Job summary
- Main area
- Mental Health
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8b
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- 22.5 hours per week (Part-time - 22.5 hours per week)
- Job ref
- 354-AE-21183
- Employer
- Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- East Sussex Eastbourne Hospital
- Town
- Eastbourne East Sussex
- Salary
- £64,455 - £74,896 Pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 12/04/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Principal Psychologist / Psychological Therapist-Acute and Urgent Care
NHS AfC: Band 8b
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 AI is becoming part of daily life and you may choose to use it to help prepare your application. We welcome innovation but ask that anything you submit reflects your own abilities, experience and voice. AI can support how you describe your skills and experience, but it should never replace your own words as we want to get to know you.
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
We are recruiting a 0.6 WTE Principal Practitioner Psychologist / Psychological Therapist to provide professional leadership for the psychological practitioners working in acute in East Sussex. You will work alongside a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Systemic psychotherapist in this role. It is a growing psychological professions within Acute with a Band 8a, Band 7 and Assistant Psychologist. This is an excellent opportunity to develop your clinical and leadership expertise alongside a team of committed colleagues in psychology, psychological therapy and other disciplines. You would be taking on a diverse role with opportunities to contribute to the development of psychological knowledge and skills within the MDT through teaching, and to facilitate psychologically-informed thinking, through formulation spaces and reflective practice. You will become a member of the leadership team for acute and will represent Psychological Professions within this setting. There will be close working with colleagues in urgent care and those in the multiple admissions pathway and opportunities to develop family approaches and utilise open dialogue principles. The position is open to people seeking promotion from a lower banding or those looking for a new challenge at principal level.
Main duties of the job
You will be a key member of the acute care clinical team and must have a strong commitment to multi-disciplinary working. The role will include direct assessment and formulation of people with complex presentations and offering brief, evidence-based interventions. You will work with teams to contribute to risk assessment and care planning and you will provide consultation, and support to other professionals though formal and informal interventions such as reflective practice, debriefs and case discussions.
You will provide clinical and professional supervision to the Psychological Professions team, leading on recruitment and service developments, including training for MDT colleagues across the hospital.
Working for our organisation
We strive to provide excellent care to our service users, their families and our staff which is demonstrated by the service’s commitment to improving service user experience, supporting staff and professional development. Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust is committed to strong integrated, collaborative leadership between managers and clinicians.
You will be supported through clinical and professional supervision by the Professional Lead Consultant Psychologist for Acute and urgent care in East Sussex. Our Trust has an exciting range of CPD opportunities available, including training in Mindfulness and MBCT, Family Interventions, CAT, Open dialogue and a wide range of other approaches and the post holder will be encouraged to develop specialist interests.
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is a leading teaching and research mental health trust. We were granted teaching status in 2008 in recognition of our research background and our links with the Brighton and Sussex Medical School and other academic institutions. Applicants with an interest in research will be welcomed.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The successful candidate will ensure that the multi-disciplinary teams have access to a psychological opinion, and contribute to the development of psychological thinking, understanding and interventions/ approaches within the multi-disciplinary teams. As well as offering consultation, assessments (ideally including neuropsychological assessment) and focused, short-term individual and group interventions, they will contribute to the training and clinical supervision of other staff and offer reflective practice opportunities.
The successful post holder must be flexible, confident and thrive on working within a multidisciplinary context. Experience or specialist skills in working with specific conditions, such as psychosis or complex emotional needs would be useful, as would a systemic or psychodynamic understanding of teams. Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is committed to the delivery of high quality, safe, effective, and therapeutic adult acute services based upon innovation and evidence-based practice.
Please see job description for further details.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Post-graduate doctoral level training in applied psychology [or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996 or outside the UK] as approved by the HCPC, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.
- Professionally registered as a Practitioner Psychologist with the Health Professions Council (HCPC)
Knowledge/Experience
Essential criteria
- Significant assessed experience of working as a qualified psychologist
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings including outpatient, community, primary care, in-patient and residential care settings severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients’ psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care coordinator and also within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan
- Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology.
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group.
- Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of highly specialised psychological therapies and assessment methodologies
- Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC
- Formal training in supervision of other psychologists
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
- Jo Allen
- Job title
- Lead Consultant Clinical Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07974024931
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