Senior Assistant Psychologist
Band 5
Main area
Psychology
Grade
Band 5
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref
287-CEF-225-25
Department name
LUH - 1 General Staffing (AFC posts)
Site
Aintree Hospital
Town
Fazakerley
Salary
£31,049 - £37,796 per annum
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
18/08/2025 23:59
Job Overview
We are seeking an empathic and enthusiastic assistant psychologist to join our welcoming staff support psychology and counselling service. The vacancy has arisen because the current postholder has successfully gained a clinical psychology training place.
In this role, you will deliver the triage function of our service, offering a supportive initial phone call and assessing whether in-house psychology or counselling, or an external referral, is most appropriate. Full training will be provided.
You will also be involved in the wider work of the service, including co-facilitation of groups and events, and service evaluation.
Main duties of the job
To support & enhance the professional psychological care of people referred to the service; providing psychological assessment and psychological interventions under the supervision of a qualified professional psychologist, working independently according to a plan agreed with a qualified psychologist and within the overall framework of the team's policies and procedures.
To utilise research skills for audit, service development and improvement and other research initiatives within the service.
To assist in clinically related administration, conduct of audits, collection of statistics, and development of audit and/or research projects, teaching and project work.
Working for our organisation
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust comprises Aintree University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital & Royal Liverpool University Hospital.
We are part of NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, formed on 1 Nov 2024 from the coming together of LUHFT and Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust. The Group was born from a shared aim to improve the care we provide our patients.
UHLG is one of the largest employers in the region, with over 16,800 colleagues dedicated to caring for our communities - from birth and beyond.
For the 630,000 people across Merseyside, we are their local NHS. We provide general and emergency hospital care, alongside highly specialised regional services for more than two million people in the North West.
Aintree University Hospital is the single receiving site for adult major trauma patients in Cheshire and Merseyside and hosts a number of regional services including an award-winning stroke facility. Broadgreen Hospital is home to elective surgical, diagnostic and treatment services, together with specialist patient rehabilitation. Liverpool Women's Hospital specialises in the health of women and babies, delivering over 7,200 babies in the UK's largest single site maternity hospital each year. The Royal Liverpool University Hospital is the largest hospital in the country to provide inpatients with 100% single bedrooms and focuses on complex planned care and specialist services.
For roles at Liverpool Women's, visit their careers page.
Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities
To support & enhance the professional psychological care of people referred to the service;
providing psychological assessment and psychological interventions under the supervision of a qualified professional psychologist, working independently according to a plan agreed with a qualified psychologist and within the overall framework of the team's policies and procedures.
To utilise research skills for audit, service development and improvement and other research initiatives within the service.
To assist in clinically related administration, conduct of audits, collection of statistics, and development of audit and/or research projects, teaching and project work.
Key responsibilities
Clinical
Direct clinical work under supervision: To undertake protocol based psychological assessments of clients applying psychological, , self-report measures, rating scales, and semi-structured interviews with staff members; writing of comprehensive reports following assessment.
To assist in the formulation and delivery of care plans involving the psychological treatment and/or management of staff members' problems, under the supervision of a qualified professional psychologist.
To assist in the co-ordination and running of therapeutic groups and/or psychoeducational groups under the supervision of a qualified professional psychologist.
To work with other staff to assess clients and review their care in preparation for reviews by the clinical team.
