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Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

About
At Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (GHC), we provide joined-up mental health, physical health and learning disability services to people of all ages across Gloucestershire. We run community hospitals and provide care and support in people’s own homes and in a range of other locations across the county.
Contact
- Address
- Edward Jenner Court
- Gloucester Business Park
- Brockworth
- Gloucestershire
- GL3 4AW
- Contact Number
- 0300 421 8333
Assistant Psychology
Accepting applications until: 12-Oct-2025 23:59
Vacancy status: Open
Accepting applications until: 12-Oct-2025 23:59
Key details
Location
- Site
- Inpatient Recovery Units, Cheltenham and Wotton Lawn Hospital, Gloucester
- Address
- Swindon Road
- Town
- Cheltenham
- Postcode
- GL51 9EZ
- Major / Minor Region
- Gloucestershire
Contract type & working pattern
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Salary
- Salary
- £31,049 - £37,796 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Grade
- (Band 5)
Specialty
- Main area
- psychology
We love what we do and we think you will, too!
At Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (GHC), we provide joined-up mental health, physical health and learning disability services to people of all ages across Gloucestershire. We run community hospitals and provide care and support in people’s own homes and in a range of other locations across the county.
We are on a mission to enable people to live the best life they can and we have a vision to work together to provide outstanding care. We put people at the heart of our services, focusing on personalised care by asking ‘what matters to you’.
We’re passionate about making sure that everyone can contribute to achieving our mission and we are continually working to support healthy and happy high-quality teams in all areas of the Trust.
Our application process aims to understand each candidates knowledge, skills and experience. We have found that candidates that use AI to generate their answers can lack specificity and fail to address key criteria outlined in the job description.
It is really important to personalise your application to convey your individual skills, knowledge, and experiences effectively and for us to understand why you are applying for this role with GHC. We discourage over reliance on AI-generated applications as it will lessen your chances of success in securing an interview with us .
Job overview
Inpatient Complex Psychological Interventions: Recovery and Acute Wards
Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Trust is looking to recruit an experienced Assistant Psychologist to work across the Recovery Units in Cheltenham and Acute Inpatient wards at Wotton Lawn Hospital, Gloucester. This is a full-time post on a fixed term 12-month contract.
Honeybourne and Laurel House are Inpatient Rehabilitation Recovery Units in Cheltenham. Wotton Lawn Hospital is in Gloucester and has four acute wards and a psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU). The Assistant Psychologist will become part of the Inpatient Complex Psychological Interventions department working across the Recovery Units and Acute Wards primarily to support the inpatient team to deliver psychological interventions.
There is a supportive and enthusiastic psychological team consisting of two clinical psychologists, an art psychotherapist and two clinical associate psychologists (CAPs). The team support regular trainee placements from the Bath Clinical Doctoral Training Course, undergraduate placements and art psychotherapy trainee placements. Regular service development and research is undertaken in collaboration with GHC research department. Publication is actively supported and encouraged within the team.
In the wider community, psychologists, psychotherapists and art psychotherapists working within Recovery, Assertive Outreach and Early Intervention Teams form complex psychological interventions (CPI).
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This role provides the opportunity to work with people both in short term, acute contexts and longer-term rehabilitation settings. Across both Inpatient Acute and Recovery services, psychological assessment, formulation and intervention with patients under supervision will form part of the role. A main focus of the role will be delivering group interventions and promoting psychological understanding within the multi-disciplinary team, for example, through Team Formulation meetings.
This post requires the post holder to be able to undertake all statutory and mandatory training and post holders must be able to undertake physical interventions. Fitness for physical intervention will be assessed by Occupational Health.
The ability to get to work independently via driving or public transport. For qualifying staff the Trust has a Lease Car Scheme in place and also offers a popular Salary Sacrifice Car Scheme with our partner Tusker.
The qualifications, training & experience requirements for the role are stated in the Job Description/Person Specification.
For further information or an informal discussion please contact Dr Vicki Weare, Specialist Clinical Psychologist, on 0300 421 4779 or email [email protected].
Working for our organisation
We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people’s homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.
Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:
- 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
- 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
- 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust’s priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.
This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The Trust aims to recruit and retain the best possible staff who, through the application of their skills, qualification and experience, will make a positive contribution to our business of providing quality health care services. It is the Trust’s view that the costs associated with moving house in order to take up a post with us should not restrict our ability to recruit the excellent people we need, therefore we support staff to relocate with our relocation policy.
To ensure you fully understand how the Trust, as a Data Controller, will process and store your data please read the attached document ‘Applicant and Staff Privacy Notice’ prior to applying for the role.
Candidates for any staff appointment shall, when making application, disclose in writing to the Trust whether they are related to any governor. Failure to disclose such a relationship may disqualify a candidate and, if appointed, may render them liable to dismissal.
Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust are proud to have been recognised as a ‘Veteran Aware Trust’, evidencing the provision of the best care for Veterans and driving to improve the care for veterans and their families. Find out more about this by clicking on the link at the right hand side, titled ‘Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance’.
Wotton Lawn Hospital tour - YouTube
We provide a Multi-professional preceptorship programme that is aligned to the National Preceptorship Framework for Nursing and have been awarded the Interim quality mark from NHS England. Our programme is provided to all Newly Qualified; Nurses, Nursing Associates, Internationally Educated Practitioners, Allied Health Professionals and Return to Practice Practitioners. In addition to the programme we also offer all preceptees the opportunity of enrolling and completing the level 7 (Masters) 15 credit validated module “Preceptorship for Healthcare” (AP7026).
Newly qualified Social Workers are offered the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment programme (ASYE) which is similar to a preceptorship programme.
The Trust is required to work in line with the Government’s UK Visa and Immigration Rules and Regulations. For more information about sponsorship for certain roles, please visit - https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas
When joining us, as well as becoming part of a team that makes a difference, we also offer:
- Free car parking at many of our sites
- 27 days leave plus bank holidays, increasing up to 33 days with long service
- A broad range of training and development opportunities, including apprenticeships up to Level 7 qualification.
- A multi-professional preceptorship programme for all Newly Qualified; Nurses, Nursing Associates, Internationally Educated Practitioners, Allied Health Professionals and Return to Practice Practitioners.
- Generous NHS pension and enhanced pay when if you work unsocial hours
- Flexible, family friendly and agile working opportunities
- Recognition and long service awards
- Fast Track physiotherapy
- Our Wellbeing line
- Access to discounts and salary sacrifice schemes; including Cycle to Work, Car scheme and discounts on travel, leisure and retailers.
Applicants are advised to apply early as if a large number of applications are received for this post, we reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the advertised date. Good luck with your application.
For more information please see the attached 'Additional Information for Applicants' document.
Applicant requirements
Person specification
QUALIFICATIONS
Essential criteria
- Min 2(i) honours degree in Psychology
- Evidence of training/CPD to develop knowledge and theory relevant to work in the specialism
- Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society (BPS)
LENGTH AND / OR NATURE OF EXPERIENCE
Essential criteria
- Ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing clinically sensitive information to service users, their families, carers and other professional colleagues, both within and outside the NHS.
- Prior experience with the service user group and experience in a clinical setting
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Dr Vicki Weare
- Job title
- Specialist Clinical Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 0300 421 4936
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