lane

Cheltenham

GL53 9DZ

Job description

Job responsibilities

Please see attached in documents with job description and main responsibilities for the role within CAAAS.

This role is not eligible for sponsorship as per the Governments UK VISA and Immigration Rules and Regulations. For more information please visit https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas

Job description

Job responsibilities

Please see attached in documents with job description and main responsibilities for the role within CAAAS.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

Min 2(ii) honours degree in Psychology
Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society (BPS)

Desirable

2(i) honours degree in Psychology

LENGTH AND / OR NATURE OF EXPERIENCE

Essential

Ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing clinically sensitive information to service users, their families, carers and other professional colleagues, both within and outside the NHS.
Willingness to work in the face of emotive and distressing problems, and possible verbal abuse / threat of physical abuse. Experience preferred

Desirable

Prior experience with the service user group or experience in a clinical setting
Some experience of using /manipulating Psychological test equipment for use in formal testing situations
Additional knowledge/ experience of research methodology

PROFESSIONAL / MANAGERIAL / SPECIALIST KNOWLEDGE

Essential

Strong listening skills, empathic towards people in distress.

Desirable

Practical working knowledge of at least one relevant psychological approach (e.g. CBT)
Experience of working in multidisciplinary teams

PERSONAL SKILLS ABILITIES AND ATTRIBUTES

Essential

Emotional robustness to frequently work with the intense distress of others.
Ability to recognise limits of competence and seek support when needed.
Ability to prioritise work and organise own diary.
Passion for working with neurodiverse children and families

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

Min 2(ii) honours degree in Psychology
Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society (BPS)

Desirable

2(i) honours degree in Psychology

LENGTH AND / OR NATURE OF EXPERIENCE

Essential

Ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing clinically sensitive information to service users, their families, carers and other professional colleagues, both within and outside the NHS.
Willingness to work in the face of emotive and distressing problems, and possible verbal abuse / threat of physical abuse. Experience preferred

Desirable

Prior experience with the service user group or experience in a clinical setting
Some experience of using /manipulating Psychological test equipment for use in formal testing situations
Additional knowledge/ experience of research methodology

PROFESSIONAL / MANAGERIAL / SPECIALIST KNOWLEDGE

Essential

Strong listening skills, empathic towards people in distress.

Desirable

Practical working knowledge of at least one relevant psychological approach (e.g. CBT)
Experience of working in multidisciplinary teams

PERSONAL SKILLS ABILITIES AND ATTRIBUTES

Essential

Emotional robustness to frequently work with the intense distress of others.
Ability to recognise limits of competence and seek support when needed.
Ability to prioritise work and organise own diary.
Passion for working with neurodiverse children and families

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 details

Employer name

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Evergreen House

Charlton Lane

Cheltenham

GL53 9DZ

Employer's website

https://www.ghc.nhs.uk/who-we-are/jobs/ (Opens in a new tab)

Employer details

Employer name

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Evergreen House

Charlton Lane

Cheltenham

GL53 9DZ

Employer's website

https://www.ghc.nhs.uk/who-we-are/jobs/ (Opens in a new tab)