Assistant Psychologist

Main area Mental Health Grade Band 4 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week (9am - 5pm) Job  
-MH

Employer Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Highbury Hospital or Sherwood Oaks Town Nottingham Salary £28,392 - £31,157 per annum (pro rata for part time) Salary period Yearly Closing 19/07/2026 23:59 Interview date 11/08/2026

The Clinical Psychology service for the Nottinghamshire Adult Mental Health Acute Care Network provides high quality psychological assessment, advice and intervention within local adult acute mental health wards.

We have three full‑time band 3 Assistant Psychologist posts available across our male and female acute wards (two male wards at Highbury Hospital and one female ward at Sherwood Oaks). Candidates should have a keen interest and demonstrated experience in adult acute mental health, especially those with acute inpatient experience.

You will work in inpatient services and will have good opportunities to participate in individual assessment and formulation of patients’ needs, including a wide range of clinical presentations. There will also be opportunities to plan and deliver both individual and group interventions under the supervision of qualified clinical psychologists. You will work directly with patients and indirectly to advise the multidisciplinary team, e.g. providing advice at ward review meetings on psychological aspects of patient care.

• Support and carry out a range of psychometric and other assessments with people who have acute mental health problems and might be at risk of harm to self or others, including observations, interviews, and intellectual and executive skills assessments.
• Support and carry out defined therapeutic interventions with people with acute mental health problems and their carers.
• Support interventions with staff teams, such as consultancy, training, identifying resources, multidisciplinary working, signposting staff to appropriate services and service promotion.
• Support data collection and analysis for both clinical and service evaluation, collecting and reviewing data such as psychometric scores, interview data, historical information, literature searches; may include data analysis and report writing under supervision.
• Applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. The cost of the DBS application is £26.40 (standard) or £54.40 (enhanced); the cost will be deducted from the salary over the first 2 months. Applicants are encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service. An annual fee of £16 per year applies.

• Psychology honours degree 2:1 or higher, meeting the requirements for graduate basis for registration with the British Psychological Society. Candidates with a 2:2 degree will be considered if they have completed a postgraduate course (MSc or PhD level).
• Post‑graduate qualification in psychology (e.g. MSc or PhD).
• Short courses – e.g. in CBT, schema therapy, trauma, understanding complex clinical presentations.

• Clinically‑relevant postgraduate work experience.
• Experience of working in an acute adult mental health setting.
• Experience of NHS clinical psychology services.

• Psychological assessment and intervention.
• Experience of working in applied psychological models, e.g. CBT, DBT, schema therapy.

• Clear communication skills, both oral and written.
• Ability to deal with barriers to communication.
• Numeracy, data collection and analysis skills.
• Ability to reflect on practice and accept personal supervision.
• Word processing and other IT skills.
• Understanding of ethical issues in clinical practice.
• Ability to manage and de‑escalate hostility and aggression.

• All colleagues are expected to demonstrate that they act in line with Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust values:
  Trust, Honesty, Respect, Compassion, Teamwork.
• All colleagues are expected to demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and how it applies to their role. The Trust’s expectations are highlighted within our EDI policy and associated Human Rights legislation.

• We reserve the right to close the post early once we have received a sufficient number of applicants.
• The Trust believes in treating everyone with dignity and respect and encourages applications from all sectors of the community. We guarantee an interview to candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum essential criteria.
• For eligible posts, DBS disclosures are mandatory before commencement of employment. If you are in a regulated adult and/or child care role, you will not be able to start your employment until a satisfactory DBS disclosure is received.