Band 5 Assistant Psychologist

Job description

Job responsibilities

General Requirements

To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the post-holders professional and service manager(s).

To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychology across the service, by continuing to develop the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal, and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology and related disciplines.

To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry, recording and report writing in accordance with professional codes of practice of the BPS and Trust policies and procedures.

To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues.

To attend and contribute to relevant professional meetings.

To develop and maintain good working relationships with colleagues within Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust and in the statutory and voluntary services with the aim of promoting high standards of care and clinical practice

Principal Duties

Clinical:

To be required to work on a frequent basis with service users who present with severe and complex mental health difficulties including those diagnosed with psychosis.

To undertake protocol based psychological assessments of service users, including the use of psychometric tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with service users, family members and others involved in the persons care under the management and clinical supervision of the Clinical Psychologist.

To assist in the formulation and delivery of care plans involving the psychological treatment and/or management of a service users problems, under the management and clinical supervision of the Clinical Psychologist, in inpatient settings.

To assist in the coordination and running of therapeutic groups.

To work with other staff to assess service users and review their care in preparation for multi-disciplinary reviews.

Where required, to attend and contribute to appropriate multi-disciplinary and care review meetings.

To assist in the development of a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all users of the service, across all settings where care takes place.

Teaching, training and supervision

To receive regular management and clinical supervision in accordance with professional practice guidelines.

To develop skills and competencies that assist in the delivery of current duties.

To contribute to the training and support of other staff in psychological care.

Service Development

To assist in the design and implementation of service development projects within the service as required.

To attend meetings in which service developments are planned and discussed.

Research and service evaluation

To assist in the design and implementation of audit and research projects.

To undertake data collection, analysis, the production of reports and summaries, using IT and statistical programmes.

To undertake searches of evidence-based literature and research to assist the qualified clinical psychologist in evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

Working Environment

The job role will involve working in situations where there may be occasional verbal or physical aggression from service users carers and the general public.

Person Specification

Knowledge and skills

Essential

• oHigh level communication skills (written and verbal)
• oAbility to communicate complex, sensitive information to patients, carers and colleagues
• oAbility to work in settings in which the atmosphere may be highly emotive.
• oAn understanding of the needs and difficulties of people with psychosis
• oAn ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to an inpatient rehabilitation context
• oAn understanding of psychology applied to health care.
• oAbility to use computers for word processing, presentations, databases, spreadsheets and e-mail
• oExperience of computerised methods of data analysis (eg SPSS for Windows)

Training and Qualification

Essential

• oAn upper second-class honours degree or higher in psychology.
• oEligible for Graduate membership of the British Psychological Society (GBC) (*see notes below)

Desirable

• oFurther post graduate training in relevant areas of professional psychology, additional practical experience and/or research design and analysis.
• oGraduate membership of the British Psychological Society (*see notes below)

Experience

Essential

• oAn ability to interact effectively with staff from all disciplines.
• oAn ability to interact with ease with people who have psychosis, forensic histories or are neurodivergent.
• oAbility to work independently, reliably and consistently with work agreed at regular intervals
• oAbility to work with service users in potentially abusive or hostile working conditions.
• oAbility to work in emotionally distressing situations.
• oDemonstrates an interest in working with people with psychosis
• oAbility to accept and use supervision appropriately and effectively.
• oExperience of working with people with psychosis and complex mental health issue or related difficulties
• oExperience of working within multi-disciplinary teams.
• oExperience of paid work in direct care provision as an Assistant Psychologist

Desirable

• oA desire to explore a career in Professional Psychology
• oExperience participating in multidisciplinary team meetings
• oExperience communicating professionally with community organizations and services

Other

Essential

• oAn ability to interact effectively with staff from all disciplines.
• oAn ability to interact with ease with people who have psychosis, have experienced trauma, are autistic and/or have ADHD, and have forensic histories.
• oAbility to work independently, reliably and consistently with work agreed at regular intervals
• oAbility to work with service users in potentially abusive or hostile working conditions.
• oAbility to work in emotionally distressing situations
• oDemonstrates an interest in working with people with who have psychosis, have experienced trauma, are autistic and/or have ADHD, and have forensic histories.
• oAbility to accept and use supervision appropriately and effectively.

Desirable

• oA 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.

Employer details

Employer name

Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Forest Close Rehabilitation Service

Forest Close, Oughtibridge

Sheffield

S35 0JW

Employer's website

https://www.shsc.nhs.uk/working-us (Opens in a new tab)