Band 5 Apprentice Clinical Associate Psychologist - South Glos

at  Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an Associate Clinical Psychologist (CAP) to join the South Gloucestershire Intensive Team as an apprentice. As part of the role you will be involved in the delivery of time sensitive, predictable and psychologically informed discharge service from inpatient wards to reintegration into community.
The service user group experiences severe and enduring mental health difficulties often presenting with comorbidities including mental health substance misuse. The role will include increasing access to psychological interventions at individuals and or group levels. In addition to undertaking routine assessment, key parts of the post will be to deliver training, group work and family interventions alongside colleagues. Support will be given to access additional training in psychological therapies as part of your career development. The role will involve working closely with other colleagues in providing psychological assessment and intervention.
As a CAP, you will join a local university CAP training programme (Msc Level) and on successful completion of the CAP Apprenticeship become a band 6 CAP. You must be a psychology graduate psychology with a 2:2 or above. You will have substantial experience of working with people with complex mental health problems in the community or inpatient/forensic settings. You will receive supervision from a Clinical Psychologist within the Intensive service.
Clinical Associate Psychologist
We are recruiting a Clinical Associate Psychologists (CAPs) apprentices in AWP working as part of an expansion of services delivering timely inpatient discharges as part of Inessive Service (Crisis Team).
This apprentice programme allows talented psychology graduates to access clinical roles where they can be trained on-the-job in psychological interventions. These highly competitive posts are a new initiative to England, and AWP has played a leading role in developing them in the south west. These roles create an opportunity to work psychologically with people who have complex emotional needs.
You will be part of a multidisciplinary team, and will have support and direct supervision from a Clinical Psychologist. You will join a local university CAP training programme (MSc Level) and on successful completion of the CAP Apprenticeship it is expected that you will become a band 6 CAP.
The successful applicant will be a graduate Psychologist with experience of working with people with complex mental health problems. We are especially interested in increasing diversity in the psychology workforce and this post may be of particular interest to graduates who wish to join the psychology workforce but are not aspiring to become Clinical or Counselling Psychologists.
We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust): a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care.
We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.
Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.
At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.
Clinical
1. To undertake structured interviews, psychological assessments and observations of individuals and groups.
2. To assist in the development of psychological formulations of complex clinical problems and the development and delivery of care plans, which include psychological treatment and/or management of the service user problems including risk assessments.
3. To determine appropriate psychological intervention, taking into account a range of potentially conflicting clinical information and dynamics under the supervision of a clinical psychologist.
4. To carry out psychological and psychometric tests, to develop interview and observation skills and to assess service user/patient needs.
5. To design, implement, modify an appropriate, bespoke psychological interventions with service users and groups under the supervision of a clinical psychologist.
6. To communicate confidential and personal information concerning psychological needs, obtained through assessments and interventions, to colleagues within and outside of the Trust and to the service user and their
7. To assist in the coordination and running of therapeutic groups.
8. To provide emotional support to service users and carers/family members.
9. To keep appropriate records of work and inform relevant others through letters or reports defined within the polices for AWP
10. To work as a member of a multidisciplinary ward /or community team.
11. To follow a person-focused and evidence based approach with service users and their families/carers.
12. To work in a partnership with service users.
13. To work in accordance with National NHS and placement providers’ policies and regulations, as well as those of relevant professional bodies.
14. The post holder will be required to work in situations where there are barriers to acceptance and exposure to aggression.
15. Received regular clinical supervision in accordance with Programme requirements and good clinical practice
Clinical Supervision, Teaching and Training
1. In conjunction with supervisor and University Tutor, to plan and prioritise own workload, research and individual and group sessions.
2. May assist with providing specialist training to other psychologists, trainees and assistants and appropriate.
3. May be required to demonstrate own duties to other graduate psychologists.
Research and Development / Audit Activity
1. To plan, monitor and evaluate own work, using clinical outcomes assessments, small-scale research methodology and statistical procedures.
2. To plan and undertake formal MSc research, as agreed with the University programme staff as required by the Programme.
3. To plan and undertake relevant research/audits, using appropriate methodology and statistical procedures, as agreed with the clinical supervisor(s).
4. To enhance own knowledge of clinical psychology, specific client groups and types of psychological difficulty through reading, literature searches and personal study.
5. To comply with the requirements of research governance, evidence-based practice and ethical considerations.
Equipment Used
1. Computer/ laptop/ PowerPoint projector for database, research, e-mail, Internet, presentations.
2. Computerised and Audio-visual recording equipment for use in assessment and specialist treatment programmes.
3. Psychological assessment tests and associated materials.
4. Expected to have knowledge of manual handling and other equipment within the area

Please refer the Job description for details