Assistant Psychologist
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
The closing date is 17 May 2026
The Portsmouth Integrated Learning Disability Service are looking for an Assistant Psychologist to join their Psychology provision. You will be joining an 'Outstanding' (CQC rated) friendly, supportive multidisciplinary team dedicated to developing and providing a high-quality service. Within this role, you will work as an active team member, contributing to the development and provision of psychological therapies for service users, their families and wider team, across different evidence-based modalities.
We are looking for an enthusiastic and well‑motivated professional, with a passion for working with adults with learning disabilities and an interest to progress in their career in a well‑established service.
The role is offered as a preceptorship to a band 5.
You will have excellent communication skills and be able to quickly gain good rapport with people from a range of backgrounds. Good organisational skills and clinical assessment/problem‑solving skills are also required. Collaborative working with a range of professionals is an important part of this post and it is essential you can work as part of multi‑disciplinary teams.
You will receive high quality peer support, team supervision meetings, regular clinical and line management supervision and commitment to personal and professional development.
If you enjoy being a part of a team, are creative, hardworking, seeking a new challenge and want to make a positive difference for people with a learning disability then apply now!
Main duties of the job
To support and enhance the professional psychological care of clients within the Adult Learning Disabilities Service, providing psychological assessment and psychological interventions under the supervision of qualified professional psychologists, working independently according to a plan agreed with a qualified psychologist and within the overall framework of the Integrated Learning Disabilities Services' policies and procedures.
To assist in clinically related administration, conduct of audits, collection of statistics, development of audit and/or research projects, teaching and project work. To work directly with individuals and groups of clients in the provision of psychologically based care.
To undertake protocol based psychological assessments of clients applying psychological (including neuropsychological) tests, self‑report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi‑structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client's care.
To assist in the formulation and delivery of care plans involving the psychological treatment and/or management of a client's problems, under the supervision of a qualified professional psychologist.
Where applicable, to assist in the coordination and running of therapeutic groups.
To work with other staff to assess clients and review their care in preparation for multi‑disciplinary reviews.
To attend and contribute to appropriate multi‑disciplinary meetings.
About us
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provides joined‑up mental and physical healthcare for around two million people across our communities. With over 13,000 staff working in the community and local hospitals, we deliver care at every stage of life, helping people live their best and healthiest lives.
Our mental health services include community‑based support and early intervention in psychosis (EIP) for both adults and young people, alongside a network of specialist inpatient wards covering forensic, learning disability, eating disorder and older person's care.
We deliver extensive physical health services too, from urgent community response teams helping frail and older patients remain safely at home, to hospitals at home teams providing acute‑level care in familiar surroundings. Our neurological services offer rehabilitation and treatment for conditions including Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, Motor Neurone Disease, Head Injury, Cerebral Palsy and Stroke. Across Hampshire, our community hospitals provide inpatient rehabilitation as a step down from acute care, and our dedicated teams also staff Treetops Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Portsmouth, offering expert, compassionate support.
Everything we do is underpinned by our CARE values of compassion, accountability, respect and excellence
Job responsibilities
To assist in the development of a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings where care takes place.
Requirement to cope with the emotional demands of working with individuals with complex needs, including challenging behaviours and forensic needs. This may include occasional verbal abuse and hostility.
Will be required to cope with periods of intense concentration for psychometric testing and client interviews and tolerate frequent distressing situations while providing therapy.
Will be required to undertake some lone working.
Establish and maintain positive professional relationships with service users, family, and carers.
Participate in maintaining positive working relationships with voluntary and statutory agencies and use shared process that are developed where this is of benefit to the service user.
Respond to crisis situations and unpredictable service user need across a range of situations.
To produce written reports relating to: assessments, interventions and at the point of closure. These should be made available to professionals, families/carers etc as well as ensuring that the report is produced in an understandable format for the person with a learning disability eg the use of pictorial aids. Some of the content may be of a highly sensitive nature.
Be able to regularly critically appraise the standard and effectiveness of their work through the use of supervision and Governance structures.
Further information about the Trust and this role can be found on the Job Description and Person Specification document attached. It is important to us that we ensure our recruitment processes are accessible and inclusive to everyone - if as a potential candidate you are concerned a person specification may prevent or restrict your application for employment as a result of unintentional barriers on the grounds of your sex, race, age, sexual orientation, religion/belief or disability please initially contact the Trust's Recruitment team - detailed in the advert. The Trust will seek to resolve this issue wherever possible.
We are happy to talk Flexible Working - all requests for flexible working options can be discussed as part of the interview process.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* An upper second-class honours degree or higher in psychology.
* Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society.
* Further post graduate training in relevant areas of professional psychology, mental health practice and/or research design and analysis.
Experience
* Work with people with a learning disability and/or mental health problems.
* Ability to work independently, reliably, and consistently with work agreed and managed at regular intervals.
* Experience of paid work in direct care provision.
* Experience of working with individuals with complex health needs and or challenging behaviour.
* Experience working as an assistant psychologist.
* Experience using computers for databases or data-analysis.
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.
Employer name
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
£28,392 to £31,157 a year. Please note for part time hours the salary will be pro rata
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