Equality, diversity and inclusion within clinical psychology have been a key focus for the profession in recent years, with the recognition that the workforce is not representative of the communities it serves. Limited diversity in the workforce is reflected in early career posts including in the assistant psychologist workforce. To begin to address systemic barriers to accessing early career posts, this article describes an NHS Trusts internal pilot of Multiple Mini Interviews to increase equality within the recruitment of assistant psychologists. The purpose of the internal pilot was to explore how assistant psychologists experience the use of virtual MMIs (vMMIs) within recruitment and consider adaptations that may be needed to optimise the use of vMMIs within this workforce. Assistant psychologists completed a vMMI and a subsequent focus group. The data from the focus group was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Overall, assistant psychologists experienced vMMIs as a positive move to increase equality at interview and an important step in seeking to diversify the workforce. Three themes were identified in the data: the importance of reciprocity within the interview process, interviewing for values and adjusting to vMMI. From the data, six recommendations for adapting vMMIs for the recruitment of assistant psychologists are provided.
Mercedez Coleman (Sun,) studied this question.