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Job summary

Main area
Practitioner Psychologist
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 8a
Contract
Permanent
Hours
  • Full time
  • Flexible working
37.5 hours per week
Job ref
354-CS-21718
Employer
Sussex Partnership NHS FoundationTrust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Chalkhill
Town
Haywards Heath
Salary
£53,755 - £60,504 pa/pro rata
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
13/07/2025 23:59

Employer heading

Sussex Partnership NHS FoundationTrust logo

CAMHS Acute Senior Practitioner Psychologist

NHS AfC: Band 8a

Come and join us

We're looking for people who share our values (compassion, accountability and optimism) to help us provide high quality care to the patients, carers, families and local communities we serve. We specialise in providing NHS mental health and learning disability services.

So what can we offer you in return?

We're an organisation which puts people first. We'll do everything possible to help you feel respected, valued and included. We'll help you learn, acquire new skills and gain further experience to support your career development. And we'll provide the opportunity for you to bring your fresh ideas to work about how we can do things differently and continue improving.

You will also be joining a health and care system committed to working together to do the best we can for the communities we serve. Above all, at Sussex Partnership you'll have the chance to make a difference to the lives of the patients, carers and families across our communities.

As a Trust we are committed in making a difference. Your development is important to us, so don't forget to ask us during interview what opportunities we can offer. We can offer fully funded lifelong learning opportunities such as an apprenticeship from GCSE to Masters level.

If you like the sound of that, then come and join our team.

Job overview

Are you a Practitioner Psychologist, currently working in CAMHS or Acute Adult Services, and looking for a challenge in leading on the development of a new CAMHS service?

We are seeking to recruit an experienced and creative Psychological Practitioner to provide clinical intervention, leadership, supervision and training to the Psychological Professions to the CAMHS Acute Care Service. You will be involved in an exciting new development of the enhanced crisis / home treatment 7 day a week service, as an alternative to inpatient admission for Children and Young People experiencing acute mental health difficulties.

You will be part of developing the service to give children and young people living in Sussex a more appropriate and integrated range of services to meet their clinical needs. As the Practitioner Psychologist, you be an integral part of the multidisciplinary team ensuring that young people and their families receive timely, targeted assessment and effective Psychological interventions as part of an overall crisis / home treatment care plan.

The aim of the Sussex CAMHS 'hospital at home' is to provide an alternative to admission to support the local network around the young person (aged 12-18) whilst they are in the acute stage of mental health difficulties.  You'll be working closely and supporting the Psychological Professions staff, as well as nursing, psychiatry, occupational therapy, family therapy, social worker, mental health practitioners and support workers.

Main duties of the job

 

 

·       To clinically supervise assistant psychologists, trainee psychologists and junior psychologists, psychological therapists or counsellors and other staff as appropriate.

 

·       To professionally supervise and, when appropriate, manage, assistant psychologists and trainee psychologists

 

·       To provide consultation, mentorship, supervision and advice about psychological issues to other members of the team/service and other professionals working with service users, across a range of agencies/ settings as appropriate.

 

·       To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service/team.

 

·       To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team’s operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit, and to advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.

 

·       To utilise research skills to undertake service evaluation, audit and research as appropriate and disseminate the results in the service and nationally.

 

To propose and implement policy changes within the area served by the service

 

 

Working for our organisation

Join Sussex Partnership and you'll be part of an NHS trust that allows you to thrive and, in turn, thrives because of you. We believe in the vibrancy of our fantastic people. And how that leads to even better support for the people who use our services. 

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

1.     To carry out specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the service, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex psychological data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care, in order to reach a psychological formulation of the client’s difficulties.

 

2.     To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.

 

3.     To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

 

To provide specialist assessments of clients presenting with cognitive impairment due to a variety of causes or organic conditions, including pre-assessment counselling and neuropsychological and functional assessments, and to be able to adjust psychological interventions to work effectively with people presenting with complex needs due to cognitive impairment and organic disorders

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], including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as approved by the HCPC
  • Professionally registered as a Practitioner Psychologist with the Health Professions Council (HCPC

Knowledge/Experience

Essential criteria
  • Experience of specialist psychological working (assessment, formulation and treatment) 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, inpatient and residential care settings, maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
  • Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of applied psychology.
  • High level of knowledge and skills in neuropsychology and evidence of further practice and/or training since qualification.
  • Experience of the application of applied psychology in different cultural contexts and experience of working within a multicultural framework.
  • Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Apprenticeships logoNo smoking policyDisability confident leaderDefence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) - BronzeCare quality commission - GoodArmed Forces Covenant Gold AwardStep into healthPride In Veterans

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

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Chantal Lardner
Job title
CAMHS Acute Principle Psychologist
Email address
[email protected]
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