National and Specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (N&S CAMHS) at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust are seeking to recruit an enthusiastic, organised and highly motivated Research Assistant to support a qualitative research project exploring stakeholder experiences of Intensive Outpatient Programmes (IOPs) for eating disorders.
This exciting role will contribute to a study examining the perspectives of children and young people and parents/carers involved in eating disorder IOPs across England. The project aims to identify strengths, challenges and opportunities for improving the delivery of intensive outpatient treatment and will contribute to the development of evidence-informed recommendations for future service provision.
The successful applicant will support all aspects of the study, including participant recruitment, data collection, data management and qualitative research activities. They will also provide project coordination and administrative support, including organising IoPPN Research Steering Group and Study Management Group (SMG) meetings, preparing agendas and minutes, liaising with the Chief Investigator (CI), local Principal Investigators (PIs) and participating NHS sites, maintaining study documentation, tracking site set-up and recruitment, and supporting the day-to-day management of the project to ensure timely and effective delivery. They will work closely with the study's Chief Investigator and wider research team.
The post holder will assist the research team in the delivery of a multi-site qualitative research study exploring stakeholder perspectives of Intensive Outpatient Programmes (IOPs) for eating disorders across England. They will support all stages of the research process, including study set-up, participant recruitment, data collection, data management, qualitative research activities, and the day-to-day coordination of the project. The role will involve working closely with the Chief Investigator, local Principal Investigators (PIs), NHS research teams, and members of the Research Steering Group to ensure the successful delivery of the study.
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust provide the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK and is internationally recognised for excellence in clinical care, research and education.
The successful applicant will join a specialist team working within eating disorder services and contribute to an important programme of research aimed at improving treatment pathways for individuals with eating disorders.
The project focuses on Intensive Outpatient Programmes (IOPs), an increasingly important treatment model that provides intensive therapeutic support while enabling individuals to remain in their home environments. Despite growing interest in IOPs, there is currently substantial variation in how these programmes are delivered across England. This study seeks to understand stakeholder experiences and contribute to future service development and national recommendations.
We are committed to supporting staff wellbeing, career development and flexible working. The successful candidate will have access to a wide range of training opportunities and will work alongside experienced clinicians, researchers and experts by experience.
Clinical and Client Care
- To be involved in the multidisciplinary assessment of young people and their families for treatment in the MCCAED Service. To be responsible for detailed note taking and subsequent report writing.
- To provide support for clinicians delivering groups to young people and families, which may involve material development, note taking and co-facilitation.
- To be responsible to generating reports, recording outcomes in clinical notes, and maintaining databases for audit.
- To be responsible for the collation and dissemination of routine outcome measures at assessment, and for administering, collating, and disseminating routine outcome measures at discharge.
- You may have the opportunity to participate in wider MCCAED activities, such as observing assessments in other MCCAED teams, attending service-wide teaching and training events, and attending research meetings.
Contributing to team or service clinical functioning
- To contribute to the effective working of the MCCAED team by managing databases to track processes or progress through pathways and keeping them up to date.
- Co-ordinate organisational issues and facilitate assessment and treatment sessions as required. This involves interacting with a range of young people and their families.
- To act in a manner that contributes to the effective working of MCCAED and supports a psychologically informed framework for the service.
- To contribute to the team or service’s delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
Policy and service development
- To follow policies and procedures in own area of work.
- To participate in the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.
- To contribute to service development through participating in appropriate projects.
Care or management of resources
- To take care of, and use carefully, the Trust’s equipment and physical resources.
- To ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.
Teaching and Training
- To participate in demonstrating work methods to newly recruited Assistant Psychologists and to support their development of necessary skills.
- To contribute to the dissemination of research and service evaluation findings through presentations or published articles.
- To assist senior clinicians in delivering teaching/training as needed.
Record-keeping and Information Governance
- To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.
- To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry (under the supervision of practitioner psychologists and other senior clinicians).
Research and development
- To assist in the design and implementation of audit and research projects to inform service development, training provision and research activities.
- To undertake data collection, input and database management, analysis, the production of reports and summaries, using IT and statistical programmes.
- To undertake searches of evidence-based literature and research to assist in the development of evidence base to support the clinical practice of the team.
- To conduct surveys with service users and carers to gather views on service provision (with the guidance of senior clinicians).
- Contribute to future funding applications where appropriate.
Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development
- To receive regular clinical and professional supervision in accordance with professional practice guidelines.
- To develop skills and competencies that assist in the delivery of current duties and enhance own practice.
- To undertake personal training relevant to the post in agreement with the supervising psychologist and the manager.
- To adhere to the relevant regulatory Professional Practice Guidelines and Trust policies and procedures.
General
- To travel as part of the work of the service as appropriate and across the Trust when required.
- To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group and follow trust policies relating to its management.
- To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations and challenging behaviours and to support others involved in such situations.
- To take responsibility for seeking supervision and support for yourself and not going beyond your scope of practice.
- To work flexibly which may include offering some regular commitment to late clinics or Saturday working, within the overall Job Plan. It is expected that you may need to work some hours outside of normal office hours and be flexible in your ability to change your working pattern frequently and at short notice to meet the needs of the service.
- To work within an MDT and actively promote relationships with colleagues that support open communication and collaborative working, taking personal responsibility for your contribution to the process of MDT working. This will include liaising closely with team members, wider MCCAED staff, and other staff members at the Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People (PMCYP).
