Assistant Psychologist

BlackCountry NHS foundation Trust

Job Description

Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is growing and changing. We provide specialist mental health, learning disability and community services across Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton. We’re looking for people who care about others, take responsibility, treat people with respect and have the confidence to speak up and shape what comes next.

We’re focused on the future, with a clear Trust Strategy and our Best for the Black Country programme driving improvement across our services and communities.

What we do

Adult and older adult mental health
Children and young people’s mental health
Specialist learning disability services
Community healthcare for children, young people and families in Dudley

Why join now

We’ve got real momentum. Clear priorities and our Best for the Black Country work mean things are moving in the right way, fast.

Our culture is built around being compassionate, accountable, respectful and empowering each other – you’ll see this in how teams support patients and colleagues every day.
You’ll be looked after. Flexible working, family-friendly policies, supportive teams, proper wellbeing support and opportunities to learn and develop.

There’s room to grow. A wide range of services, space to try ideas and a voice that’s heard.

It’s a great place to live. Diverse communities, good transport links, strong schools and green space, with a lower cost of living than many city regions.

What it’s like to work here

You’ll join friendly, skilled teams who look out for each other. We plan together, share pressures and celebrate wins. You’ll be encouraged to take ownership, speak up and learn from experience. New starters get a warm welcome and clear induction; early careers colleagues have preceptorship and buddying; experienced staff can lead, teach and innovate.

Who we are

We’re 4,000+ colleagues from many backgrounds, committed to improving health and wellbeing for our communities and for each other. If you’re interested in the role but don’t meet every requirement, please apply — we value potential, different perspectives and people who want to grow.

As part of our commitment to fairness, transparency, and personal integrity, we ask all applicants to ensure that their job applications reflect their own experiences, skills, and motivations. While AI tools can support spelling, grammar, or formatting, we expect that the content of your application—especially personal statements and responses to role-specific questions—is written by you. This helps us get to know the real you and ensures that our recruitment process remains equitable and meaningful for everyone.

Job overview

Assistant Psychologist

National Deaf Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (NDCAMHS)

Full time 37.5 hours Band 4.

We have an exciting opportunity for an Assistant Psychologist to join the National Deaf CAMHS team for Central England, which covers the West Midlands, East Midlands and South Central regions (see map in link below). This post is mainly to support the neurodevelopmental assessment/follow-up work in the Central England service, as well as supporting group work and additional clinical work in the CAMHS team. Whilst this post is mainly supporting the work of our South Central team you need to be prepared to travel anywhere in the above regions (travel time is in work time and is paid for by work). You will need to be able to travel regularly for supervision and access to assessments.

Group work may involve some early evening sessions working remotely to enable parents to attend.

We particularly welcome and encourage applications from deaf psychology graduates. We encourage applications from psychology graduates with a good level of British Sign Language (BSL). We also welcome applicants with other relevant lived experience.

Main duties of the job

You will be joining other psychologists and psychological therapists in providing an excellent therapeutic service to young people and families, as well as joining at a time when we are strengthening the teams’ psychologically-informed culture.

National Deaf CAMHS

National Deaf CAMHS is an innovative community and inpatient mental health service delivering a pathway of care for 0-18 year olds across England. The national service is delivered by four NHS Trusts, and our teams link closely together. You will be working closely with our key partners where together we have an ambition to deliver an outstanding model of mental health care for the deaf children, young people and parents of England.

NDCAMHS is a unique and truly individual service. We are continuously learning and evolving, as we work together to meet the mental health needs of children, young people and parents who are deaf.

Working for our organisation

We are a fully integrated multi-disciplinary team comprising Psychologists; Psychiatrists; Systemic Family Therapists; Nurses; Occupational Therapists and Family Support Workers. A key aspect of the role is working closely with clinicians/practitioners as part of a bi-lingual, multicultural, multi-disciplinary team with deaf and hearing practitioners and BSL/English Interpreters. We welcome deaf applicants, and applicants who already have a high level of British Sign Language, however specialist training and development will be provided to develop knowledge and skills for working with deaf children and young people. This would include access to training to develop British Sign Language knowledge and skills.

Post holders would be based at home and all travel would be in work time and paid from home. We are well resourced for remote working. We have use of offices across the region including in Wootton Basset, Newbury, Selly Oak, Birmingham; as well as an admin office in Dudley. We arrange venues across the full region to see clients.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Assistant Psychologist

Your main role will be supporting the neurodevelopmental work of our service, including supporting assessments and follow up work. You will also be supporting the planning and delivery of group work which is mainly run remotely.

You would also support Clinical Psychologists in the delivery of specialist psychological assessments and interventions to clients with complex mental health conditions, under the supervision of a qualified Clinical Psychologist, working independently according to a plan agreed with a qualified Clinical Psychologist and within the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedures. You would be work flexibly across pathways of care in a variety of community settings and work closely with clinicians/practitioners in multi-disciplinary teams including deaf and hearing staff and BSL/English Interpreters.

Our clients use a wide range of communication modalities including British Sign Language, Sign Supported English, various spoken languages and minimal language. You would work with a varied caseload, under supervision, which will include carrying out specialist assessment and therapeutic interventions, working flexibly across pathways of care in a variety of community settings, and to work closely with clinicians/practitioners in multi-disciplinary teams. We work both directly with families, as well as offering joint care with local CAMHS services, multi-agency working and consultation. Excellent problem-solving, communication and interpersonal skills and a positive attitude towards working with deaf children, and their families, with complex mental health needs are essential.

You will have opportunities to work within our neurodevelopmental pathway, trauma and attachment care-pathways and Systemic Family Therapy offer, as well as working with a wide range of referred needs.

The service also offers a unique opportunity for an Assistant Psychologist to input into the development of specialist services for deaf children and young people, including audit, research and service development.

The main admin office base for the outreach team is in Dudley, however clinicians are based from their homes across the whole of the Central England (West Midlands, East Midlands, South Central) region and you will be required to travel to a range of settings throughout the Central England region. You may be required to attend occasional national meetings with our colleagues in other areas of our NDCAMHS services across England. We have access to a lease car scheme and paid for accommodation if needing to be further from home. Clinical and office spaces can be booked across the region as needed. Travel is counted as part of your working hours. We have developed the ability to offer a remote service using video calls, and follow an integrated approach for clinical work using video conferencing as well as face-to-face work to manage our travel where appropriate. We hold many of our meetings by video conferencing, but integrated with some face to face meetings so balancing the need for team connection with reducing travel. Post holders would be provided with facilities to enable remote working such as desks and IT equipment.

We regularly have Trainee Clinical Psychologists working with us from the Birmingham and Coventry and Warwick, and Trent, courses, and Honorary Assistant Psychology placements from the Birmingham MRes in Clinical Psychology, and Year in Industry placements from Aston University. You would therefore work alongside psychologists of all levels. As well as the links with the BCHF Trust Psychologists, we also have a Psychology Best Practice Group across NDCAMHS, and a wider network of Applied Psychologists working with Deaf People Special Interest Group (APDSIG). There are active assistant groups across each of these. We are also developing therapy-specific Special Interest Groups across NDCAMHS and wider networks working with deaf children and adults.

For further supporting information to apply for this role please see documents attached under ‘Additional documents’.

Attached map

This is an externally provided map but gives an idea of the geographical areas we cover.

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/craig.bloodworth/viz/UKPolygons/StrategicHealthAuthority