Psychologist, Great Britain & England Senior Women

England Hockey is nominated by Great Britain Hockey (GBH) to qualify and prepare teams for the Olympic Games for the Los Angeles Olympic Cycle. GBH delegates complete responsibility to lead its business and performance activity to England Hockey as the “nominated country”. 

England Hockey’s mission is to “share the love of hockey and work together to make hockey more visible, relevant and accessible to all”. The current focus for the organisation is delivery of its 5 objectives within the 2023-2028 strategic plan which can be found here.

England Hockey is the National Governing Body for the sport of Hockey in England and is responsible for the management and development of the sport from grass roots to elite activities. We:

• Have a membership comprising clubs (750+), counties (42), and Areas (8) that affiliate to it. Approximately 160,000 individuals play in the club system, with an estimated 20,000 playing at university/colleges. C.900,000 children play at school. More than 15,000 coaches, umpires and officials are supported / developed.  
• Have an income/expenditure of average £9m p.a. The Chief Executive is directly responsible for the operational budget but the Board, chaired by the Non-Executive Chair, approves the annual plan and budget.
• Employ 75 staff, and contract with approximately 50 part time consultants mostly in the performance and coaching area. Circa 50 volunteers work at national level to run the sport, with thousands more running the great bulk of grass roots hockey.

OVERVIEW OF THE ROLE

The psychologist will work closely with the Head Coach and staff team, to provide exceptional, world-class performance psychology provision. They will be expected to influence at a system, cultural, staff, team and individual level and make a tangible contribution towards short- and long-term performance aspirations.

The priorities for the role are:

• To work with the women’s players currently based at Bisham to develop their leadership experience and skillset
• To re-establish a squad and staff team vision, values and behaviours framework and find a consistent method to maintain alignment and promote autonomy amongst all
• Manage the delivery of psychological support services for players within the senior programme
• Manage the delivery of psychological support for identified domestic and international locations when in training and competition
• Supporting athletes, coaches and staff to pursue high performance aspirations in a sustainable and healthy manner ; plus supporting a proactive approach to mental health alongside other medical professionals.
• To work with the Head Coach (and management team where relevant) on projects identified to support performance