Work Psychologist


Company:	Government Recruitment Service
Salary:	£34,503 to £41,625 a year
Hours:	Full-time
Location:	North East
Working pattern:	Hybrid - 2 days remote
Job type:	Permanent
Posting date:	6 Oct 2026
Closing date:	19 Oct 2026

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Summary

We are looking to welcome nine new Work Psychologists to the DWP Work Psychology Service, joining a vibrant and diverse community of nearly 100 practitioners who make a real difference every day.

As a Work Psychologist, you will use evidence‑based occupational psychology tools and techniques to support DWP ‘customers’ (people receiving benefits through Jobcentre services) to move closer to and into employment. Many of the customers you will work with live with health conditions, disabilities, or other significant challenges that can make accessing work more difficult. You will make a positive impact through one‑to‑one assessments and group-based interventions with customers, and by building the capability of Jobcentre colleagues to apply psychological principles in their work. You will have the opportunity to transform the lives of those who often find themselves marginalised from employment and wider society.

This post is part of the wider Government Occupational Psychology Profession (a recognised government specialist profession). The profession comprises over 250 members across all the major government departments and many agencies and arms-length bodies – which makes us the largest Occupational Psychology community in the U.K. We are a vibrant community with a long history in government going as far back as, at least, World War II, as shown in the Fifty Years of Occupational Psychology in Britain. The Head of the Government Occupational Psychology Profession is Dr Antonia Dietmann.

Building on the foundation of skills that you developed in your Masters degree, your career in the Government Occupational Psychology Profession will develop both your technical and consultancy capabilities. We welcome people from a range of different backgrounds as this helps to increase the diversity of thought and perspectives when developing solutions. Collaborating across departments and sharing learning is key to how we work. Throughout the year there will be many opportunities to connect with other members of the profession and build the relationships that will make the most rewarding occupational psychology career.

Upon joining the Civil Service you are encouraged to sign up to the profession.

Job description

Under the professional supervision of a Senior Work Psychologist:

Design and deliver one-to-one interventions to assess the employment related support needs of job seeking customers who are socially excluded, vulnerable or otherwise disadvantaged. The assessment might, for example, focus on the identification of suitable work goals, work solutions or technological support to help customers find, sustain and progress in work.

Develop and facilitate work-focused group interventions to help job seeking customers build work search skills, positive beliefs about work and make informed employment decisions.

Facilitate case conferences which are a structured conversational approach with a group of frontline colleagues who are seeking advice on how to progress complex customer cases towards work or other positive life change.

Provide individual caseload management support to help colleagues effectively support jobseekers assigned to them and to work towards achieving appropriate work-focused outcomes.

Design and deliver interventions to help colleagues increase their knowledge and skills of job-relevant topics (e.g. mental health and employment) and skills areas (e.g. coaching skills).

Actively promote the Work Psychology service at all levels of the organisation through collaboration with non-psychologist colleagues, for example through networking with internal and external partners and delivering awareness presentations.

Use the consultancy cycle to explore issues, implement, evaluate and report effectively the outcomes of bespoke evidence-based interventions to support senior leaders to develop their teams and progress jobseekers.

Work collaboratively with your line manager to reach an achievable balance between your continuous professional development and job training obligations and frontline business priorities.

Following probation, you will be required to enrol on and actively work towards a qualification to achieve HCPC Registered Occupational Psychologist status, which is currently the BPS Qualification in Occupational Psychology Stage 2. Your line manager will tell you the appropriate qualification that you will be enrolled on. “Post holders will be given some work time to support completion of the qualification. You will receive an allocation of four days per month (pro-rata for non-full time working patterns)”.

Chartered Psychologists and Registered Occupational Psychologists are required to supervise Trainee Occupational Psychologists on the qualification to achieve Registered Occupational Psychologist status. If not already registered on the Register of Applied Practice Psychology Supervisors (RAPPS) you will work towards RAPPS eligibility within a reasonable timescale.

The video attached provides an introduction by our Chief Psychologist to the Civil Service and DWP Work Psychology role followed by Work Psychology descriptions of what they enjoy about their role: video

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