Job summary
We are looking to recruit a highly motivated, committed, and compassionate Assistant Psychologist to join our Community Learning Disability Team in North Tyneside. The newly appointed clinician will join our multi-disciplinary team, consisting of Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapist, Community Learning Disability Nurses and Support Workers.

We are a lifespan service and provide a wide range of services to both adults and children with learning disabilities and physical health needs, mental health needs, forensic histories, behavioural expressions of need, and dementia, amongst other areas of work.

The ideal candidate will be passionate about working in collaboration with individuals, their carers, family, systems and professional colleagues to enhance health and well-being, improve quality of life for our clients and their systems, address health inequalities, and promote positive health outcomes.

Please note that we reserve the right to close this vacancy early should sufficient applications be received.

Main duties of the job
The post holder will be managed and professionally led by the principal clinical psychologist for North Tyneside Community Learning Disabilities Team and supervised by other qualified staff. The post combines administrative support for qualified psychologists; a clinical role, focussing on supporting our qualified staff in assessments and therapeutic interventions; and support with research/service development and audit.

The post-holder will be empathetic, adaptable and responsive to the needs of our patients and have experience of working with people with learning disabilities. Experience of working with dementia is also desirable. The post-holder will also demonstrate emotional resilience and a capacity to maintain a compassionate approach even in stressful situations. Experience of using psychometrics or carrying out research would be beneficial as this will be a key part of the role.

About us
We manage three major locality hospitals at North Tyneside, Wansbeck and Hexham, plus a number of smaller community hospitals and clinics from Tynemouth to Berwick on Tweed, in addition to our state-of-the-art Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, the first of its kind in England. We also care for people in their homes and provide services from facilities in local communities such as health centres.

We give people greater choice and control over their care to help them to live independently at home and avoid hospital admission where appropriate. High quality patient care is at the heart of everything we do and we strive to ensure every single patient and service user has an exceptional experience with us. We have one of the most extensive patient experience programmes of any trust in England.

Job responsibilities
To assist in research projects and/or project work including clinically related administration, conduct of audits, and the collection and interpretation of research data under the supervision of a qualified professional psychologist where tasks are agreed and reviewed at appropriate intervals.

To support with assessment, formulation, and intervention work, working under the supervision of qualified clinical psychologists. The post-holder may also support with facilitating group-based interventions including DBT skills and CFT parent/carer support groups. There will be opportunities for shadowing Psychologists trained in a variety of evidence-based interventions.

To role model compassionate and inclusive leadership in order to shape the creation of a collective leadership culture within the trust. This means demonstrating a consistent leadership style which (a) engages, enables and empowers others (b) uses coaching to promote ownership of learning and quality improvement and (c) facilitates team working and collaboration within teams / departments and across organisational boundaries.

Qualifications
Essential

• A 1st/2i level degree in Psychology (BA or BSc) (or Masters degree in Psychology, following a degree in a non-psychology subject) recognised by the BPS
• Eligible for graduate membership of the BPS

Desirable

• Post-graduate training counselling skills or other areas of psychology

Other Requirements
Essential

• It is an essential requirement of the role that the post holder has a valid driving licence and is either a car owner and able to use the car for work purposes, or has a Trust personal lease vehicle which may be used for the role. However, the Trust would consider making reasonable adjustments to the role, if necessary, to enable a disabled person to undertake the role

Experience
Essential

• Some evidence of an attempt to gain experience in areas relevant to psychology either via paid or voluntary work. Or having worked previously as an assistant psychologist.

Desirable

• Having worked with people with learning disabilities, either via paid or voluntary work.
• Experience of qualitative and quantitative data analysis

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.

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).