Employer Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type NHS
Site Acute Inpatient Service
Town Leeds
Salary £29,970 - £36,483 per annum
Salary period Yearly
Closing 07/04/2025 23:59
Interview date 24/04/2025
Assistant Psychologist
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Job overview
An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced Assistant Psychologist to work within LYPFT’s Acute Inpatient Service. The service provides care for adults of working age experiencing acute mental health crises warranting inpatient admission. It comprises six wards across two sites each staffed by a multidisciplinary team including but not limited to Nurses, Psychiatrists, Occupational Therapists, Psychological Professionals, Physiotherapists and Dietitians.
The successful applicant will join an established team of two qualified Psychologists and an Assistant Psychologist. There is ongoing work to develop and embed formulation driven and trauma informed care within the service. Our intention is to deliver psychologically informed interventions with compassion to help people recover and regain independence. There is a good governance and leadership structure across the wards. Further recruitment will follow as we are currently expanding the psychological workforce and range of psychological interventions offered by the service.
PLEASE NOTE, THIS VACANCY MAY CLOSE EARLY IF SUFFICIENT APPLICATIONS ARE RECEIVED.
Main duties of the job
* Supporting ward multidisciplinary teams with formulation and care planning from admission to discharge from the service.
* Delivery and evaluation of ward-based psychologically informed group interventions.
* Supporting the audit and evaluation of ongoing service development initiatives.
* Scope exists for individual therapeutic work with service users where clinically appropriate and the delivery of staff training.
Working for our organisation
The Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT) is the main provider of Mental Health and Learning Disability services in Leeds. We also provide specialist inpatient services in York and some highly specialised services across the country. As a teaching trust with strong links to local universities, we are a centre of excellence for teaching, research and development.
There are many benefits of working for LYPFT including fantastic employee wellbeing support, 27 - 33 days annual leave, flexible working and remote working arrangements, the NHS Pension Scheme, coaching, support and opportunities for career development and training and education support alongside a range of exclusive discounts and payment schemes including for cars, extra leave days and more NHS Discount Offers.
Applicants should be aware that for any individual who requires a visa to work in the UK, the Trust provides sponsorship for registered healthcare practitioner roles only (not including Healthcare Support Workers). This is an essential requirement of the role, and the Trust is unable to offer you a role if you are unable to meet Trust requirements for sponsorship and Home Office requirements for a visa.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
* Reviewing and compiling care documentation, meeting with service users, their families/carers, and others involved in their care. Gathering information to develop biopsychosocial formulations for and with service users and the ward multidisciplinary team to inform care planning.
* Working collaboratively with ward staff to deliver and evaluate psychologically informed group interventions under the supervision of a qualified psychologist.
* Assisting with data collection and writing up of service audit/evaluation projects.
* Attending and contributing to ward multidisciplinary care planning meetings.
* Attending and contributing to ward level clinical governance meetings.
* Delivering one to one therapeutic interventions where clinically appropriate under the supervision of a qualified psychologist.
The role predominantly centres on supporting multidisciplinary formulation and care planning, and the delivery and evaluation of psychologically informed group interventions. Additional tasks will be linked to ongoing service improvement initiatives. There will be opportunities to deliver staff training, and the post holder will be offered continuing professional development opportunities and clinical supervision commensurate to the role.
The successful applicant will have previous experience of working as an Assistant Psychologist in mental health or learning disability settings, delivering one to one or group interventions, and/or developing and using formulations with service users and teams. They will be able to develop good rapport with people with complex mental health needs and have enthusiasm for working within an inpatient setting.
The role is for a fixed term of two years.
Applications from people with BAME backgrounds are particularly welcome.
LYPFT supports several Assistant Psychologist posts which provides a rich internal network, including a regular Aspiring Psychological Professionals Forum. In addition, Leeds continues to be a diverse and exciting city to work in.
You must have a degree eligible to hold Graduate Basis Chartered Membership (GMC) with the BPS to be offered this post. To maintain anonymity at shortlisting, proof of this will be requested as necessary after application and before interview. If you pass to the stage of shortlisting, you will be contacted by the recruitment team and asked to either forward a confirmation email from the BPS or a letter from your UK university confirming your degree meets the GBC requirements. Please ensure this proof is available as time scales will be short and the interview will be withdrawn if proof is not available.
Interviews will take place in person at the Becklin Centre on Thursday 24th April 2025.
Person specification
Qualifications
* Honours/conversion degree in psychology conferring Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) as verified by UK university or BPS, achieving an upper second-class award or higher, or a further post graduate degree e.g. Masters or Doctorate.
Experience
* Experience of working as an Assistant Psychologist previously or equivalent role in a care/health setting.
Skills
* Demonstrates involvement in and understanding of psychologically informed formulation.
* Demonstrates an understanding of working in a multi-disciplinary team.
* Demonstrates a positive attitude towards service users with complex needs.
Applications are welcomed from candidates who wish to apply for a position based on a smarter (Hybrid) or flexible working arrangement – please contact the Recruitment Team if you have any queries regarding this in terms of your initial application. Where candidates are successful at interview, flexible working arrangement requests will be taken into consideration and may be accommodated where the needs of the service allow.
Fixed Term Contracts for existing NHS Employees – temporary contracts for employees of LYPFT, or colleagues joining from another NHS Trust, will be offered on a secondment basis wherever possible. In the event this is not possible, an FTC would be issued and this would require a break in service of two weeks.
Please note that from 1st July 2018, all new employees are required to subscribe to the DBS Update Service, DBS checks for volunteers remain free of charge.
Patient Safety is a priority at LYPFT with a focus on system-based improvement and creating opportunities for learning. We will ensure compassionate engagement with all those involved in an incident and all incidents are met with a proportionate response. LYPFT is committed to upholding its statutory responsibilities in relation to safeguarding adults and children. Please refer to the job description for further information.
LYPFT is a member of the Disability Confident scheme and is committed to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process.
As part of the Trust's commitment to its Gold Standard Armed Forces Covenant status, members of the Armed Forces Community are entitled to a guaranteed interview subject to meeting the role criteria.
We welcome applicants with lived experience of providing unpaid care and/or support to a family member or friend with a disability, health condition, frailty, mental health problem, addiction or other health needs.
Please note that the Trust reserves the right to close the vacancy before the closing date if enough applications are received. It is in the candidate’s best interest to apply as soon as possible. In submitting an application form, you authorise Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to confirm any previous NHS service details via the ESR IAT process should you be appointed to the post.
In applying for a role please ensure that you only declare qualifications that are relevant to the role itself. We reserve the right to check all declared qualifications on an application form, whether they are directly relevant to the role or not.
If you have not received any communication from us within four weeks you are asked to assume that your application has been unsuccessful. If you should have any queries regarding progress with your application form please contact us.
Please note: The Trust does not offer reimbursement of interview expenses.
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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