To attend and contribute to appropriate multi-disciplinary clinical team meetings. Support the development of self-help and other educative material. Teaching/Training In common with all applied 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 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 service manager. To contribute to the training and support of other staff in psychological care, as appropriate. Management, Policy & service development. To assist in the
design and implementation of service development and improvement projects within the service as required. To attend meetings in which service developments are planned and discussed. Research & service evaluation. 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 attend relevant meetings To undertake searches of evidence-based literature and research to assist qualified clinical psychologists in evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Degree in psychology
- Eligible for graduate membership of the British Psychological Society
Desirable criteria
- Further postgraduate training in relevant areas of professional psychology, research methodology or other areas relevant to post
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of clinical work or psychological research work in a health care setting
- Experience as an assistant/research psychologist
Desirable criteria
- NHS experience or experience of paid work in direct care provision
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- An understanding of the needs and difficulties of NHS staff
Desirable criteria
- Awareness of professional issues e.g. confidentiality, BPS code of conduct, knowledge of psychometric assessment
Skills
Essential criteria
- Ability to communicate sensitive information to patients, carers, clinicians and colleagues in a multidisciplinary setting
- An ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to a clinical health context
- High level communication skills (written and verbal) including an ability to communicate and work in settings in which the atmosphere may be highly emotive
- An ability to interact effectively with staff from all disciplines
- An ability to interact with people, particularly with psychological vulnerabilities
- Ability to work independently, reliably and consistently with work agreed and managed at regular intervals
- Resourcefulness and ability to use supervision appropriately and effectively and to work autonomously where appropriate, within limits of competence
Please ensure you check the email account (including junk/spam boxes) from which you apply regularly as we will use this to contact you regarding your application.
Posts advertised to 'internal staff' are open to employees of hospitals within University Hospitals of Liverpool Group and you should confirm your employment within your application form.
Note: Under current Home Office Immigration Rules we are currently unable to offer right to work visa sponsorship for Band 2 and 3 roles with a salary of less than £25,000 pa as they do not meet the UK Visas & Immigration criteria.
Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.
We reserve the right to close any vacancies from further applications when we have received a minimum number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.
Candidates applying for the role of Healthcare Assistant on the staff bank should note that due to the nature of the role, workers must be aged 18 or above when commencing in post. Applicants are therefore welcome from those aged over 18 or within 3 months' of their 18^th birthday.
The Trust is committed to promoting a healthy work-life balance and achieve fair, equitable and consistent practice. We welcome flexible working requests and will consider a variety of flexible working arrangements from day one of your employment. Not all roles are suitable for every flexible working opportunity all of the time. Flexible working options may include reduced hours, compressed hours, fixed shifts, time back in lieu and home working.
The Trust is committed to promoting equality and diversity; we value the contribution of individual talent, skills, knowledge and experience and aim for a workforce demography representative of the local community. We encourage applicants from the following groups that are currently under-represented in our workforce black, Asian and minority ethnic, lesbian, gay, bisexual and Transgender (LGBTQ+), disabled, male and age 16-24.
Trust policy requires that the cost of submitting & processing the successful applicant/s DBS application be recovered via salary deduction following start in post. The amount of £23 (standard disclosure) or £43 (enhanced disclosure) will be deducted from salary, in manageable monthly instalments for up to 3 months following commencement of employment. Bank posts require upfront payment. DBS applications submitted from 2nd December will be subject to the new DBS fee of £26.50 (standard) and £54.50 (Enhanced).
From April 2017, Skilled visa applicants and their adult dependant(s) will be required to provide a criminal record certificate from each country they have lived in consecutively for 12 months or more in the past ten years.
Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.
This organisation has a zero-tolerance approach to the abuse of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All staff must ensure they adhere to the organisations safeguarding children and adults' policy and comply with the Local Safeguarding Children and Adult Board procedures.
Staff should be mindful of their responsibility to safeguard children and adults in any activity performed on behalf of the organisation in line with the requirements of statutory guidance and legislation.
All employees (and volunteers)are expected maintain their safeguarding knowledge and skills by completing mandatory safeguarding training which includes understanding and recognising the signs of abuse and neglect and taking appropriate action.
As an organisation, we have adopted the Merseyside Domestic abuse workplace scheme which supports our staff who are experiencing Domestic Abuse /any forms of sexual violence.
If you have any personal requirements that will enable you to participate in our recruitment process please contact a member of the Recruitment Services by phone on 0151 706 4666 at the earliest opportunity to ensure that measures can be put in place to enable your application for this post.
Please note: new entrants to the NHS will commence on the first pay point of the relevant band.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Application numbers
This vacancy may close early if it receives a high number of applications. Please complete and submit your application in good time to avoid disappointment.
LNKD1_UKTJ
