Equality, diversity and inclusion in the assistant psychologist role: evaluation of the paid clinical work experience opportunities for disadvantaged aspiring clinical psychologists

Purpose Health Education England (now NHS England Workforce Transformation and Education) released funding for several initiatives taking targeted action to improve inclusivity and diversity including “paid work experience opportunities for disadvantaged aspiring psychological professionals”. A local NHS Trust successfully bid for this funding and focussed on employing assistant psychologists (APs). This study aims to evaluate these paid posts and consider how future recruitment to, and provision of, AP roles could be improved to encourage and select a more inclusive psychological workforce that feel psychologically safe. Design/methodology/approach The current service evaluation used two online surveys to evaluate the experiences of the APs employed with this funding and their supervisors. A descriptive statistical analysis and mixed inductive-deductive content analysis were completed. Findings There were mixed experiences of the initiative with quantitative and qualitative data offering contradictory accounts (e.g. satisfaction with the recruitment process vs poor accessibility throughout recruitment). The findings of this study indicate inconsistency across the initiative that may have impacted on inclusivity. Issues of “fit” were raised by APs and supervisors. Originality/value There is limited knowledge about how these initiatives are implemented. This paper offers consideration for how to support organisations with the recruitment to and provision of AP roles, whilst addressing issues of diversity and accessibility. Valuable lessons can be learnt from asking the APs directly about their experiences of a novel initiative.