Job Introduction
Package Description
As an Assistant Psychologist - AFC Band 5, you will be part of our valued team in Essex, receiving access to exclusive rewards and benefits including:
- Band 5 salary with NHS Pension and full Agenda for Change terms and conditions
- AFC Pension and terms and conditions
- Free tea, coffee and milk at your base location
- Membership of My Reward Hub, giving you access to discounts on every day purchases like grocery shopping as well as cashback and voucher offers for treats for you and those special to you
- Access to your wages as you earn them to help cover life’s emergencies and avoid overdraft fees or high interest rates
- Online and face to face help with your mental and physical wellbeing – from healthy recipes and activity challenges through to post trauma support, legal, debt and life management help, as well career coaching and counselling
- Access to eLearning, bespoke career pathways and opportunities for continuing professional development through our ‘Outstanding’ learning and development team, The Learning Enterprise
- An open, just culture where you’re encouraged to have and implement ideas which can help us deliver our purpose: changing lives through transforming health and care – backed up by at least £100,000 of ringfenced innovation funding each year
- The pride of working for an organisation committed to the highest clinical and quality standards: with the majority of our rated services holding “good” or “outstanding” ratings from the Care Quality Commission
Job Introduction
As an Assistant Psychologist within the JADES Autism Diagnostic Service, part of the West Essex Child & Family Wellbeing Service, you will support the delivery of high-quality neurodevelopmental assessments for children and young people. JADES works closely with families, schools, Paediatricians, Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists and other professionals to provide timely, compassionate and evidence-based autism diagnostic pathways.
This is an excellent opportunity for a psychology graduate who is passionate about neurodevelopment and family-centred practice, and who is keen to develop skills in assessment, clinical work and service development within a supportive multidisciplinary team. You will work under the supervision of a Clinical Psychologist and other qualified clinicians, contributing to both clinical delivery and service improvement as the pathway continues to grow.
Main Responsibilities
You will support the clinical team to deliver high-quality autism diagnostic assessments and family support by:
Contributing to assessments for children and young people on the JADES pathway under clinical supervision.
Supporting the preparation of clear, accurate clinical reports and summaries.
Working directly with children, young people and families, offering guidance, reassurance and information throughout the assessment process.
Liaising with parents, schools and other professionals to ensure effective communication and coordination.
Supporting families following diagnostic outcomes, including providing signposting and next-step guidance.
Participating in school or early years observations where required.
Maintaining high standards of clinical documentation, confidentiality and information governance.
Working in line with professional, ethical and safeguarding standards at all times.
Contributing to audits, data collection, outcome monitoring and service evaluation.
Supporting administrative processes linked to referrals, assessments and waiting lists.
Engaging in supervision, training, shadowing and ongoing professional development.
For a full list of responsibilities, please see attached job description.
The Ideal Candidate
The ideal candidate will have:
Essential:
An Honours degree in Psychology (minimum 2:1) with eligibility for Graduate Basis for Registration with the BPS.
Experience working with children, young people, families or neurodivergent individuals.
Strong organisational, time-management and communication skills.
Ability to gather, interpret and summarise information accurately.
Confidence working within a multidisciplinary team and using supervision effectively.
Awareness of equality, diversity and inclusion, particularly in relation to neurodiversity.
Basic IT skills and experience using electronic record systems.
A clear interest in neurodevelopmental assessment and ongoing professional development.
Desirable:
Experience in autism or neurodevelopmental diagnostic services, CAMHS, paediatrics or community settings.
Experience in report writing, audit, research or outcome evaluation.
Familiarity with autism screening tools such as AQ-10, Q-CHAT or M-CHAT.
Experience liaising with schools or early years services.
A full UK driving licence and access to a vehicle is required. Enhanced DBS clearance is essential.
For a full list of responsibilities, please see attached job description.
About the Company
We change lives by transforming health and care.
Established in 2006, we are one of the UK's leading independent providers of community health and care services, working with health and care commissioners and communities to transform services with a focus on experience, efficiency and improved outcomes. We deliver and transform adult and children community health services, primary care services including urgent care, sexual health, dermatology and MSK services as well as adult social care and wellbeing services. Across England, we support communities of many millions and directly help more than half a million people each year - guided by our simple values: we care, we think, we do.
We're committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from a broad, diverse range of people who want to join our team. We’re a Disability Confident Committed company, so we work to provide facilities, work environment adjustments and technical solutions to be as inclusive of everyone.
While it doesn’t happen often, sometimes a role is very popular, and we’ll need to close it earlier than the date we’ve shown here. If you’re keen to join our team, we’d love to hear from you so please apply as soon as you can.
As you’d expect, safeguarding and protecting the children, young people and vulnerable adults that we work with is of the utmost importance so we have policies and procedures in place to promote safeguarding and safer working practices and everyone who joins the team is subject to a safer recruitment process, including the disclosure of criminal records and vetting checks.
Finally, we need to let you know that the company you’ll work for is part of HCRG Care Group Holdings Limited and by applying for this job we’ll need to process and hold information about you. If you would like to know a little more about how we use your information, please see our website's privacy policy.
