Trainee Clinical Associate in Psychology

Job summary
An exciting opportunity has arisen for applications to train as a Clinical Associate Psychologist in the Older People's Community Mental Health Service with the Coastal Team, based in Ipswich, Suffolk. Funding has been secured from NHSE for the tuition fees for you to complete a Master's degree in Clinical Associate Psychology through The University of Essex, EPUT, starting in November 2026.

While you are completing the degree, you will work as a Band 5 for part of the week in the Older People's Team in Coastal, being supported to learn and clinically apply your learning to deliver evidence-based psychological intervention to older people with a mental health need, and also support the team with embedding psychological thinking in their practice.

The Coastal team are part of a wider locality, with three older people's CMHT's in East Suffolk, with a range of psychological professionals who have strong and supportive relationships and who work in an integrated way. You will be well supported to complete your Master's degree and learn the clinical skills required for the role.

Following the completion of your degree, you will work as a full-time substantive Clinical Associate Psychologist, Band 6, in the Coastal team. This is an excellent opportunity for a psychology graduate to learn the clinical and academic skills required for a career as a Clinical Associate Psychologist, which plays an invaluable role in our older people's mental health services.

Main duties of the job
As a Trainee Clinical Associate in Psychology, you will work closely with the existing Clinical Psychologist and wider multidisciplinary team to deliver a psychologically-minded secondary mental health service to older people within the coastal community.

In addition to the academic component of this role, your duties within the workplace would include:

• Providing psychological assessments and formulation of individuals' mental health difficulties, strengths, and any risk/safety concerns.
• Delivering personalised, evidence-based individual and group interventions.
• Thinking and working creatively to provide effective interventions where there may not be an existing evidence base, such as in complex or chronic clinical presentations.
• Active participation in multidisciplinary case discussion, team formulation, and reflective practice meetings.
• Gathering, analysing and disseminating data for audit, service development and research purposes.
• Involvement in research and service development activities.
• Providing support, guidance, training and consultation to multidisciplinary colleagues to enhance the range of psychological intervention that other professionals may utilise.

The post holder will be expected to maintain a high standard of professionalism and accountability within the CAP scope of practice.

About us
At Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, inclusion is at the heart of how we work. We are committed to creating a fair, transparent and accessible recruitment process where every candidate has the opportunity to succeed.

We actively encourage applications from people from all backgrounds, particularly those currently underrepresented in our workforce, including those from the global majority. We recognise that not everyone has equal access to opportunities and are working to address this.

We are committed to providing reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process and ensuring all candidates receive a positive and equitable experience.

Here at NSFT we pride ourselves on being a welcoming, talented, friendly and supportive team who like nothing better than sharing experiences and learning from each other. In addition to ongoing training and development opportunities, we are committed to providing an environment in which you can thrive.

Why work for us? We have challenges as a Trust, but we have ambitious aspirations, are pushing ahead with exciting transformation work and we need dedicated individuals to support us on our journey. We have strong, established professional networks coupled with an exceptional leadership team who will ensure you are truly cared for and cared about.

Job responsibilities
The Apprenticeship post involves undertaking a Master's level course at the The University of Essex. This is typically a blended course with approximately 75% of sessions delivered online and the remainder delivered in person atThe University of Essex. Attendance at all teaching days is compulsory, and annual leave cannot be booked for teaching days.

Increasing to band 6 Clinical Associate Psychologist is only possible upon successful completion, and passing, of the required qualification.

Please note you must be able to provide proof of English and Maths at a grade of level 2 (C) or above to be accepted for this post. As this role is community based you must also hold a valid UK driving licence with the ability to travel independently.

Qualifications
Essential

• Level 2 qualifications in English and Mathematics (eg. GCSE pass grade 9 to 4 or A\* to C)
• Bachelors degree in Psychology accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS) as conferring Graduate Basis for Chartership (GBS), or Bachelors degree plus master degree, or PGDip in Psychology accredited by the BPS as conferring GBC (minimum 2:2)

Experience
Essential

• Demonstrate experience of effective working with others including peers, managers and more junior members of staff

Knowledge
Essential

• Able assess limits of professional boundaries and capacity and understand when to seek appropriate supervision/advice on practice and whom to refer to ensure best care

Desirable

• Discuss observation or understanding of cognitive-behavioural and other psychological assessment methods used within applied clinical practice to underpin assessmen

Other
Essential

• Ability to travel independently where required
• Skilled in continuous self-reflection, seeking and responding to support and feedback to develop professional knowledge and skills

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).