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Job description

Are you someone who cares passionately about research and improving the care and treatment for people with a variety of conditions?

If you are looking for an interesting challenge this may be the team for you.

Two exciting opportunities based in Bedfordshire & Luton have arisen for enthusiastic people to join the Research & Innovation team working to increase, facilitate, and sustain the delivery of high quality research studies at the East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT).

Both represent an excellent opportunity for a motivated and hardworking individual with ambitions for a career in mental health research or to gain hands on clinical research experience as part of our growing and friendly team. You should be able to transfer your previously gained health science knowledge, clinical skills and/ or lived experience of mental distress or of using mental health services to the role.

Research Assistant, RAPID Trial

Working closely with the Centre for Mental Health Research at City, University of London, your role will be to recruit and interview participants into the RAPID trial. RAPID (Remote Approaches to Psychosocial Interventions Delivery) is a three-year randomised controlled trial to evaluate the benefits of remotely delivered, brief psychosocial interventions (safety planning and peer support) designed to help people manage suicidal thoughts and reduce unhelpful psychiatric hospital admissions.

The role will involve working with clinicians from crisis and home treatment teams to support participant recruitment and retention to the trial, interviewing participants at baseline and at follow-up, and contributing to data entry and data management as part of the trial.

This role is for a fixed term of 18 months.

Clinical Studies Assistant

Working as part of a team of Clinical Studies Officers and Assistants, the main duties of the post-holder will be those concerned with identifying, recruiting and supporting service users through the research process as well as providing support as necessary to study teams and clinicians. They will actively promote research amongst clinicians, service users and the wider NHS.

The role is really varied, working across many different studies and with different teams.

This role is for an initial term of 12 months, with the potential for renewal.

Research at ELFT has influenced public and professional debates on policy and clinical issues in mental health care on local, national and international levels. The Trust has led over £20m in competitively awarded research grants and been shortlisted for the HSJ Award Clinical Research Impact for using DIALOG+ to improve patient outcomes in community mental health services. ELFT has a history of collaborative work with universities, including:

• partnering with Queen Mary, University of London on the research Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry, a designated World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre, and the only one specifically for 'mental health services development' in the world;
• fostering an award-winning lived experience advisory group with City, University of London: and
• a new strategic partnership with the University of Cambridge to help tackle major areas of unmet health needs in the community.

The successful applicants will be based at Charter House, Luton for supervision and training, although they will recruit across a variety of clinical specialties within the Trust so you must be willing to be mobile and flexible in your working practices. The roles involve frequent travel to crisis/home treatment teams, community mental health teams, and patient visits throughout Bedfordshire, as well as monthly team meetings which are often held in London.

Key responsibilities of theResearch Assistant, RAPID Trial are:

• To support patient recruitment and retention to the RAPID trial
• To undertake data collection and data management as specified in the RAPID research protocol
• To maintain high standards of communication conducive to effective team work and successful delivery of the research
• To ensure quality in the research process through adherence to all good practice standards and statutory requirements for research

The key responsibilities of the Clinical Studies Assistant is to support investigators to conduct clinical research at ELFT by:

• Working with investigators to support the setup of new studies in compliance with regulatory requirements and according to the protocol
• Identifying potential study participants from ELFT clinical services and encouraging their enrollment with fully informed consent
• Facilitating delivery of study procedures in line with the study protocol, performing assessments and follow-up of study participants
• Contributing to the development of a culture within the Trust where research is actively promoted at all levels.

These are both entry-level roles in the R&I team. Research experience is desirable, but training and supervision will be provided to a suitably enthusiastic clinical candidate. Duties will be allocated to the post-holder according to qualifications and experience, including collecting, analysing and reporting on research data pertaining to specific projects. There are many opportunities for team members to develop their research skills, with extensive support for CPD (continuing professional development).

This is a hybrid role, you have the opportunity to work independently from the office or your home. Staff will be expected to manage their own workload of recruiting, completing follow up appointments and timely administrative duties but also work as part of a team.

Please see the individual JDs (Job Description) and the shared PS (Personal Specification) for full details of each role's requirements.

Your supporting statement must start with three reasons to shortlist me and in no less than 300 words give those reasons relating back to specific examples which demonstrate your competency. If this section is not included, you will not be considered for shortlisting.

Interviews considering you for both roles will take place on Wednesday, 20 September 2023; please ensure you are available to attend on that date. If you have a preference between the roles, you will have an opportunity to express this at interview.