Assistant Child & Educational Psychologist

To support the work of the Child & Educational Psychology Service (CEPS) in the delivery of high-quality service to schools and the local authority. To contribute to the development and delivery of evidence based CEPS training and support materials. To gain experience, skills, knowledge and understanding of the role and professional practice of child and educational psychologists, in preparation for formal post-graduate professional training in child and educational psychology.

Cheshire West and Chester Council is a place where everyone can Thrive – through our core values of Teamwork, Honesty, Respect, Innovation, Value for Money and Empowerment.

Cheshire West and Chester Council

Department: Children’s and Families Services RARH

Cheshire West and Chester Child & Educational Psychology Service are excited to announce that we are expanding due to increased demand for our services. Our well-regarded service looks forward to welcoming you.

Assistant Child and Educational Psychologists (AsCEPs):

Two Temporary Full Time Posts.

Soulbury Assistant Educational Psychologist Salary Scale -

Location: Ellesmere Port and Winsford

We are looking to appoint two enthusiastic and committed Assistant Child and Educational Psychologists (AsCEPs) who are seeking to pursue a career in Child and Educational Psychology.

We are delighted to advertise these new posts within our current Service structure. Your role will involve assisting the Child & Educational Psychology Service (CEPS) in the delivery of both core and traded services, working with children and young people (CYP) across the age range (- years old), in a variety of settings. Working under the supervision of qualified Child and Educational Psychologists (CEPs), you will contribute to psychological assessments, interventions, the development and delivery of training, evaluation and other tasks as identified by service demands.

Cheshire West and Chester CEPS is made up of friendly, supportive, talented psychologists. We offer a partially traded service with a Consultation model of service delivery. We are committed to innovation and trading for the benefit of our residents. We have well-established ELSA and EBSN programmes and are currently developing our MeLSA offer. We provide Consultation and training for the Virtual School and have contributed to a range of strategic developments and initiatives within the wider council. We are always keen to further extend our traded offer to support CYP learning, mental health and emotional wellbeing and we would welcome your ideas.

We are a well-regarded Service, and our evaluations year on year demonstrate that school staff, parents/carers and CYP value our work. We are committed to developing a forward thinking, evidenced based service that applies psychology creatively to promote positive change, mindful of social justice. We are keen to welcome similarly focused practitioners into the service to help achieve this. We believe we can support your professional development and, together with your committed practice, will provide you with experiences to support your application for a place on the year doctoral training programme to become a qualified CEP.

Cheshire West and Chester is an exciting place to live and work. It covers a wide and varied geographical area, with excellent transport links. The Council is proud of its well-respected trauma informed approach which is embedded across the Borough. Cheshire West and Chester is a place where everyone can Thrive – through our core values of Teamwork, Honesty, Respect, Innovation, Value for Money and Empowerment - including you.

The benefits of working for CW&C extend beyond making a difference to people’s lives; as well as working within a supportive, creative environment with people who share your values, you will have access to a wide range of benefits including discounted gym memberships, holidays and childcare vouchers through our Working Rewards Scheme. The Council and CEPS will offer:

• A thorough induction programme, with ongoing training and support from your first day with us
• Monthly individual and peer supervision sessions
• Hybrid working so that you can work at home or in the office, around visiting schools and settings.
• Cash back scheme on any medical treatment that you may require via Medicash
• A generous holiday allowance starting at days pro rata (plus bank holidays) increasing with length of service to days. Additionally, the opportunity to purchase up to days additional annual leave and access to Time off In Lieu as appropriate
• An excellent career average pension scheme.

We look forward to receiving your application if you are passionate about psychology and empowering service users. Please note that all applicants must have:

• An Honours Degree in Psychology or equivalent at : level (or above) that confers graduate basis for Chartered membership with the British Psychological Society (GBC)
• At least two years experience working with CYP with additional needs
• Two referees- at least one of which can reference your work with CYP. Please note that as part of our safer recruitment procedure, qualifications and references will be verified.

As an AsCEP within CW&C we ask that you:

• Have strong written and oral communication skills
• Want to make a real difference in the lives of children and young people through the application of psychology
• Demonstrate commitment to train as a qualified CEP
• Have the ability to analyse and evaluate quantitative and qualitative data and report findings succinctly
• Are enthusiastic about building new and collaborative models of working with qualified CEPs
• Are committed to developing strong mainstream inclusive practice and local solutions to meeting diverse needs
• Are committed to promoting positive practice and challenging structural discrimination
• Can demonstrate good levels of organisation, enthusiasm, resilience and good humour.
• Have excellent ability in the use of IT to assist with efficient working practices.

We really appreciate your interest and thank you for considering us. The Borough is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. Any offer of employment to this post will be subject to an enhanced Disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

For further discussion about the post, please do not hesitate to contact Dr Kate Hughes, Principal Child & Educational Psychologist:

Closing date: Midnight Monday June