Assistant Psychologist Oxford, England
Job description
Job Purpose
- To support the administration needs of the service, including liaising with clients, their families and schools and other professionals involved in their care.
- To assist practitioner psychologists in the delivery of a specialist applied psychology services at Oxford ADHD & Autism Centre.
- To provide clinical work as required by the service, under the direct guidance, close clinical and professional supervision of a practitioner psychologist.
- To assist in clinically related administration, conduct of audits, collection of statistics, development of audit and/or research projects, teaching and project work.
- To work following clinical guidelines and the policies and procedures of the service, while closely supervised and regularly seeking help from clinical/professional supervisor or manager.
Overview
Oxford ADHD & Autism Centre provide a service to children and adults including complex specialist psychological assessment, formulation and treatment. The successful applicant will be expected to contribute to the multidisciplinary diagnostic assessment process for patients referred to the service, and assist in the ongoing clinical audit. They will maintain excellent communication with other disciplines and agencies working with the Centre to ensure that best practice is shared, and to promote the use of effective psychological interventions. This is an exciting opportunity for those looking to gain experience working with young people and adults across a range of difficulties from assessment to intervention.
Key Responsibilities:
Clinical and Patient Care
- To administer and write up psychological assessments for patients at the clinic under the close supervision of a practitioner psychologist, such as Psychometric assessments, eg; WISC-V and Autism Spectrum Disorder examinations, eg; ADOS-2 (depending on training and experience). The Centre supports professional development and training opportunities.
- To provide evidence based individual psychological interventions for patients at the clinic for a range of difficulties, such as ADHD, ASD, anxiety and depression, under the supervision of a clinical psychologist.
- To arrange, schedule and co-facilitate evidence-based group psychological interventions for patients as required.
- To assist clinical psychologists in the development of individual or group clinical materials or training materials.
Contributing to team or service clinical functioning
- To contribute to the effective working of the clinic by dealing with telephone queries; screening new referrals; preparing, collating and reviewing reports or clinical letters; registering new referrals; preparing paperwork for forthcoming appointments; scoring and interpreting screening questionnaires; responding to email queries as appropriate; general administration (including proof-reading of reports); appointment booking; creating databases to track processes or progress through pathways and keeping them up-to-date.
- To act in a manner that supports a psychologically informed framework for the service.
Teaching and Training
- To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations or published articles to clients, Centre staff or external professionals.
- To keep up to date with mandatory training.
- To attend relevant training provided by the Centre.
Record-keeping and Information Governance
- To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Oxford ADHD & Autism Centre policies and procedures.
- Under the supervision of the practitioner psychologist to maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and clinic guidelines, including electronic data entry.
- To maintain data bases and enter data, and perform analyses and produce reports.
Research and development
- To assist in the design and implementation of audit and research projects, training provision and research activities under the supervision of qualified clinicans.
- To undertake data collection, analysis, the production of reports and summaries, using IT and statistical programmes, such as SPSS.
- To undertake searches of evidence-based literature and research to assist in the development in the Centre of evidence-based practice.
- Under guidance to conduct surveys with service users and carers to gather views on service provision.
Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development
- To receive regular clinical and professional supervision in accordance with professional practice guidelines
- To develop skills and competencies that assist in the delivery of current duties.
- To undertake personal training relevant to the post in agreement with the supervising psychologist and the manager.
General
- To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the patient group, and follow Centre policies relating to its management.
- To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations and to support others involved in such situations.
- To work flexibly which may include offering some regular commitment to late clinics or Saturday working, within the overall Job Plan.
Review
These duties are intended to be a guide to the post and should not be considered exhaustive. It is subject to review, depending on the needs of the department. The post holder will be encouraged to participate in any such review. The Centre is committed to regular performance appraisal (including setting objectives for review annually) and agreement of personal development plans for all staff to enhance their ability to fulfil the requirements of their post.
Person Specification
Qualifications and Professional Registration - essential
- A First-class or Upper-second-class Bachelors degree with Honours in Psychology that is accredited by the British Psychological Society and confers the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership of the British Psychological Society. Candidates without an Upper-second-class but with an MSc of a merit of better will also be considered.
Knowledge
- Graduate level knowledge of psychological research methodology and statistical analysis.
- Good theoretical knowledge of the problems experienced by and needs of patients with neurodevelopmental disorders and of methods of assessment and treatment.
- Awareness of racial and diversity issues through attendance of relevant training.
Experience
- Sufficient post-graduate experience of psychological assessment and treatment of patients with a range of psychological needs to be able to work clinically with close direct supervision.
- Post-graduate experience of conducting research projects or audits.
- Experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities. This may have been gained through work, research, volunteering and / or lived experience.
Skills
- Skills in relevant psychological assessment and interventions that enable working as a pre-qualified practitioner with close clinical supervision.
- Well-developed verbal and written communication skills including communicating complex, information to patients, families and colleagues.
- Skills in providing supporting teaching and training provided by psychologists or others to other professional groups.
- Well-developed IT skills including entry and analysis of research data.
Abilities
- Ability to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team, participating in effective team functioning and holding team roles.
- Ability to identify and follow relevant clinical governance procedures.
- Ability to maintain concentration and to remain in restricted positions for long periods during observations, assessments and psychological interventions.
- Ability to manage occasional emotionally stressful situations such as working with victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in self-harming or aggressive behaviour.
- Ability to communicate complex, sensitive or contentious information to people who may have impediments to understanding.
- Ability to manage verbal abuse and hostility directed at self.
Policies and Procedures
Employees are expected to follow Oxford ADHD & Autism policies, procedures and guidance as well as professional standards and guidelines. Copies of our policies can be accessed via the Practice Manager. In particular, attention is drawn to the Centre’s arrangements in relation to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. All employees are expected to be familiar with the Centre’s approach to risk management, take a risk management approach to their own work and take responsibility for the management of the risks they own.
Confidentiality
Much of our work is of a confidential nature. This means that no discussion should take place about the care, needs, or activities of any service user, except in the clear interest of that service user or other members of staff. Staff are reminded that personal information concerning colleagues is also confidential.
Equality and Diversity
Oxford ADHD & Autism Centre is committed to the fair treatment of all people, regardless of their gender, gender re-assignment, race, colour, ethnicity, ethnic or national origin, citizenship, religion, beliefs, disability, mental health needs, age, domestic circumstances, social class, sexual orientation, ex-offender status, political allegiance or trades union membership. The Centre requires all of its employees to treat all of its stakeholders including colleagues, service users, carers and their visitors with dignity and respect.
Job Types: Full-time, Permanent
Salary: £21,892.00-£24,157.00 per year
Schedule:
- 8 hour shift
- Monday to Friday
Licence/Certification:
- HCPC (preferred)
Work Location: One location
Application deadline: 26/02/2023
Reference ID: Assistant Psychologist
