Assistant Psychologist
Job overview
Are you ready to unlock your potential within a challenging, creative and fast paced work environment? Do you want to work with people to build positive and productive lives, whatever their past?
We are currently expanding recruitment and are looking for a compassionate, knowledgeable and motivated Assistant Psychologist to join our friendly team at HMP Ashfield.
Our healthcare team have a real impact on promoting health and well-being to those in prison and we pride ourselves on using skills and strategies that instil hope for patients future resettlement back into the community. We directly deliver Mental Health, Physical Health, Pharmacy and Clinical Substance Misuse in an integrated healthcare delivery model to provide effective and responsive care to improve wellbeing and support better outcomes in the future.
As part of our mental health team, you will enjoy all the benefits of NHS AfC employment (inc pension) with the opportunity to work within a forward-thinking service, who encourage career and personal development to all staff to increase their clinical and interpersonal skills.
Main duties of the job
As an Assistant Psychologist at HMP Ashfield you will be supporting and enhancing the professional psychological care of offenders within the service. This will include; providing psychological assessment and psychological interventions under the supervision of a qualified professional psychologist, working independently according to a plan agreed with the qualified psychologist and within the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedures and to assist in clinically related administration, conduct of audits, collection of statistics, development of audit and/or research projects, teaching.
Specifically, you will provide psychological therapy services to service users residing in HMP Ashfield. The assistant psychologist will be part of the integrated mental health team within the prisons, which provide a range of psychological services from self-help literature to individual and group therapies.The integrated mental health team work within a trauma informed care model which includes supporting prison colleagues by providing teaching, training and consultation.
Working for our organisation
Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London.
Our healthcare departments operate across four prisons in the BSGW cluster each of which require a bespoke service responding to the prisoner and prison needs:
- HMP Ashfield – Cat C – Population = 412
- HMP Bristol – Cat B – Population = 638
- HMP Erlestoke – Cat C – Population = 494
- HMP Leyhill – Cat D (Open) – Population = 460
Oxleas are the lead provider across 10 South West prisons and operate in Devon and Dorset in addition to the above.
Our wider services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies.
We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England.
Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:
- We’re Kind
- We’re Fair
- We Listen
- We Care
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Management responsibilities- To assist in the design and implementation of service development projects with the service as required.
- To attend meetings in which service developments are planned and discussed.
- To undertake psychological assessments of clients applying psychological theory, including neuro-psychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care.
- To assist in the formulation and delivery of care plans involving the psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s problems, under the supervision of a qualified professional psychologist, in the prison setting.
- To assist in the coordination and running of therapeutic groups or clinical projects.
- To work with other staff to assess or support service users in the prison and contribute to multidisciplinary discussions or care guidelines as agreed with the psychologist/psychological therapist providing supervision.
- To assist in the development of a psychological based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings where care takes place.
- To assist in the design and implementation of audit and research projects.
- To undertake data collection, analysis, the production of reports and summaries, using IT and statistical programmes.
- To create graphs or charts to collate or summarise data on individual interventions or treatment programmes.
- To assist in producing visual or material or user-friendly information for interventions with clients.
- In common with all assistant psychologists, to receive regular clinical supervision in accordance with professional practice guidelines.
- To gain wider experience of professional psychology within the NHS over and above that provided within the principal service area where the post holder is employed.
- To develop skills and competencies that assist in the delivery of current duties.
- To contribute to the training and support of other staff in psychological care.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION, PLEASE READ:
All applicants must be willing to undertake National Security Vetting in order to work in a Prison Setting. This will be completed as part of the pre-employment checks through Oxleas and the prison vetting team.
You will need to provide:
Proof of right to work documentation
Proof of ID, needs to include 1 photographic ID
Proof of address documentation
Non-UK passport holders will need to have correct documentation (right to work in the UK) and a Home office Share code.
Address History:
5 years address history will be needed.
Applicants that are not UK Passport holders who provide less than 5 years UK address history will need to provide a Police Certificate which must be in English from where they resided previously.
Applicants who are UK Passport holders who have lived abroad for a period of more than six months during the last three years will need to provide a certificate of good conduct or an overseas police check in English from the countries resided in or visited.
In order to assist you in obtaining a Police Certificate, guidance can be sought from:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants
If the country you have resided in is not listed here, you can obtain the necessary information by contacting the relevant Embassy or High Commission for that Country. Their contact details can be found on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office website (http://www.fco.gov.uk/en).
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria- A lower second class (2.2) honours degree or higher in psychology
- Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society
Skills
Essential criteria- High levels of communication skills (written and verbal) including an ability to communicate and work in settings in which the atmosphere may be emotive
- An ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to a mental health context
- An interest in working within forensic settings with individuals with mental health problems
Experience
Essential criteria- Experience of working with service users with mental health problems, learning disabilities or offenders
We would encourage you to be open about your needs so we can work with you to design a comfortable and accessible interview experience. Any information you provide regarding a disability or a need for adjustments will be treated in confidence and will only be shared with colleagues who are supporting this request.
If you require any adjustments to participate fully in the interview process, please let us know by adding the relevant details when scheduling your preferred interview date and time. Please feel free to contact the appointing manager to discuss your needs.
We encourage applicants to contact the hiring manager before their interview, if they have any questions about the role or the process. This is a great way to get clarity and prepare effectively for the interview.
Please note that the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is prohibited during the interview process. We also discourage overuse of AI during the application process because this can negatively impact the quality of your application and may hinder your chances of being shortlisted.Thank you.