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-AB-20931
- Employer
- Sussex Partnership NHS FoundationTrust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Mill View Hospital, Hove
- Town
- Brighton and Hove
- Salary
- £62,215 - £72,293 Pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 15/06/2025 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 (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
We are recruiting a 0.6 WTE Principal Practitioner Psychologist / Psychological Therapist to provide professional leadership for the psychological practitioners working in acute and urgent care adult services in Brighton and Hove. You will work alongside a 0.7WTE Principal Clinical Psychologist in this role. 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 urgent care and will represent Psychological Professions within this setting. 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 and urgent 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 at Mill View working with psychologists, CBT, systemic and arts therapists, 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 Brighton and Hove based at Mill View Hospital. Our Trust has an exciting range of CPD opportunities available, including training in Mindfulness and MBCT, Family Interventions, CAT 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
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
- Emily Gray
- Job title
- Professional Lead Consultant Clinical Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07391408850
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