Assistant Psychologist: Sponsorship Available

Devon Partnership NHS Trust

Job Summary

Are you someone looking for a career in one of the UK’s most respected mental health and learning disability trusts?

Would you like to be part of a dedicated team committed to making a difference to peoples lives to enjoy a better future?

We are looking to recruit a full time Assistant Psychologist to work on a specialist Learning Disability and Autism adult mental health ward. The Brook is a brand new hospital setting specifically designed for people with diverse neurological, sensory and mental health needs.

We have a multidisciplinary team including psychological therapists, occupational therapists, medics, nursing, chaplaincy, speech and language therapy, physiotherapy and pharmacy. The role will be working alongside the psychological therapists including creative therapist and be supervised by a clinical psychologist. We aim to provide a psychologically and trauma informed environment for the people who use our service and the staff team.

The inpatient service is a regional service across the South West. There is a further inpatient ward opening in the near future in Bristol. The Brook itself sits within the wider specialist directorate of the trust. We also have outreach teams offering specialist support into the community. We encourage networking and CPD opportunities across the wider psychology services. We have good links with local Doctoral Clinical Psychology programs and host placements both in inpatient, wider learning disability and Neurodiversity services.

 

 

Main duties of the job

The Brook aims to provide specialist inpatient mental health care to adults with learning disabilities and/or autism whose needs cannot be met by mainstream services. Creating and adapting care and interventions to an individuals specific needs is a vital part of this role.

This role aims to apply psychological theory to the service as part of the wider multidisciplinary team. The post holder will contribute to the provision of psychological assessment, formulation, intervention and evaluation. This will include individual clinical work, group interventions such as psychoeducation sessions and contributions to staff training and support. As a new service there will also be opportunities to participate in service development and evaluation as we embed into the wider healthcare network.

Person Specification

Skills and Abilities

Essential

  • Ability to integrate complex data; make highly skilled evaluations and decisions under supervision of qualified staff.
  • Excellent communication skills.
  • Able to produce well written reports.
  • Excellent IT skills
  • Organisation and time management skills
  • Ability to be mobile across a geographical area

Desirable

  • Project management

Experience

Essential

  • Some experience, either through employment or voluntary work, with vulnerable people with complex needs and/or who are socially disadvantaged
  • Experience, and/or training in diversity awareness and social inequality

Desirable

  • Experience of specialist psychological research and audit of services and people who use services across a wide range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings.
  • Experience gained during supervised training of working in applied psychology
  • Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision

Qualifications

Essential

  • BA or BSc in Psychology eligible for graduate basis for registration with the British Psychological Society.

Desirable

  • Clinical placement and/or supervised practise in Learning Disability services.
  • Further training in applied / clinical psychology interventions.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Closing Date: 15 December 2025

To apply for this job please visit www.jobs.nhs.uk.