Job summary
- Main area
- Inpatient Psychology
- Grade
- Band 4
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 350-MHC8079887
- Employer
- Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Knowsley and Warrington locations
- Town
- Knowsley and Warrington
- Salary
- £28,392 - £31,157 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 28/06/2026 23:59
- Interview date
- 20/07/2026
Employer heading
Assistant Psychologist - Inpatient Psychology
Band 4
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Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnically diverse, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.
Using AI to support your application
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be a helpful tool when preparing your application, supporting you to organise and structure your application and present your experiences clearly. However, we want to hear about your experiences and achievements. Please ensure everything you submit is truthful, accurate, and reflects your own work and experience. Your authentic story is the best way to help us understand who you are and what you can bring to the role. If content appears to be copied or misrepresented, it may impact the outcome of your application. We encourage you to use AI responsibly as a support tool, not a substitute for your own voice.
For tips and guidance, please refer to our applicant guidance.
Your experiences matter, let them shine.
Applications that appear mostly or fully generated by AI, without clear personal examples linked to the person specification, may be rejected.
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Job overview
We are looking for Assistant Psychologists to work as an integral part of the inpatient psychology team on male and female inpatient units, older adult mental health units, and dementia assessment units. All roles will contribute to therapeutic activities and psychological interventions. There will be vacancies based in both Warrington (Hollins Park Hospital) and Prescot (Knowsley Resource and Recovery Centre).
You will support and enhance the professional psychological care of service users working as part of a multi-disciplinary team including psychology, psychiatry, nursing staff and occupational therapy. The team regularly work with other services including social care, community mental health teams, based on individual need. You will receive regular supervision as well as informal support from a qualified psychologist.
You will have excellent communication and interpersonal skills and will have demonstrated ability to work effectively as part of a team. Above all you must be passionate about working with adults with acute mental health difficulties.
Main duties of the job
Due to the complex and demanding nature of the role, you will ideally have previous experience in either a similar role and/or with a similar patient group.
The role will involve supporting psychological assessments and evidence based interventions under the supervision of a qualified Psychologist. Assistant Psychologists will work with the Psychologist in promoting psychological support on inpatient wards.
The Assistant Psychologist will deliver group and individual psychological interventions for service users on the ward. You will be expected to attend and contribute towards daily ward meetings and you will work hard to improve inpatient care focusing on enhancing the therapeutic environment.
There will be opportunities to support inpatient services in audit and research, in order to inform service development and support best practice. We have good links with the universities and MCFT research department and we will do our best to support this if this is your area of interest.
We have successful and established models of care on our inpatient wards. We have the Self Harm Pathway and Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) and you will be expected to support these pathways on the wards.
The successful applicants must have a degree in psychology, which confers Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership with the British Psychological Society (BPS).
Working for our organisation
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details and requirements of the role.
Person specification
QUALIFICATIONS:
Essential criteria
- A second class honours degree or higher in psychology or psychology as a main subject
- Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society
Desirable criteria
- Further post graduate training in relevant areas of professional psychology, mental health practice and/or research design and analysis.
KNOWLEDGE/EXPERIENCE:
Essential criteria
- A minimum of 12 months experience of work with people with mental health problems and/or other disabilities
- Experience of research evaluation and audit of the application of psychological principles to mental health problems
- High level communication skills (written and verbal) including an ability to communicate and work in settings in which the atmosphere may be highly emotive
- Experience using computers for databases or data-analysis
- Demonstrated high level ability to communicate sensitive information to service users, carers and colleagues in a way that facilitates engagement
- An understanding of the needs and difficulties of people with mental health problems or other disabilities
- A demonstrated ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to a mental health context
- Experience of teaching and training in the application of psychological principles to mental health problems.
Desirable criteria
- Experience as an Assistant Psychologist in a healthcare setting
- Experience of psychometric assessment
SKILLS
Essential criteria
- Experience in managing conflict, and balancing demand for resources with availability and prioritisation
- Experience of working with complex presentations
- Experience of taking decisions relating to the risk or safety of individuals and carrying professional responsibility for those decisions within a safeguarding and risk framework
- Clear experience of interacting effectively with staff from all disciplines
- An interest in working with people with mental health problems or other disabilities
- Ability to work with a high level of autonomy within the boundaries of the assistant role
- Ability to accept and use supervision appropriately and effectively
VALUES
Essential criteria
- Continuous Improvement
- Accountability
- Respect
- Enthusiasm
- Support
Employer certification / accreditation badges
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
- Dr Andi Jaeckel
- Job title
- Principal Clinical Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Additional information
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