New Psychology Apprenticeship roles in the Trust

CNWL is excited to be offering some of the first opportunities in England for talented and passionate psychology graduates to join NHS Mental Health services as Apprentice Clinical Associates in Psychology.  This is a completely new route into practicing as an applied psychologist in the NHS and offers psychology graduates another valued route into clinical practice.  As an apprenticeship you will be working and being paid full time while you complete a Masters qualification at University College London, the full fees for this will be paid. 

Find out more about the apprenticeship

So far we have the following roles available:

• Apprentice Clinical Associate in Psychology - Gordon Hospital

In total there will be six available:

• Two roles in Kensington and Chelsea

• Two roles in Harrow
• Two roles in Milton Keynes

As part of our commitment to address social inequalities in health, we are particularly seeking to employ psychology graduates with the drive to make a significant contribution to this key priority.  These posts are explicitly intended to support the increased access to psychological interventions for groups of service users and the community, including people from black and minority ethnic communities, who may be less well served by existing services. 

Candidates with the valuable experience of the diverse social and cultural communities the Trust serves which are currently under represented in our psychology staff groups, including those with the ability to provide care in any of the languages of local communities, will be supported to develop their careers and flourish as valued members of our services.  There are a number of support systems within the Trust including staff peer networks.

This new psychologist role will be central in helping services meet the planned significant increase in psychologically underpinned high quality health care as envisaged in the NHS Long Term Plan.  As an apprentice you will receive supervision from a qualified clinical psychologist while you are working in our adult community or adult inpatient services delivering interventions in line with your developing skill and competence. 

You will have two days ‘off the job’ training over a period of 18 months to complete the UCL Masters Programme and the related Masters research project.  Across the Trust there will be six apprentice clinical associates in psychology who we will support to develop through the apprenticeship into qualified members of our wider psychology professional group.

On qualification you will be eligible to work as a (Band 6) Clinical Associate in Psychology in our newly transformed adult community teams and adult in-patient services to deliver innovative psychologically based interventions both directly with service users and their families and supporting other colleagues in the teams to do so.

This will be a highly rewarding opportunity to train as an applied psychology in adult mental health services while working full time and learning though the apprenticeship. Providing valuable care for service users in our communities you will have an influential role in the delivery and development of services that will make a real difference to people lives.

Successful candidates must be able to begin their employment with the Trust no later than 4 January 2021 in order to start the UCL MSc on 11 January 2021.

Provisional interview date is Monday 23 November 2020 - via video call.

Candidates will be enrolled on the Clinical Associate in Psychology Masters programme at UCL, the fees for which will be paid, and must therefore be eligible for University UK Home Fees.