Job summary
- Main area
- Mental Health
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 5
- Contract
- Fixed term: 1 year (Maternity Cover)
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 354-CO-21909
- Employer
- Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Department of Psychiatry, Eastbourne. East Sussex (some cover may be required at outlying units and/or Hastings)
- Town
- Eastbourne
- Salary
- £32,073 - £39,043 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 22/06/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Pharmacy Technician
NHS AfC: Band 5
Come and join us
We’re looking for people who share our values of compassion, accountability and optimism to help us provide high quality care for the patients, carers, families and communities we serve. We specialise in NHS mental health and learning disability services and we’re proud to make a difference every day.
At SPFT we put people first. We’ll do everything possible to help you feel respected, valued and included. You’ll have opportunities to learn, grow and gain new experiences to support your career, with access to lifelong learning and professional development.
We actively promote flexible working and understand how important work life balance is, especially in healthcare. Whether it’s part time hours, hybrid working or flexible start and finish times, we’ll explore what works for you and the role.
We recognise that tools like AI are becoming part of everyday life and you may choose to use them when preparing your application. We welcome this, as long as what you submit reflects your own experience, skills and voice. AI can be helpful for structuring or refining your answers, but it should not replace your own examples or create content that isn’t based on your real experience.
Our recruitment process is designed to get to know you, and we’ll explore your examples further at interview, so it’s important your application genuinely represents what you bring. You can read more about using AI in applications and interviews on our recruitment process page.
We’re shaping a workplace where ideas are encouraged, technology supports you and everyone has a voice in how we improve. If that sounds like the kind of organisation you want to be part of, we’d love to hear from you.
Job overview
Join an Award-Winning Team
Are you a registered pharmacy technician ready to specialise in mental health pharmacy?
Our pharmacy service was named APTUK Pharmacy Technician Team of the Year 2025, recognised nationally for innovation, collaboration, and advancing pharmacy technician practice in mental health.
We are recruiting a Band 5 Pharmacy Technician to join our East Sussex team, primarily based at the Department of Psychiatry, with responsibilities extending to inpatient wards, Havens, and some community services across East Sussex.
Your focus will be on delivering a safe and effective medicines optimisation service to the Eastbourne Haven, helping patients get the best outcomes from their medicines. You’ll work closely with multidisciplinary teams, ensuring healthcare staff are confident and supported in safe, effective, and cost-conscious medicines use.
Main duties of the job
- Provide clinical pharmacy and medicines optimisation services across inpatient wards, Havens, and community settings in East Sussex.
- Advise clinicians, nursing staff, and patients on safe, effective, and cost-conscious medicines use.
- Support clozapine clinics, including point-of-care testing and overdue bloods monitoring.
- Take part in discharge planning, ensuring safe transition of care into the community.
- Lead and contribute to audits, medicines safety initiatives, and service development projects.
- Work closely with pharmacy colleagues across East Sussex and the wider Trust to deliver high-quality, patient-centred services.
- Provide medicines reconciliation for patients in the Eastbourne Haven Unit
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We’re excited to be bringing a new medicines supply service in-house later in 2026—an important step that creates fresh opportunities for innovation, skill development, and career progression across our team. This Pharmacy Hub will be situated at our Swandean site in Worthing. This change will also strengthen how we support our trainee pharmacy professionals on their career journeys. As we grow our dispensary function, all staff will play a key role in supporting the implementation and delivery of this service while we recruit into new dispensary roles, helping to shape a dynamic and collaborative working environment.
Working for our organisation
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust provides specialist mental health, learning disability, and neurodevelopmental services across Sussex.
Our Pharmacy Service plays a key role in improving patient safety, outcomes, and experience through medicines optimisation. We are committed to staff development and provide opportunities for learning, supervision, and professional growth within a friendly and supportive team.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The post holder will work as an integral member of the Pharmacy Team, providing a high‑quality pharmacy technician service to support safe and effective use of medicines within mental health services, with a primary focus on Eastbourne Haven urgent care services.
Key responsibilities include undertaking medicines reconciliation for individuals presenting in crisis, liaising with service users, carers, GP practices, community pharmacies, and clinical teams to confirm accurate medication histories and support safe prescribing decisions. The post holder will typically support medicines reconciliation for approximately 1–4 patients per day at Eastbourne Haven.
The role includes supporting medicines optimisation, counselling service users on their medicines where appropriate, and contributing to safe onward care planning. The post holder will support safe transitions of care, escalate medicines‑related concerns to pharmacists, and work in line with Trust policies, procedures, and medicines governance requirements.
The post holder will work collaboratively with pharmacists, nurses, prescribers, and the wider multidisciplinary team to support urgent care flow and high‑quality crisis response. They will contribute to service development, audit, and quality improvement activity as required, and support the training and supervision of pharmacy staff where appropriate.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- NVQ level 3 Pharmacy Services, BTEC Pharmaceutical Sciences or equivalent
- Registered as a Pharmacy Technician with General Pharmaceutical Council with GPhC (with no restrictions).
- Completed or willing to undertake the Medicines Management Accreditation Scheme.
- Completed or willing to undertake the Accredited Checking Pharmacy Technician (ACPT) course
Knowledge/Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience working in a hospital or mental health pharmacy setting.
- Knowledge of medicines optimisation and medicines management principles.
- Experience handling straightforward Medicines Information queries
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Daniel Brooks
- Job title
- Lead Pharmacist Urgent Care Services
- Email address
- [email protected]
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