Job summary
- Main area
- Adult & Specialist Mental Health
- Grade
- Band 5
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 310-ASMH-8235239-A
- Employer
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- The Cavell Centre
- Town
- Bretton Gate, Peterborough
- Salary
- £32,073 - £39,043 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 21/10/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Assistant Psychologist
Band 5
Job overview
This is a great opportunity to work within our inpatient mental health psychology service and to work alongside psychologists, psychiatrists, junior doctors, OTs, nurses, social workers and physiotherapists, in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
Our innovative Adult Mental Health acute wards comprise Admission, Treatment, Recovery and PICU ward as well as MOD patients. Our inpatient pathways are based on a model that admissions should be Necessary, Values Based and Appropriate and aim to work closely with the community services to facilitate discharge.
Working within this unique acute care system enables you to:
- Focus on developing specific skills and further develop expertise in assessment, treatment and supporting recovery.
- Improve and enhance collaborative working across the acute care system, using psychological thinking to improve the understanding of the person.
- Contribute to the reputation and image of our treatment system, resulting in an increased sense of pride in our place of work.
The post-holder will provide support to adults with a mental health diagnosis. The therapy will be provided as a part of the multi-disciplinary team approach to optimise individual functional outcomes.
The post-holder will deliver different forms of psychological interventions to patients recovering from an episode of mental health illness in either an individual or group setting. The post-holder will be based at The Cavell Centre, in Peterborough.
Main duties of the job
To support and enhance the professional psychological care of adults with a mental health diagnosis. Working across all sectors of care providing psychological assessment and psychological interventions under the supervision of a qualified professional psychologist, working independently according to a plan agreed with a qualified psychologist and within the overall framework of the Team’s policies and procedures.
To assist in clinically-related administration, conducting audits, collection of data and statistics, development of audit and/or research projects, teaching and project work.
Working for our organisation
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health and social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health and wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting and empowering them to lead fulfilling lives.
Our clinical teams deliver a wide range of NHS services across inpatient, primary care and community settings, including children’s, adult and older people’s mental health, forensic and specialist mental health, learning disabilities, primary care and liaison psychiatry, substance misuse, social care, and research and development.
To achieve our goals, we recruit high calibre candidates who share our vision and values. As an equal opportunities’ employer, we welcome applications from all sections of the community, particularly under represented groups including people with long term conditions and members of our ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities.
All appointments are subject to the successful completion of a probationary period.
Please note we reserve the right to close adverts early should we receive sufficient applications.
Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all roles. If you apply for a post that does not attract sponsorship, your application will be withdrawn from the process.
For further information on CPFT, please visit our website at https://www.cpft.nhs.uk
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities.
- To provide a direct service using psychological intervention and assessment tools, under supervision of the Clinical Psychologist.
- To support the Clinical Psychologists in preparation of team formulation sessions, i.e. completing file reviews and dissemination of formulation.
- To facilitate group work, including psychoeducation, CBT. DBT and ACT informed sessions. This may include co-facilitating groups alongside other members of the MDT.
- To facilitate individual psychological work, under the supervision of the Clinical Psychologist.
- Where indicated to carry out Brief Psychological Interventions, including Anxiety Management, Behavioural Activation and Distress Tolerance.
- To support completion of Cognitive Screening assessments and in some circumstances more detailed neuro-psychological assessments.
Person specification
Education/Qualifications
Essential criteria
- An upper-second class honours degree or higher in psychology.
- Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society (BPS).
Desirable criteria
- A Master’s degree and/or enrolled in a Master’s course recognised by the British Psychological Society.
Other
Essential criteria
- Recognise peoples right to privacy and dignity, treating every person with respect.
- Willingness to be flexible in approach and attitude.
Knowledge & Understanding
Essential criteria
- Enthusiastic, self-motivated, responsible
- Able to contain and work with high levels of distress from service users.
- Capable of working effectively as part of a multi-disciplinary team.
- Ability to maintain confidentiality in all aspects of the work (clinical, research).
Skills & Abilities
Essential criteria
- An understanding of the needs and difficulties of people with mental health problems and other disabilities.
- Ability to communicate (orally and in writing) highly complex, highly clinically sensitive and condition-related information to patients, families and other professionals.
- Experience of maintaining working relationships and a high degree of professionalism in the face of often highly emotive and distressing problems.
- An ability to apply existing psychological knowledge, underpinned by theory, to a mental health context.
- Ability to adapt style and/or intervention strategies to meet the challenges of complex and highly sensitive situations.
- Ability to maintain a high degree of ethical and professional standards.
Desirable criteria
- Knowledge of the literature on psychosis.
- Knowledge of the literature pertaining to personality disorder.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of working with adults with mental health difficulties.
- Experience of delivering psychologically informed groups.
- Practical working knowledge of at least one relevant psychological approach e.g. CBT.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of working in inpatient mental health settings.
- Experience of completing risk assessments.
- Experience of working with patients with cognitive difficulties.
- Experience of psychometric testing, scoring and report writing.
- Experience of working with challenging behaviour.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
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Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Pedro Areias Grilo
- Job title
- Consultant Clinical Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 01733 218611
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