Assistant Psychologist

The role includes supporting development of the service through research, audit and service evaluation.
There will also be opportunities for professional experience through clinical work, under the supervision of qualified Clinical Psychologists.

At Sheffield Children's, our purpose is clear: to provide healthier futures for children and young people. Our three strategic aims are:
1. Outstanding Patient Care
2. Brilliant Place to work
3. Leaders in Children's Health
We work successfully with local, regional, and national partners to provide physical and mental healthcare across acute and community settings. Many of our clinicians are amongst the best in their field, recognised nationally and internationally for their expertise.
As well as having enormous pride in what we do, we are a friendly, welcoming, and motivated NHS Trust who are guided by our CARE values: Compassion, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence. Our nearly 4000 colleagues live these values, ensuring kind and compassionate care that makes patients and their families feel safe and at home.
As we approach our 150th anniversary in 2026, we remain committed to enhancing our reputation in children's health leadership, improving the experiences of both patient and colleagues, and focusing on our communities and population health.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Amber Lodge is based at the Becton Centre for Children and Young People and consists of a day unit team, outreach team, and educational provision. This service works with children between the ages of 5 - 11 years old who present with complex mental health issues. The Psychological services team on Amber Lodge consists of a Principal Clinical Psychologist, a Child Psychotherapist and a Music Therapist. The team also consists of a Consultant Psychiatrist, Nurses, Occupational Therapist, Support Workers, and Teachers, as well as trainees and students (including DClinPsy trainees). Clinical Psychology on Amber works within the MDT in a trauma informed way providing consultation and supervision, and leading assessments, formulation, and adapted individual therapeutic interventions, as well as working with parents/carers and external professionals. Neurodevelopmental assessment is also be provided on Amber Lodge.
Our Forensic CAMHS team works into Sheffield CAMHS services and the Regional Forensic CAMHS hub for Yorkshire and Humber regions. We work with children up to the age of 18 suffering from mental health and/or neurodevelopmental difficulties who are committing crime or at risk of committing crime. We are a multi-disciplinary team who work in a trauma informed way and offer professional multi-agency consultations for those working with such children, advising on levels of forensic risk and how such risks could be minimised or managed. In a small number of cases (around 10% of referrals) we work directly with the young person for specialist assessment and/or treatment. Referral reasons can include presentations of violence, harmful sexual behaviour, animal cruelty and/or fire setting.
In both roles the Assistant psychologist will support the team/s to gather information to aid clinical understanding of the child. The Assistant Psychologist will contribute to service evaluation and quality improvement processes. Both roles offer excellent opportunities for developing psychological formulation skills, particularly around high levels of complexity, and working with multiple agencies. Given the clinical population/s which both teams serve the role of the Assistant Psychologist/s may involve working with information that can be of a highly distressing nature.
Sheffield CAMHS also has myriad specialist teams and there would be opportunity to link up and share knowledge with other assistant psychologists across the service.
Please see Job Description and Personal Specification for full details.
Inclusive Recruitment & Selection
We are committed to being an inclusive employer and accurate data capture is an important part of that to ensure we are supportive and representative. Our aim is to ensure that all applicants can see themselves in the available categories on our application form, but we recognise that some of our data capture fields are not inclusive. We have flagged this with our system provider to ask for change.
We offer encouragement and active support to applicants with additional needs, including those from ethnic minorities, with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community. If you wish to adjust any aspect of the recruitment process or wish to find out more about our recruitment & selection processes, please get in touch with our Recruitment Manager: [email protected]
We are continually reviewing our recruitment & selection process to support the long-term aim of Sheffield Children's being a champion of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion. If you have any ideas for improvement, please get in touch with Catherine Gilbert at [email protected]
Trust Values
The Trust is committed to providing great quality patient care and keep children, young people and families at the heart of what we do by following our CARE values:
+ Compassion - leading by kindness and showing empathy, understanding and respect
+ Accountability - striving to do the right thing and owning responsibility
+ Respect - value differences, tackling inequality and fostering a culture of inclusion
+ Excellence - delivering a high-quality standard of care