Job summary
- Main area
- CYP Complex Needs Service
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 4
- Contract
- 2 years (Fixed term for 2 years)
- Hours
- Full time
- Home or remote working
- Job ref
- 274-11576-SP
- Employer
- Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Sleaford Area Office
- Town
- Sleaford
- Salary
- £27,485 - £30,162 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 21/08/2025 23:59
- Interview date
- 26/09/2025
Employer heading
Assistant Psychologist
NHS AfC: Band 4
Job overview
We are excited to be recruiting to a fixed term (24 months) Band 4 Assistant Psychology post in the Lincolnshire Children & Young People’s Complex Needs Service.
Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT) and Lincolnshire County Council’s Future4Me service have successfully developed a clinical psychology-led consultation, training, assessment and intervention model of working to enable Local Authority staff working with young people with the most complex needs (e.g. young offenders, Children in Care), to access timely clinical psychology consultation and formulation. The psychology consultations and formulations aim to help staff consider the possible impact of developmental trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) on a young person’s emotional and/or behavioural presentation, and help staff tailor their interventions accordingly and/or identify if additional help is needed.
The Service currently includes a Clinical and Strategic Lead, Specialist Clinical Psychologists, Speech & Language Therapists, Harmful Sexual Behaviour therapists and Children in Care workers.
Main duties of the job
You will support qualified staff in offering assessment, case formulation, consultation and training to all staff working with these complex and vulnerable young people and their families. You will also hold a small caseload of client based activities, depending on confidence and experience. You will have experience of working with young people or adolescents, preferably in a therapeutic setting, with experience of vulnerable populations being advantageous. Good communication and interpersonal skills will be essential as the post will involve offering training and psychological support to workers across the service.
The post is county wide and full time and the ability to travel across the county is essential although we will support you to keep this manageable.
There will be an expectation for some face to face work with children and young people and their carers and families. Your work base will be Sleaford Area Office, Eastgate, Sleaford, although some of your duties will be possible to undertake remotely, i.e. from home.
Working for our organisation
Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust provides mental health services and a number of learning disability, autism and social care services in the county of Lincolnshire. Employing around 2,900 staff, and serving a population of over 768,400, our people lie at the heart of everything we do.
You could be part of a Trust rated by staff as one of the best mental health and learning disability trusts in England. We firmly believe the key to high quality care is a contented workforce. This is reflected in our Care Quality Commission rating of ‘outstanding’ for well-led and ‘good’ overall. In the most recent National NHS Staff Survey, our staff rated us as the number one trust nationally for staff morale and one of the top scoring NHS Trusts in the Midlands for being compassionate and inclusive. We’re really proud of this!
We offer options for flexible working and provide a wide range of training and promotion opportunities in all professions. We support and celebrate diversity, have active staff networks groups and are always looking at what more we can do to support our staff.
Whether you’re taking the first exciting steps in your career, itching for a new challenge or searching for a better place to raise a family, Lincolnshire has a range of rewarding health and social care careers in a county that’s friendly, fascinating, affordable and brimming with everything you need to live a happy life. Visit beinlincolnshire.com to find out more.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see the job description and person specification for more detail.
When completing your application, please demonstrate how you meet the role criteria.
We can also offer you many staff benefits to help support you which include:
• Early access to Psychological Therapies and Physiotherapy
• Competitive annual leave allowance
• Car leasing scheme
• NHS pension scheme
• Free eye tests
• Money saving options through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Discounts on major high street retailers and restaurants
If you are interested in joining us, please contact Dr Nicola Silvester, Clinical & Strategic Lead, at [email protected] or Rachel Smith, Team Coordinator at [email protected].
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Honours Degree (minimum 2:1) in Psychology accredited by the British Psychological Society with Graduate Basis for Registration (GBR)
Desirable criteria
- Further post graduate training in relevant areas of professional psychology, mental health practice and/or research design and analysis
Experience
Essential criteria
- Relevant paid or voluntary work experience with young people (from 10 years old through into adolescents and early adulthood) and their families or an interest and enthusiasm in working with children & young people
- Knowledge of psychological assessments used with children and young people, including risk assessments
- Knowledge of recommended therapeutic interventions for use with children and young people with mental health, emotional, physical and/or learning difficulties
- Experience of providing presentation, teaching and training to other psychologists and other unqualified and qualified people
- Experience of working within a multi-disciplinary team and multi-agency settings
- Experience in developing and undertaking research projects or analysing and evaluating psychological practice in order to help shape personal, professional or service development
- Experience in writing reports that communicate complex and sensitive information to a range of audiences
Desirable criteria
- Experience of working with young people where there are psychological concerns; mental health concerns; learning needs or who have experienced abuse & trauma
- Experience of working with complex young people (and their families), such as those that have come in contact with the Criminal Justice System & Local Authority Care or those where there are concerns about Sexually Harmful Behaviours or Child Sexual Exploitation
- Experience of completing psychological assessments used with children and young people, including risk assessments, taking into account the context of their living situations to develop working formulations
- Experience of developing and providing therapeutic interventions and intervention packages to young people
- Demonstrate knowledge of at least 1 psychological model or approach
- Experience of providing psychological advice to parents and carers and staff concerning the care and/or therapeutic provision for children and young people
- Experience in research projects, audits or service evaluations that have contributed towards policy and service development forums in order to propose changes and developments to services
Skills
Essential criteria
- A high level of interpersonal skills, including the ability to build good working relationships with service users, colleagues and staff
- An ability to communicate highly complex / sensitive information to service users and their carers and to relevant staff in a constructive and understandable way
- The ability to deal sensitively and constructively when in highly emotive and/or hostile situations – with service users, carers, staff ensuring a good knowledge of potential barriers to understanding and engagement thus having the ability to adjust modes of communication accordingly
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Ability to use a computer to communicate by e-mail; to keep up-to-date client records and data systems in accordance with the Health Trust’s, HCPC’s and BPS’ guidance; to respond to and interpret a range of performance reports and data
- Ability to work independently and as part of a team, but to balance this with the ability to seek help and guidance as appropriate
Desirable criteria
- Experience in building good working relationships with service users, colleagues and staff that are hard to engage
- Ability to cope with and deal with highly distressing or highly emotional circumstances relating to clinical cases e.g. family breakdown; child abuse; dealing with young people with severely challenging behaviours
- Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to “hold” the stress of others
- Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings
- Experience of or training in using Client Management Systems for recording clinical information
Employer certification / accreditation badges
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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
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Rachel Smith
- Job title
- Team Coordinator
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 077976 950239
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