Job summary
- Main area
- Psychology
- Grade
- Band 4
- Contract
- 2 years (Fixed Term)
- Hours
- Full time
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 246-COR7795803
- Employer
- Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Weavers Centre, Hellesdon Hospital
- Town
- Norwich
- Salary
- £27,485 - £30,162 gross per annum/ pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 24/02/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Assistant Psychologist
Band 4
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust provides child and adult mental health services, learning disability, wellbeing, older people's and eating disorder services across Norfolk and Suffolk.
We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and want to reflect the diversity of our local communities within our teams. We welcome applications from all talented individuals with the relevant qualifications, skills, knowledge and experience
Job overview
We are seeking to recruit 2x 1.0WTE Band 4 Assistant Psychologist for a 2-year fixed term contract to join an expanding small and enthusiastic multidisciplinary team providing intensive support for autistic people accessing NSFT mental health services across Norfolk and Waveney.
You will have achieved at least a 2:1 degree in Psychology with Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership with the British Psychological Society. Within the AIS team you will be working clinically with a small caseload of autistic service users who are struggling with their mental health and presenting frequently within our urgent and emergency care pathways.
The AIS team are based at the Weaver’s Centre at Hellesdon Hospital, alongside the central locality crisis and home treatment team.
Main duties of the job
The overarching aims of the Autism Intensive Support (AIS) team are to reduce the number of and length of stay for autistic people in acute inpatient settings. The AIS team provide an intensive recovery-oriented approach, which is trauma-informed and autism-friendly to autistic service users directly and undertake consultation, supervision, and training for NSFT colleagues to improve the confidence and skill of mainstream mental health community and ward staff to deliver autism informed care.
This is a new team working with a small cohort of service users and we will be evaluating its impact. This will include feeding back to our commissioners in terms of clinical and social recovery outcomes for the service users. We will also be measuring the impact of the interventions in terms of service utilisation data.
The post holders will be responsible for providing time limited, focused psychological interventions and work in a psychologically informed way alongside NSFT MDT colleagues across inpatient and community settings for service users aged 18 and above. You would be supported to gain experience in providing CBT and DBT-informed interventions. The successful candidate will have excellent verbal and written communication skills, good organisational skills, and the ability to build positive working relationships with service users and colleagues.
Working for our organisation
Here at NSFT we pride ourselves on being a welcoming, talented, friendly and supportive team who like nothing better than sharing experiences and learning from each other. In addition to ongoing training and development opportunities, we are committed to providing an environment in which you can thrive.
Why work for us? We have challenges as a Trust, but we have ambitious aspirations, are pushing ahead with exciting transformation work and we need dedicated individuals to support us on our journey. We have strong, established professional networks coupled with an exceptional leadership team who will ensure you are truly cared for and cared about.
Why Norfolk and Suffolk? The people here are warm and welcoming, you’ll never be far from the beautiful coastline or Broads National Park. We’re an hour and a half away from London and have an international airport in Norwich too. Our villages, towns and cities are packed full of history, independent cafes, shops and theatres. We have excellent shopping, eating out, top ranking schooling and affordable house prices too.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
As this team covers a large geographical area, this role requires the ability to travel independently across Norfolk and Waveney to meet strict time deadlines for home visits, meetings, and appointments within community and inpatient services. You will therefore need to hold a full UK driving licence, preferably with use of a vehicle. We do have access to NSFT pool cars. You cannot use public transport for this role as this is not a reliable form of transport and will not allow you to meet service needs. Please confirm in your application that you meet these specified criteria.
We have close relationships with the Clinical Psychology Doctorate training course at the University of East Anglia and routinely offer placements to trainee clinical psychologists. We also have an excellent research department in the Trust.
Please find attached our Job Description and Person Specification for more detail on your Key Accountabilities, then if you feel you have what it takes to make a difference in your local communities, click APPLY!
Some of the benefits you can expect:
- NHS pension
- a comprehensive in house & external training programmes
- career progression
- starting annual leave of 27 days per annum increasing to 33 days pa based on length of service (plus paid bank holidays)
- staff physio service
- NHS discounts and many more.
Interview dates are yet to be set; you will be contacted via email and invited to book a time. These emails may go to your SPAM, so please keep checking all your emails if applying.
Please visit our Facebook and Twitter page @NSFTjobs
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- A 2:1 or above BPS accredited degree in Psychology
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of quantitative research
Desirable criteria
- Experience of research in the NHS
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Knowledge of mental health
- An understanding of psychology applied to health care
Desirable criteria
- An understanding of the needs of people with mental health difficulties
- An understanding of the needs or autistic people and reasonable adjustments
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
- Dr Jo Smith
- Job title
- Consultant Clinical Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Additional information
Ben Bertone, Neurodevelopmental Clinical Nurse Specialist, AIS Team
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