Senior Assistant Psychologist

Job Title: Assistant Psychologist or Senior Assistant Psychologist

**Salary**: £31,000

Location: Bedford - **Home-Based** with some travel

Reports to: Clinical Psychologist

Terms of Employment: Fixed Term 1 year with possibility for extension

Hours/week: Full time

**About Meadows Psychology Service (MPS)**

Meadows Psychology Service is a national leader in trauma-informed, clinical psychology-led care for children and young people. We provide bespoke psychological support across residential care, education, supported accommodation, fostering, and family settings. Our aim is to ensure every child feels psychologically held by the systems around them, with compassionate, evidence-based input at the heart of what we do.

This is an exciting opportunity to join our Bedford and South clinical team, working alongside a highly experienced Consultant Clinical Psychologist support the therapeutic development of the services we support in this region.

**Job Purpose**

This Senior Assistant Psychologist role focuses on the delivery of direct and indirect psychological work within settings that look after and support children and young people. You will play a key role in supporting the delivery of trauma-informed interventions for children and young people who have experienced complex developmental trauma. You will work across several settings to support psychological formulation, short-term interventions, group work, and reflective spaces with staff teams.

This is a clinically rich role and would suit someone who is interested in applied psychological work in complex settings, particularly those who are considering future careers in Clinical, Counselling, or Forensic Psychology.

**Key Responsibilities**

**Clinical & Psychological Support**
- Support the delivery of trauma-informed interventions and structured therapeutic sessions with children and young people, supervised by clinical psychology.
- Contribute to clinical assessments (including cognitive, emotional, and behavioural assessments) under supervision.
- Assist in psychological formulation of cases, offering insight into the impact of trauma on behaviour and relationships.
- Support clinicians in delivering reflective practice and psychological consultation sessions with care teams.
- Model and reinforce psychologically informed responses and relational practice within staff teams.
- Attend and contribute to multi-disciplinary and professionals’ meetings as required.

**Therapeutic Environment Support**
- Build trusted relationships with children, care staff, home managers and other professionals to strengthen placement stability and therapeutic consistency.
- Work systemically to help embed trauma-informed care through everyday language, routines, and team dynamics.
- Help maintain and review therapy resources, creative tools, and intervention materials for use within the homes.

**Service Development & Evaluation**
- Support outcome measure collection and basic analysis to help evidence progress and inform care planning.
- Conduct literature searches and summary reviews to support formulation or service improvement.
- Assist in the preparation of psychological reports, care summaries and resource packs.

**General & Administrative**
- Participate in regular clinical and line management supervision.
- Maintain accurate records of sessions, meetings and assessments in line with data protection protocols.
- Contribute to the wider MPS team through reflective spaces, peer supervision and CPD events.

**Person Specification**

**Essential Criteria**
- A 2:1 or above in a BPS-accredited Psychology degree
- Experience of working with children or young people with complex needs
- Confidence in building relationships with hard-to-engage individuals
- Understanding of trauma-informed and relational models of care
- Ability to reflect and work collaboratively within systems of care
- Strong organisational, communication, and interpersonal skills
- Emotional resilience and professional boundaries in complex settings

**Desirable Criteria**
- Previous Assistant Psychologist or clinically applied experience
- Experience working in residential, CAMHS, education, or care settings
- Experience delivering or co-facilitating short-term interventions
- Familiarity with outcome measures or structured assessments
- Motivation to pursue a career in psychology or therapy
- This is not an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities, and the post holder may be required to undertake other tasks relevant to the role, following discussion with their manager or Director. This job description may be reviewed and revised in line with the development of Meadows Psychology Service._

**Job Types**: Full-time, Fixed term contract
Contract length: 12 months

Pay: £31,000.00 per year

**Benefits**:

- Company events
- Health & wellbeing programme
- Referral programme
- Work from home

Schedule:

- Monday to Friday
- No weekends

**Language**:

- English (required)

Licence/Certif