Job summary
- Main area
- Mental Health
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8b
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Part time - 22.5 hours per week (2 posts- Surrey Post+ 22.5hours Sussex Post = 26.25 hours)
- Job ref
- 354-CS-21744
- Employer
- Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Highmore
- Town
- Hailsham
- Salary
- £64,455 - £74,896 pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 09/03/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Principal Psychologist in Forensic CAMHs
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 have an exciting opportunity for a Principal Psychologist to join our South East Forensic CAMHS service; a specialist community child and adolescent mental health service for children and young people who present with a serious risk of harm to others and have a range of complex needs, across the South East of England. We are looking for 2 post holders to work within Surrey (0.6wte) and Sussex (0.7wte).
Our multidisciplinary service is made up of three locality teams in 1) Kent & Medway, 2) Surrey and 3) Sussex who work closely together in a single professional network, to share knowledge and experience and provide supervision and support.
Main duties of the job
The service is part of a national service model and is run in partnership by Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SPFT), North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) and Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. The employing Trust for this post is SPFT.
We run a predominantly liaison and consultation service, offering advice, support, structured consultation and training to multiagency colleagues who are working with young people whose behaviour is causing significant concern for their families, community and others involved in their care. In some cases we may offer specialist assessment and intervention.
Working for our organisation
Both the Sussex and Surrey locality teams offer a flexible and accessible service across the entirety of the county. The post holder will have some flexibility to negotiate a nominal base most suitable to them, but will be expected to work in an agile way, supporting the team and multiagency colleagues across the whole county.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The successful applicant will benefit from a varied job role that will include specialist direct work, consultation, developing and delivering training and offering supervision to colleagues in the team. There will also be opportunities to drive research and audit and access specialist training. The post holder will be expected to provide clinical input to either the Sussex or Surrey locality whilst being flexible to the needs of the whole region.
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 HPC, 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 (HPC)
Desirable criteria
- Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.
- Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology
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 working directly with children and young people posing a risk to others
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
- Anastacia O'Donnell
- Job title
- General Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07827280504
List jobs with Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust in Allied Health Professions or all sectors