Assistant Psychologist Split Post 3 days a week as an Assistant Psychologist and 2 days a week as a Research Assistant.
This is an exciting opportunity for excellent people who are passionate about creating positive changes for people described as experiencing ‘Complex Emotional Needs’.
We are a close and supportive multi-disciplinary team and we’re proud of our work, making small sustainable changes in service responses across Gloucestershire.
We have 6 main projects that we deliver within the CEN service that an assistant psychologist would be able to be involved with. All of our work in underpinned by co-production, being trauma informed and working alongside colleagues with lived experience.
The successful candidate would mostly support the team in the delivery of the Open Access Therapeutic Support service and would have two days a week dedicated to helping evaluate that service. This would involve data analysis and working with the people who use the service to co-produce their own outcome measures. You would also support structured interviews and analysis to help measure the success of the service. The ambition is to complete a research paper by the end of the 12-month contract.
The role will mainly involve supporting the Open Access Therapeutic Support service that operates three times a week in Gloucester and is currently expanding to online.
Working with the CEN team will also give opportunity to work with a multi-disciplinary team all committed to improving experiences of receiving service across the county for people experiencing complex emotional needs. (See below for details of projects.)
The role will split into having a dedicated research focus for two days a week, under the guidance of the lead psychologist.
The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification
We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people’s homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.
Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:
72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust’s priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.
This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.
The projects delivered by our service are:
OATS – Open Access Therapeutic Support . A peer-therapy group co-delivered with a voluntary care sector partner. We facilitate this group 3 times a week and have weekly clinical supervision to allow us to skilfully draw on psychological theory to enable the group to be safe, effective and therapeutic.
Family and Friends – We offer psychoeducation to families within a 12 week peer group and one to one where indicated.
FERN – Frequent Engagement Response Network, a small sub-team within CEN. This focusses on improving responses to people presenting regularly to 999 services. The FERN team includes a serving police officer, an assistant psychologist and a lived experience practitioner who work together to create person centred, psychologically informed plans that direct responders towards a trauma informed approach in situations of high risk. The FERN team are also involved with supporting blue light responders to improve understanding of trauma and effective de-escalation to avoid restrictive interventions.
Training – We offer a number of training courses across the integrated care system to help build resilience and compassion within services to people with complex emotional needs.
Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE) Much of our work involves supporting care providers to maintain placements for people who may present with high levels of risk and complexity. This involves reflective practice, functional risk analysis, shaping care plans and upskilling and supporting staff.
Peer Support Our lived experience team provide one to one support to people receiving care from other teams within GHC as ‘topic based interventions’. Working alongside lived experience provides us with a unique perspective that enhances all the work we do within the team.
This post is for a full time Assistant Psychologist with a dedicated research focus for 2 days a week.
‘Complex Emotional Needs’ is an umbrella term, describing intense mental health difficulties that can have a significant impact on many areas of an individual’s life. T hese difficulties often (but not always) arise from traumatic experiences and will affect people in many varied ways. The service is not limited to people with a confirmed diagnosis, although it is aimed at supporting people who are likely to have difficulties coping with overwhelming emotions, low self-esteem and who may experience times of life threatening distress. Importantly, people with complex emotional needs also have strengths and experiences and have a good prognosis for recovery.
The successful candidate would be a highly valued member of the multi-disciplinary team which includes a Clinical Psychology Lead for Complex Emotional Needs, Psychiatrist, Senior Specialist Practitioners and Lived Experience Practitioners. We are seeking excellence from the team and the ideal candidate will have a unique understanding of these difficulties from occupational or personal lived experience.
Responsibilities
To assist in developing client formulations, treatment planning and the delivering of evidence based psychological interventions.
To assist in the co-ordination and running of therapeutic groups.
To attend and contribute to appropriate multi-disciplinary meetings
To assist in the design and implementation of service development projects within the service as required.
To attend meetings in which service developments are planned and discussed.
Undertake data collection, analysis, the production of reports and summaries, using IT and statistical programmes.
Undertake searches of evidence-based literature and research to inform best practice within the service.
To collate and report audit data in order to meet the audit requirements of the service.
To assist with the analysis, development, evaluation and monitoring of the team’s operational policies and services, through service evaluation and audit.
The Trust is required to work in line with the Government’s UK Visa and Immigration Rules and Regulations. For more information about sponsorship for certain roles, please visit - https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas
