Job summary

All applicants must be able to demonstrate that they meet the essential criteria.

Applications are invited for a Band 4 Research Assistant, 37.5 hours per week, working within the Criminal Justice Liaison & Diversion and Reconnect services at Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

This is an exciting opportunity to support research, service evaluation and quality improvement across services working with people at different stages of the criminal justice pathway. Liaison & Diversion works across police custody, courts, probation and community settings, while Reconnect supports people before and after release from prison to improve continuity of care and engagement with community services.

Working under the guidance of the Research Project Manager, the successful candidate will support data collection and analysis, literature reviews, report writing, publications, ethical applications and presentation of findings.

We are looking for a self-motivated, organised and enthusiastic individual with strong communication, IT and data-handling skills and an interest in mental health, healthcare research and the criminal justice pathway. Applicants should be working towards an undergraduate degree or equivalent in psychology or another relevant area and be able to demonstrate research and data analysis experience.

If you are interested in using research and evaluation to improve services and outcomes, we would be pleased to hear from you.

Main duties of the job

This role is varied and will involve a combination of office-based and service-based working across Liaison & Diversion and Reconnect. It is not a remote post and will require travel to clinical, community and partner settings as needed.

Main duties will include:

• Supporting service evaluation, quality improvement and research projects.

• Collecting, cleaning, collating and maintaining quantitative and qualitative data.

• Maintaining accurate research records and databases and undertaking basic statistical analysis.

• Carrying out literature searches and reviews.

• Supporting the preparation of reports, publications, presentations and ethical applications.

• Assisting with questionnaires, interviews and other data collection activity where required.

• Communicating effectively with service users, carers, Trust colleagues and external partner organisations.

• Supporting the presentation and dissemination of research and evaluation findings.

• Organising and attending multidisciplinary meetings across NHS and non-NHS settings.

• Using Microsoft Office and other relevant research and data systems effectively.

• Ensuring information is collected, stored and handled in line with legal, ethical, confidentiality and data-sharing requirements.

• Working independently, using initiative and managing competing priorities within a changing programme of work.

Training and supervision will be provided, including Good Clinical Practice training where required.

About us

Join 'Team Derbyshire Healthcare' and become part of a talented, compassionate and enthusiastic workforce committed to a vision of 'making a positive difference in people's lives'.

CQC rated us as 'GOOD' overall, commenting on how our colleagues "treated patients with compassion and kindness" and "felt positive and proud about working for the trust."

Benefits include:

• Commitment to flexible working where this is possible
• 27 days annual leave/year plus bank holidays, increasing to 29 days after 5 years & 33 days after 10 years' service
• Yearly appraisal and commitment to ongoing training
• Generous NHS pension scheme
• Good maternity, paternity and adoption benefits
• Health service discounts and online benefits
• Incremental pay progression
• Free confidential employee assistance programme 24/7
• Access to our LGBT+ network, BAME Network and Christian Network
• Health and wellbeing opportunities
• Structured learning and development opportunities