Assistant Psychologist

Main area Assistant Psychologist in Neuropsychology Grade NHS AfC: Band 4 Contract Permanent Hours Full time – 37.5 hours per week Job ref 190-0678-DIR

Employer Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Royal Hallamshire Hospital Town Sheffield Salary £27,485 – £30,162 per annum pro rata for part time staff Salary period Yearly Closing Today at 23:59 Interview date 04/09/2025

Assistant Psychologist

NHS AfC: Band 4

We are committed to helping our staff balance their work and home lives and ensure they feel supported, valued and appreciated so whilst you care for our patients and clients, we’ll take care of you. We offer many different ways of helping staff including career development opportunities, flexible working, good annual leave and pension schemes , health and wellbeing packages and financial support systems. Joining the Trust also allows you access to a number of saving options via our salary sacrifice schemes and a wide range of discount opportunities with retailers and service providers.

Job overview

This role involves supporting qualified clinical psychologists and neuropsychologists in providing clinical services for patients with a range of neurological and neurosurgical conditions.

The post provides an opportunity for a range of experiences working with patients and multi-disciplinary teams under the supervision of a qualified clinician. Other available experiences may include research and/or service development, data management and joint working.

This vacancy is advertised on a permanent contract basis.

Main duties of the job

The Assistant Psychologist (AP) plays a key role in the cognitive assessment of patients, mainly in an outpatient setting. You will have experience of detailed neuropsychology assessment with a broad range of patients including those with dementia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, functional cognitive impairment and various other neurological conditions. In addition to developing skills and expertise in delivering a wide range of cognitive tests you would also develop your skills in scoring, test interpretation, formulation and report writing. You will be a core member of the Neuropsychology team, supporting the work of the qualified staff and contributing to service developments.

The successful candidates will be highly motivated, have excellent interpersonal and written communication skills, the ability to organise themselves working both under their own initiative and the supervision of a qualified psychologist and an interest in working in a neuropsychology setting. Graduates with experience of neuropsychological assessment are particularly encouraged to apply.

Working for our organisation

You will be working for an organisation which values and respects all of its staff and the community it serves. The Trust is a leader in the NHS and research sectors and provides excellent benefits for its employees. This includes commitments to professional development but also many policies to support employees in balancing their personal and professional lives.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please view the attached Job Description and Person Specification documents for full details regarding this post.

When completing your application form, please tailor your application to demonstrate how you meet the role criteria for this post.

Person specification

Education and qualifications

• Eligible for membership of the British Psychological Society
• Upper-second class honours degree or higher in Psychology
• Further post graduate training in relevant areas of professional psychology, mental health practice and/or research design and analysis.

Experience

• Experience of working with people with mental health problems and/or other disabilities
• Experience of paid work in direct care provision
• Experience of carrying out neuropsychological testing
• Experience working in a physical health hospital setting.

Skills & Knowledge

• Knowledge of research methodology
• Ability to overcome psychological resistance to potentially threatening information.
• An ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to a mental health context.
• An understanding of the needs and difficulties of people with mental health problems, serious physical health problems or other disabilities.
• Experience in the use of databases or data-analysis, especially SPSS for Windows.
• High standard of report writing

Personal Qualities

• High level communication skills (written and verbal) including an ability to communicate effectively and work in settings in which the atmosphere may be highly emotive
• An ability to interact effectively with staff from all disciplines
• An ability to interact with people with mental health problems, serious physical health problems or other disabilities.
• Capacity to work with clients/service users in potentially abusive or hostile working conditions
• Ability to work independently, reliably and consistently with work agreed and managed at regular intervals.
• Capable of using initiative and working independently
• Ability to accept and use supervision appropriately and effectively.
• Positive attitude, sensitivity and commitment to working with this client group.
• Interest in working with patients with neuropsychological difficulties
• Interest in working with physical health multi-disciplinary teams

Please note that in order to comply with the UK Government’s rules on Skilled Worker sponsorship, any applicants who do not meet the eligibility requirements or concessions on salary thresholds under the Skilled Worker visa will not be eligible to receive sponsorship from the Trust. Please keep this in mind when submitting your application. Further details on these concessions, and who qualifies for them, can be found here .

Candidates are advised to read the attached guidance on using AI technology. W hen you complete your application, you are required to declare that the information in your application form is true and complete. The personal statement is exactly that; personal.

When selecting to apply via NHS Jobs, you will be redirected to our preferred recruitment system called Trac. You will be asked to create and submit your application via the Trac recruitment system.

You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through the NHS Jobs website, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any e-mails sent to us via the NHS Jobs website. All communications should be sent via your Trac system account.

If you are offered employment at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals your information will be transferred from the Trac recruitment system into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system. In addition, in submitting an application form, you authorise our Trust to confirm any previous NHS service details via the ESR IAT process should you be appointed.

Please note, all communication regarding your application will be made via email sent via the Trac recruitment system, please ensure you check your junk/spam folders as emails are sometimes filtered there.

The Trust is committed to its obligations in accordance with the Equality Act 2010, and we positively encourage applications from all sections of the community. Should you require any assistance in applying for the position please contact the General or Medical Human Resources Departments on the number identified on the NHS Jobs page for the organisation.

Job Share applicants are welcome for all full time posts unless indicated but cannot be guaranteed. In addition for Fixed Term Contracts, internal secondments may be considered, please seek the approval of your current line manager before applying for the position.

All employment with the Trust is subject to a number of NHS Employment Checks being met to a satisfactory standard including verification of identity, eligibility to work in the United Kingdom, references and qualifications in addition to professional registration, a disclosure and barring records check and occupational health check if these are deemed to be a requirement for the position to be undertaken.

For more information about our organisation and the opportunities available, please visit our website and follow us on Twitter and Facebook

Employer certification / accreditation badges

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

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