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Job summary

Main area
Mental Health
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 8b
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Part time - 22.5 hours per week
Job ref
354-FH-20516
Employer
Sussex Partnership NHS FoundationTrust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Crawley Probation
Town
Crawley
Salary
£62,215 - £72,293 pro rata
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
09/03/2025 23:59

Employer heading

Sussex Partnership NHS FoundationTrust logo

Clinical Lead Principal Psychologist

NHS AfC: Band 8b

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 excited by the challenge of launching a new service? Following on from a successful pilot in Brighton, the Reflect Primary Care Mental Health Treatment Requirement Service is ready to expand to Crawley. Reflect is commissioned by NHS England to provide Community Sentence Treatment Requirements in collaboration with the Probation Service and substance use services. The new service will provide Primary Care Mental Health Treatment Requirement for eligible people who are sentenced at Crawley Magistrate Court and county wide Crown Courts.

You will be based in Crawley Probation and work closely with our partner agencies, the Probation Service and Change, Grow, Live (CGL), to deliver high quality, evidence based psychologically informed interventions to an often high need and marginalised population.

As the Clinical Lead Psychologist you will lead a small team of multi professionals, having operational, strategic oversight and clinical responsibility for the service. You will play an integral role in shaping the service, supporting the team, building relationships with our partners and reporting to NHS England. You will support the team in their assessments and formulations, deliver training and clinically supervise team members.

Experience of working in the Criminal Justice System and primary care settings is advantageous but not essential.

Main duties of the job

You will provide a professional and clinical leadership role within the service/ team, providing a high quality, specialist applied psychology service to clients, where there are highly complex presentations.

You will be responsible for the supervision and governance of a group of mental health practitioners of various professional backgrounds. You will support psychological practice within the team through consultation, supervision, formulation and training.

You will utilise research skills for audit, service development and research within the area served by the team/service.

Working for our organisation

At Sussex Partnership we are committed to providing opportunities for flexible working. If you would like to work differently or different hours to as advertised, please get in touch to discuss this in more detail.

If you haven't thought about living in Sussex before then you should consider the following:

  • Journey from the coast to the countryside in minutes
  • Enjoy a lifestyle where there are renowned cycle routes and picturesque walks, including the famous South Downs Way in the South Downs National Park!
  • Embrace taking time to discover all the miles of scenic coastline, including Hastings, Bexhill on Sea and Eastbourne
  • Easy access to airports - Gatwick and Heathrow are both within 90 minutes of the county, providing links to Europe and beyond
  • Brighton and Hove or London are within easy reach via local and national bus routes and national mainline stations

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

You will be an applied psychologist with a core professional qualification recognised by the HCPC, and significant experience of working at a Senior Practitioner Psychologist level or similar, preferably in a service working with people with offending histories and / or high risk / challenging behaviours and presentations.

You will be able to demonstrate excellent consultation, communication and collaboration skills, and a successful / effective approach when working with a range of stakeholders / agencies within Health and Criminal Justice contexts. You will also be able to demonstrate experience in leadership roles, and will be an effective teacher, trainer and mentor to the staff you lead and support. A main part of the role is to produce psychological formulations for court report with a relatively quick turn-around. Experience of formulating, treatment planning, and communicating assessment outcomes to laymen is essential.

See Attached JD and PS for full details of role.

 

 

 

 

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.

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
Steve Eaton
Job title
Interim Service Manager
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
07464 925097
Additional information

Dr Gabriel Schnitzer

Clinical Lead, Brighton Reflect MHTR service

[email protected]

07887 571 686

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