Go back South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Assistant Psychologist
The closing date is 21 October 2025
This is an exciting and unique opportunity to join the newly developed Forensic Intellectual and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (FIND) Community Team in South London and Maudsley (SLaM).
The FIND Team will provide safe transition for inpatients discharged from the inpatient Forensic Services to the community providing specialist assessment, treatment and consultation to the Forensic Service in order to ensure a smooth, safe and clinically justified pathway to individuals with mental illness, offending history and learning disability with or without neurodevelopmental disorder.
The three forensic services of SLaM, South West London and St Georges( SWLSTG), and Oxleas together comprise the South London Mental Health and Community Partnership (SLP). The SLP's overarching goals centre on bringing care closer to home, improving patient pathways and outcomes by delivering excellent care in better environments. The SLP has a track record of delivering highly effective, clinically informed service developments in order to better meet the needs of service-users. The FIND provision is one such development and the SLaM FIND Team will therefore work closely with the FIND Teams in each of the other Trusts in order to expedite service-user's transition through inpatient settings to community provision.
Main duties of the job
The post-holder will support and enhance the professional psychological care of clients of the FIND service. The postholder will assist the Practitioner Psychologists, in the delivery of a specialist applied psychology service, including the provision of clinical work as required by the service, under the direct guidance, close clinical and professional supervision of a practitioner psychologist.
Clinical work is likely to involve carrying out psychological assessments, including risk assessments, and circumscribed individual interventions, under the supervision of a qualified professional psychologist.
The post-holders will support and facilitate the provision of psycho-educational and mental health and offending behaviour groups, assist in clinically-related administration, the conduct of audits, collection of statistics, development of audit and/or research projects, teaching and project work.
More generally, the postholder will assist the psychologists and other members of the multidisciplinary team in developing a therapeutic environment for clients of the FIND service. The postholder will work following clinical guidelines and the policies and procedures of the service, according to a plan agreed with a qualified psychologist and within the overall framework of the team's policies and procedures.
About us
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark.
We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good'.
We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone's potential as change makers.
The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.
Job responsibilities
KR 1 Clinical and Client Care
To provide psychological assessments for clients the FIND Service under the close supervision of a practitioner psychologist including Psychometric Assessments, Risk Assessments, Behavioural Assessments, Needs Assessments.
To provide protocol-based individual psychological interventions for clients of the FIND Service.
To arrange, schedule, and provide protocol-based group psychological interventions for clients of the FIND Service.
To assist the psychologists in the development of individual or group clinical materials or training materials.
To co-facilitate psycho-education, Mental Health and Offending Behaviour Interventions.
KR 2 Contributing to team or service clinical functioning
To contribute to the effective working of the FIND Service by contributing to the training and support of other staff in developing and providing psychological care of clients.
To act in a manner that supports a psychologically informed framework for the service.
To participate in the team or services delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
To be primarily community-based to support with the work of the FIND Service, contributing to 1:1s with clients in order to meet their psychological needs.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* oA First-class or Upper-second-class Bachelors degree with Honours in Psychology (or related behavioural science) that is accredited by the British Psychological Society and confers the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership of the British Psychological Society
* oRelevant specialist training in relation to working with learning disabilities, neurodevelopmental conditions, mental health challenges, personality disorders, challenging behaviour, offending behaviour, culture & diversity needs or personality difficulties
Experience
* oSufficient post-graduate experience of psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs in forensic mental health services to be able to work clinically with close direct supervision
* oPost-graduate experience of conducting research projects or audits
* oExperience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities. This may have been gained through work, research, volunteering and / or lived experience
* oExperience of working with service users in secure care or the community with learning disabilities or neurodevelopmental conditions
* oExperience of working with service users with mental health disorders, and risk of harm to self or others
* oExperience of working across a range of clinical settings, including primary, secondary and in-patient care
* Experience of working with service users in Forensic settings
Knowledge
* oGraduate level knowledge of psychological research methodology and statistical analysis
* oGood theoretical knowledge of the problems experienced by and the needs of forensic mental health service users and of methods of assessment and treatment
* oAwareness of racial and diversity issues through attendance of relevant training
* oKnowledge of working with people with learning disabilities and / or neurodevelopmental conditions, challenging behaviour, offending behaviour, culture & diversity needs or personality difficulties
* oKnowledge around risk of harm to self or others
Skills
* oSkills in relevant psychological assessment and interventions that enable working as a pre-qualified practitioner with close clinical supervision
* oWell-developed verbal and written communication skills including communicating complex, sensitive or contentious information to clients, families and colleagues
* oSkills in providing/supporting teaching and training provided by psychologists or others to other professional groups
* oWell-developed IT skills including entry and analysis of research data
* oExperience of data collection, analysis and interpretation
* oPost-graduate experience of conducting research projects or audits
abilities
* oAbility to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles.
* oAbility to identify and follow relevant clinical governance procedures.
* oAbility to maintain concentration and to remain in restricted positions for long periods during observations, assessments and psychological interventions
* oAbility to manage emotionally stressful situations such as working with victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self-harming or aggressive behaviour
* oAbility to communicate complex, sensitive or contentious information to people who may be aroused, or hostile to the information, or have severe impediments to understanding
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.
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
£32,199 to £34,876 a yearper annum Incl. of HCAs
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