Job vacancy: Senior Assistant Psychologist - Bucks At Risk Mental State Service, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Aylesbury

Job summary

Main area: Adult Mental Health
Grade: Band 5
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref: 267-BM7395585

Employer: Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type: NHS
Site: The Whiteleaf Centre (and across the county)
Town: Aylesbury
Salary: £31,049 - £37,796 Per Annum
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 02/09/2025 23:59
Interview date: 17/09/2025

Senior Assistant Psychologist - Bucks At Risk Mental State Service

Band 5

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has been rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

We are a responsive and innovative Foundation Trust that places our values of Caring, Safe and Excellent at the heart of everything we do. We take great pride in our staff and believe that investing in you is key to us achieving our vision of outstanding care delivered by outstanding people.

We work with a wide range of partner organisations to deliver care and support to people in their own homes and from a number of hospitals and community bases. We focus on delivering care as close to home as possible for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.

We actively support anti-racism, equality, diversity, and inclusion so, if you’re excited about this job opportunity and you meet our Trust values, but feel unsure about applying, then please get in touch and we will be happy to have a conversation with you.

We are also committed to increasing diversity in the workforce, that is why we actively encourage applications from those groups of people who are currently under-represented, which include amongst others: people with disabilities; men from all socio-economic backgrounds; people from diverse ethnic backgrounds; and people from the LGBTQIA+ community.

Good luck and we hope to hear from you.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For this Senior Assistant Psychologist post we are seeking applicants who have previous experience in a similar role as this post has additional responsibilities. Due to the complexity of the client group, and the duties of the role, this post is suitable for applicants with previous experience of working with people with mental health difficulties.

We hope that the advert has given you a clear understanding of the skills we are seeking and the opportunity at hand. You will need to use the “supporting statement” element of your application form to demonstrate your suitability for this role and you should refer to the job description, person specification and the guidance notes attached to this role to help you tailor your application.

The essential and desirable criteria will be used to shortlist for interview and you should ensure that you refer to these within your application to increase your chances of being selected for interview.

We are aware that some candidates may choose to use AI tools to support their application. We kindly remind applicants that submissions should remain an honest and accurate representation of their experience and must take care to ensure the use of AI tools does not generate an application that does not accurately reflect their knowledge, skills and values.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• An upper second class honours degree or higher in psychology.

Desirable criteria

• Further post graduate training in relevant areas of professional psychology, mental health practice and/or research design and analysis.

Knowldge

Essential criteria

• Able to develop effective therapeutic alliances, communicate and explore sensitive information with service users. • Able to interact well within multidisciplinary teams • High level of written communication skills / report writing

Desirable criteria

• Evidence of reflective use of supervision • Experience and skill with research/data entry/analysis • Experience working within clinical records systems such as Rio

Experience

Essential criteria

• Work with people with mental health problems and/or other disabilities specifically anxiety and depression.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of paid work providing direct care provision • Experience of working with psychosis • Experience of working with families

All new starters have a thorough induction process, both local and Trust wide, which aims to create a positive supportive working environment allowing new employees to learn key elements of their role over a reasonable timescale.
Appointment to this post is subject to the trust receiving satisfactory references covering 3 years of employment or study. Please ask your referees to respond promptly to reference requests.
We’re advocates of flexible working and many of our roles offer a range of employment options to help you balance your work and personal life.
Employees are expected to undertake mandatory and statutory training related to their role.
We are ambitious in our pursuit of excellence, driven by the belief that a fair, just and fully inclusive organisational culture enables our teams to deliver the best quality of care and services possible and we work hard to ensure that our diverse workforce reflects the communities that we serve.
We welcome applications from all sections of the community, are an Equal Opportunities employer with a number of internal networking groups to support our employees and where possible will always look to make reasonable adjustments in order that you can fulfil the role to recognise your full potential. All our employees are committed to demonstrating through their behaviour our core values – safe, caring and excellent.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, we expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
Oxford is a world-renowned centre of excellence for research. Oxford Health works closely with the University of Oxford department of Psychiatry and the Department of Primary care, has a Biomedical Research Centre dedicated to improving mental health and the NIHR Clinical Research Facility at the Warneford site. The Trust also hosts the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) which carries out applied research that directly impacts patient health and wellbeing

Mindful employer. Being positive about mental health.

Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) - Gold

Applicant requirements

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

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name

Dr Helena Laughton-Curwell

Job title

Consultant Counselling Psychologist

Email address

[email protected]

Telephone number

07833686436

Additional information

At Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust we want to employ people not just with experience, but with the aptitude and motivation to succeed and whose values resonate with our own.

Therefore, if you don’t meet all the requirements of the role and are unsure about applying but are excited about the opportunity, please do get in touch. We will be happy to discuss the requirements in more detail ahead of making a written application.

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Job summary

Employer heading

Senior Assistant Psychologist - Bucks At Risk Mental State Service

Band 5

Job overview

Main duties of the job

Working for our organisation

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Knowldge

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Experience

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

Documents to download

Further details / informal visits contact

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