Assistant Psychologist

The closing date is 23rd Aug 2026

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Job summary

Are you an innovative and creative aspiring psychologist who thrives in a fast-paced environment focussed on development and change? We want you to work with us!

Antelope House is a modern acute mental health inpatient and psychiatric intensive care unit. We offer high quality, recovery focused care to adults with a range of mental health needs, across inpatient and crisis services. We work transdiagnostically with a range of presentations, including psychosis, trauma, and relational difficulties.

You will contribute to the implementation of the Comprehend, Cope and Connect (CCC) approach as we continue to embed this within the service. Our Assistant Psychologist will provide support to both qualified and pre-qualified psychology staff in delivering assessment, formulation and direct interventions.

A key part of the role will be in supporting the implementation of our group programme. With appropriate support and supervision, there will be opportunities for direct work with service users within individual and group settings, and you will contribute to the screening and prioritisation of referrals.

You will receive weekly clinical supervision from a qualified psychologist. We work closely alongside other local psychological services, offering a rich network of both qualified and pre-qualified psychologists.

The advert will close once a specified number of candidates have applied.

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Main duties, tasks & skills required

The Assistant Psychologist will be required to support and enhance the professional psychological care of clients within the service, across all sectors of care; providing psychological assessment and psychological interventions under the supervision of a more senior psychologist, working independently according to an agreed plan and within the overall framework of the team's policies and procedures. The Assistant Psychologist will also assist in clinically related administration, collection of statistics, development of audit and/or research projects across the service, teaching and project work.

Our Assistant Psychologists act as a key 'link' between the psychology team and an inpatient ward, offering a high level of visibility and presence to support patients to engage with psychological work. A large part of the role involves the delivery of our group programmes, which integrate theory and skills from a range of modalities and approaches. They also support our music therapist in the delivery of their group programme.

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About us

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provides joined-up mental and physical healthcare for around two million people across our communities. With over 13,000 staff working in the community and local hospitals, we deliver care at every stage of life, helping people live their best and healthiest lives.

Our mental health services include community-based support and early intervention in psychosis (EIP) for both adults and young people, alongside a network of specialist inpatient wards covering forensic, learning disability, eating disorder and older person's care.

We deliver extensive physical health services too, from urgent community response teams helping frail and older patients remain safely at home, to hospitals at home teams providing acute-level care in familiar surroundings. Our neurological services offer rehabilitation and treatment for conditions including Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, Motor Neurone Disease, Head Injury, Cerebral Palsy and Stroke. Across Hampshire, our community hospitals provide inpatient rehabilitation as a step down from acute care, and our dedicated teams also staff Treetops Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Portsmouth, offering expert, compassionate support.

Everything we do is underpinned by our CARE values of compassion, accountability, respect and excellence

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Job description

Further information about the Trust and this role can be found on the Job Description and Person Specification document attached. It is important to us that we ensure our recruitment processes are accessible and inclusive to everyone - if as a potential candidate you are concerned a person specification may prevent or restrict your application for employment as a result of unintentional barriers on the grounds of your sex, race, age, sexual orientation, religion/belief or disability please initially contact the Trust's Recruitment team - detailed in the advert. The Trust will seek to resolve this issue wherever possible.

We are happy to talk Flexible Working - all requests for flexible working options can be discussed as part of the interview process.

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Person specification

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Qualifications

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Essential

An upper second class honours degree or higher in psychology

Entitlement to Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) from the British Psychological Society

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Desirable

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

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Experience

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Essential

Work with adults with severe and enduring mental health problems

Experience of paid work in direct care provision

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Desirable

Previous experience of having worked as an Assistant Psychologist under the supervision of a qualified psychologist

Experience of clinical audit and or service based research

Experience and or training in diversity awareness and social inequality.

Broad knowledge and understanding of working within the CCC framework

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Additional Criteria

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Essential

High level communication skills (written and verbal) including an ability to communicate and work in settings in which the atmosphere may be highly emotive

Ability to communicate sensitive information to patients, carers and colleagues in a way that addresses psychological resistance

To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner with people who may have specific difficulties in understanding and/or communicating and who may be hostile, antagonistic or highly emotionally disturbed

High standard of report writing

An understanding of the needs and difficulties of people with mental health problems or other disabilities

An ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to a mental health context

An understanding of psychology applied to health care

An ability to interact effectively with staff from all disciplines

An ability to interact with people with mental health problems and their carers

Ability to work independently, reliably and consistently with work agreed and managed at regular intervals

Ability to accept and use supervision appropriately and effectively

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Desirable

Experience using computers for databases or data-analysis, especially SPSS

An interest in working with people with severe and enduring mental health problems or other disabilities

A desire to explore a career in Professional Psychology

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Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

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For help with your application, contact:
Dr Rose Hooper

[email protected]

02380835500

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Pay scheme

Agenda for Change

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Band

Band 5

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Salary

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£32073.00 to £39043.00 Yearly

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Contract

Permanent

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Working pattern

Full-Time

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Reference number

348-SAC-12165

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Job locations

Antelope House

Brintons Terrace

Southampton

Hampshire

SO14 0YG

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Attachments

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Job Description

B5 Assistant Psychologist JDPS.pdf – 350KB Opens in a new window

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Additional document 1

EmployeeBenefits_hiowh_v1-compressed_3.pdf – 1001KB Opens in a new window

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