ASPIRE Assistant PsychologistNHS

Job summary

Assistant Psychologist - ASPIRE scholarship

National Deaf Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (NDCAMHS)

Band 4

22.5 hours (3 days) on a six month contract. We will endeavour to make this time as flexible as possible to support other responsibilities.

ASPIRE is part of NHS England's (NHSE) plans to improve equity of access and inclusion for entrants to clinical psychology training for groups currently under represented. Part of the NHS Long Term Plan is to improve diversity of the workforce to better represent the service users it supports. The current Clinical Psychology workforce has an under-representation of people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups and also of people from financially disadvantaged backgrounds. As a specialist Deaf CAMHS, we particularly welcome and encourage applications from deaf psychology graduates as we wish to encourage greater representation of people who are deaf in NHS professions. We also encourage applications from psychology graduates with a good level of British Sign Language (BSL), maybe gained as being a child of a deaf adult (CODA).

Please see the essential eligibility criteria for the ASPIRE programme.

Main duties of the job

We have an exciting opportunity for an Assistant Psychologist to join the National Deaf CAMHS team for Central England, which covers the West Midlands, East Midlands and South Central regions (see map in link below).

You could live anywhere in the West or East Midland regions for the Central England team, but would need to be able to travel to see families (travel time is in work time and is paid for by work). You need to be able to travel regularly to one of Birmingham, or Derby for supervision and access to assessments. You will need to travel to Trust sites in the Black Country (West Midlands) for IT and induction needs, and other needs that may arise.

National Deaf CAMHS

National Deaf CAMHS is an innovative community and inpatient mental health service delivering a pathway of care for 0-18 year olds across England. The national service is delivered by four NHS Trusts, and our teams link closely together. You will be working closely with our key partners where together we have an ambition to deliver an outstanding model of mental health care for the deaf children, young people and parents of England.

NDCAMHS is a unique and truly individual service. We are continuously learning and evolving, as we work together to meet the mental health needs of children, young people and parents who are deaf.

Job description

You would support Clinical Psychologists in the delivery of specialist psychological assessments and interventions to clients. You would have opportunities to work with children and families across the wide range of needs covered by NDCAMHS, including mental health, trauma and attachment care-pathways, neurodevelopmental assessment, and Systemic Family Therapy offer.

You will work under the supervision of a qualified Clinical Psychologist, and you will gain excellent experience to support you in developing your career.

You would work flexibly across pathways of care in a variety of community settings and work closely with clinicians/practitioners in multi-disciplinary teams including deaf and hearing staff and BSL/English Interpreters.

Our clients use a wide range of communication modalities including British Sign Language, Sign Supported English, various spoken languages and minimal language.

We work both directly with families, as well as offering joint care with local CAMHS services, multi-agency working and consultation. Excellent problem-solving, communication and interpersonal skills and a positive attitude towards working with deaf children, and their families, with complex mental health needs are essential.

You will have opportunities to work within our neurodevelopmental pathway, trauma and attachment care-pathways and Systemic Family Therapy offer, as well as working with a wide range of referred needs.

The service also offers a unique opportunity for an Assistant Psychologist to input into the development of specialist services for deaf children and young people, including audit, research and service development.

We regularly have Trainee Clinical Psychologists working with us from the Birmingham, Coventry & Warwick and Trent courses, and Honorary Assistant Psychology placements from the Birmingham University Masters in Clinical Psychology, and undergraduate Year in Industry placements from Aston University so you would be alongside psychologists of all levels. As well as the links with the BCHF Trust Psychologists, we also have a Psychology Best Practice Group across NDCAMHS, and a wider network of Applied Psychologists working with Deaf People Special Interest Group (APDSIG). There are active assistant groups across each of these. We are also developing therapy-specific Special Interest Groups across NDCAMHS and wider networks working with deaf children and adults.

For further supporting information to apply for this role please see documents attached ASPIRE Application guidance.

Attached map

This is an externally provided map but gives an idea of the geographical areas we cover.

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/craig.bloodworth/viz/UKPolygons/StrategicHealthAuthority

About us

We are a fully integrated multi-disciplinary team comprising Psychologists; Psychiatrists; Systemic Family Therapists; Nurses; Occupational Therapists and Family Support Workers. A key aspect of the role is working closely with clinicians/practitioners as part of a bi-lingual, bi-cultural multi-disciplinary team with deaf and hearing practitioners and BSL/English Interpreters.

Post holders would officially be based at home and all travel would be in work time and paid from home. We are well resourced for remote working. We have use of offices across the region including in Selly Oak, Birmingham, where you would work alongside other psychologists; as well as an admin office in Dudley. We arrange venues across the full region to see clients.