Assistant Psychologist in Wallsend

Do you want to work in one of the best performing NHS organisations in England? Work for an organisation that was voted the best acute and combined acute and community trust in the country, based on the experience of its staff (NHS Staff Survey 2022). Work in an organisation that supports its staff and focuses on staff experience as much as it does the experience of its patients.

What the Northumbria Way means for you:

• Extensive staff health and well-being programme including access to our specialist Wellbeing Hub
• Support and connection through a variety of Staff Network groups
• A range of flexible working opportunities
• Generous annual leave and pension scheme
• Access to lease car and home electronics scheme (qualifying criteria applies)
• Opportunities to improve your professional development through our vast training programmes
• Access to savings scheme via salary sacrifice with Northumberland Community Bank

We work closely with Kids First Nurseries that are based within our trust grounds at Wansbeck, North Tyneside and Hexham hospitals to care for our Trust family's children, they offer care for children from 6 weeks old up to 4 years. There are a number of funding options run by the government to help working parents, including Early Years Funding and Tax Free Childcare.

Flexible working offers choice in where, when, and how we work, ensuring patients remain at the heart of all we do. It’s open to everyone, and we aim to find solutions that work for both you and the organisation. All arrangements must be reasonable and balanced to maintain safe and effective patient care.

We are proud to be one of the country’s top performing NHS trusts – rated 'outstanding' overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). We provide a range of health and care services to support more than 500,000 people living in Northumberland and North Tyneside across the largest geographical area of any NHS Trust in England. Our teams deliver care from hospitals, a range of community venues and people’s homes.

Our hospitals include a specialist emergency care hospital (the first of its kind in England), three general hospitals and community hospitals. In the community we deliver a wide range of community and public health services.

We lead in innovation and quality, having opened the Northumbria Healthcare Manufacturing and Innovation Hub during the Covid-19 pandemic and have recently launched our Community Promise – a pledge to make a real impact not just in healthcare but on the wider factors that affect people’s lives, such as education, employment and the economy.

Job overview: 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.

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.

Working for our organisation: 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.

Detailed job description and main 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.

Person specification: Qualifications: 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. Post-graduate training counselling skills or other areas of psychology.

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

We recognise the positive value of diversity and inclusion and are committed to a workforce that is diverse, equal and inclusive. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as BAME people are currently under-represented in our workforce as well as other under-represented groups such as LGBT+ and disabled candidates. We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, a Stonewall Diversity Champion, we have a Gold award from the Defense Recognition Scheme, and we are delighted to support Apprenticeships, Age Positive and are a mindful employer.

If you require any reasonable adjustments to attend interview please make the recruitment team aware as soon as possible by calling our HR Recruitment Team on 0191 203 1415 option 2.

Applicants who meet the Fit and Proper Person Requirements (FPPR) will require additional pre-employment checks in line with CQC and NHS England statutory guidance.

Make sure to read the 'applicant guidance notes' before submitting your application and make sure you know everything there is to know before joining our fantastic trust!