Assistant Psychologist

at  Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

The post holder will have the opportunity of working alongside the Clinical Psychologist within the service.
The post holder will contribute to the overall psychology provision within the prisons. Clinical duties will include; facilitating psychologically informed therapeutic groups, individual psychology assessments (including neuropsychology assessments), and working with staff teams to support the management of service users. Working independently according to a plan agreed with a qualified psychologist and within the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedures. To assist in clinically related administration, conduct of audits, collection of statistics, and development of audit and/or research projects, teaching and project work.
Regular and routine clinical supervision with the Psychologist will be provided as well as access to the wider Trust CPD opportunities, including a specific monthly Assistant Psychologist CPD group.
To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the post holder’s professional and team/operational manager(s).
To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing in accordance with professional codes of practice of the British Psychological Society and Trust policies and procedures.
To prepare test materials and visual aids as required.
To undertake specific administrative duties as required.
To perform other duties of a similar kind appropriate to the grade as might be required by the line manager for the post.
Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our 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. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.
We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. 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. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

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

To undertake protocol based psychological assessments of clients applying psychological principals, including neuropsychological 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, under the supervision of a qualified psychologist.
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.
To assist in the coordination and running of therapeutic groups or clinical projects. This includes evaluating the efficacy of the groups.
To work with other staff to assess or support service users and contribute to multidisciplinary discussions or care guidelines as agreed with the clinical psychologist providing supervision.
To attend and contribute to appropriate multi-disciplinary team (MDT) meetings.
To provide feedback to MDT about psychology input.

• We’re Kind
• We’re Fair
• We Listen
• We Car