Job overview

This post for an Assistant Psychologist to join established psychology team in Adult Mental Health.  The overall aim of this post is to increase access to psychological support for homeless people and the staff who work with them.  

The main aims of the post are to work alongside individuals who are homeless, who have often had difficult experiences in their interactions with the NHS and many have experienced significant trauma in their life. Many of our service users have multiple and complex needs including mental health difficulties, substance use dependence and/ or cognitive impairments.

 We promote a trauma and attachment informed model of care and our service is open to both staff and service users within the homelessness context. To enable access to services we work as an advocate for service users and staff with multiple agencies to ensure their needs are met, and we have developed good relationships to enable this. Engagement is a core element of the role, with service users, staff teams and multiple agencies, and we were short listed for an NHS award in 2025 due to our cross boundary working.

This post is a fixed term/secondment for 8 months until 31st March 2027 to meet the needs of the service.  If you are interested in applying for the secondment position, you must obtain permission from your current line manager prior to applying for this post.     

Main duties of the job

• Organise and facilitate drop-ins for staff and service users who are experiencing homelessness in community environments where they reside/ attend.
• Engagement is a key element of this role, and being alongside people when they are ready to engage.
• Assessment of needs, including cognitive assessments, and appropriate sign-posting and advocacy to meet identified needs, under the supervision of a practitioner psychologist.
• Escalating concerns regarding risk and complex needs and working within your competencies.
• Individual and group interventions within the hostels and drop-ins.
• Supporting the ongoing implementation of psychologically informed environments in the hostels offering team formulation, reflective practice and critical incident debriefing.
• Involvement in the delivery of G-REP, an EMDR based approach to resilience building, to all staff working in the homeless sector
• Interface with NHS services and other agencies, ensuring reasonable adjustments are made and advocating for individuals.
• Applying a trauma and attachment informed approach to all aspects of the role.
• Accessing supervision and appropriate training.
• Due to the funding of this service, we provide ongoing evaluation of our work to commissioners and other interested parties, which you would have a lead role in compiling and presenting data for stakeholders.
• Involvement in the activities of the broader ABUHB Adult Psychology Service.

Working for our organisation

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board is a multi-award-winning NHS organisation with a passion for caring. The Health Board provides an exceptional workplace where you can feel trusted and valued. Whatever your specialty or stage in your career, we have opportunities for everyone to start, grow and build your career. The health board provides integrated acute, primary and community care serving a population of 650,000 and employing over 16,000 staff.

We offer a fantastic benefits package and extensive training and development opportunities with paid mandatory training, excellent in-house programmes, opportunities to complete recognised qualifications and professional career pathways including a range of management development programmes. We offer flexible working and promote a healthy work life balance, provide occupational health support and an ambitious plan for a Wellbeing Centre of Excellence to support you at work.

Our Clinical Futures strategy continues to enhance and promote care closer to home as well as high quality hospital care when needed. Join us on our journey to pioneer new ways of working and deliver a world-class healthcare service fit for the future.