Job vacancy: Assistant Psychologist - Clinical Research - Sleeping Better, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford

Job summary

Main area: Psychology
Grade: Band 5
Contract: Fixed term: 12 months (with the possibility of extension subject to funding)
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref: 267-CS7371044

Employer: Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type: NHS
Site: New Radcliffe House
Town: Oxford
Salary: £31,049 - £37,796 per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 18/08/2025 23:59

Assistant Psychologist - Clinical Research - Sleeping Better

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

The primary base will be in the Oxford Cognitive Approaches to Psychosis (O-CAP) team in the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford. Although based at Oxford and delivering therapy primarily remotely, you are likely to travel to collaborating NHS trusts and project sites.

Interested applicants will find the type of work described in these two publications:

Waite, F., Černis, E., Kabir, T., Iredale, E., Johns, L., Maughan, D., ... & Freeman, D. (2023). A targeted psychological treatment for sleep problems in young people at ultra-high risk of psychosis in England (SleepWell): a parallel group, single-blind, randomised controlled feasibility trial. The Lancet Psychiatry, 10(9), 706-718.

Freeman, D., & Waite, F. (2025). Sleep and circadian difficulties in schizophrenia: presentations, understanding, and treatment. Psychological Medicine, 55, e47.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Degree in Psychology 2.1 or above

Experience

Essential criteria

Experience of psychological research

Desirable criteria

Experience of working within NHS mental health clinical teams
Experience working with patients with psychosis or young people at ultra-high-risk of psychosis
Experience of working within the guidelines of the Data Protection Act and an understand of the code of ethics and confidentiality in research

Knowledge & Skills

Essential criteria

Ability to engage young people and patients having experiences such as paranoia, hearing voices, anxiety and depression
Interest and knowledge of psychosis

Desirable criteria

Knowledge of clinical trials methodology and experimental psychology.

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

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

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name

Dr Felicity Waite

Job title

Consultant Clinical Psychologist

Email address

[email protected]

Telephone number

01865 618192

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

Assistant Psychologist - Clinical Research - Sleeping Better

Band 5

Job overview

Main duties of the job

Working for our organisation

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Experience

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Knowledge & Skills

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

Documents to download

Further details / informal visits contact

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