Welcome from our Chief Executive - Samantha Allen

Our organisation is expanding and we're looking for people with the right values, skills and/or potential to join us. We need people with energy, expertise, enthusiasm to help us provide the very best possible specialist NHS mental health and learning disability care. This involves helping us achieve our strategy to improve the quality of life for the communities we serve through People, Prevention and Partnerships.

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.

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

Samantha Allen

Chief Executive

Job overview

Applications are invited from Applied Psychologists for a temporary Band 7 post available until November 2022 within the Brighton & Hove Community Mental Health Services. The post is 0.72 WTE, 27 hours per week and has become available to cover a secondment. Applicants must be registered as Practitioner Psychologists with the HCPC.

The post-holder will be part of the Brighton and Hove Assessment & Treatment Service, which provides community mental health services for adults of all ages. The service is multi-professional and based across two hubs in East and West Brighton and this post will be based within the West hub.

Main duties of the job

Brighton Psychologists and Psychological Therapists are valued members of the service and offer specialist assessments and interventions, psychological formulation and team consultation. The post-holders will be embedded in a multi-disciplinary team so will need to be very enthusiastic about this way of working. The successful candidate will have skills and interests in supporting professional colleagues to develop and use psychological thinking in their work and in contributing psychological perspectives to service users' care plans.

Covid-19 full vaccination may be a condition of employment for this role, unless an exemption applies. The successful applicant may have contact with vulnerable service users and we will therefore seek proof of being fully vaccinated during the recruitment process.

Working for our organisation

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust provides mental health, learning disability and substance misuse services in and across Sussex. It aims to realise the potential of everyone who uses its services and to enable staff to do a great job. Sussex Partnership has teaching status and is developing into one of the country's leading teaching mental health trusts. Working here offers continued training and development, variety and a rewarding challenge, plus all the benefits of living in Sussex.

We encourage flexible working. We know that a positive work/ life balance brings about huge health-related benefits, which has a positive impact on the care we provide. Please speak to us about flexible working, for example, home-working, part time hours, flexible start/ finish times or anything else. If it works for you and works for the role, we'll do our best to make it happen.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities
These roles involve working with people with complex mental health problems, their families and carers. The post-holders will need to be creative and flexible in adapting to change, and able to educate and inspire others in working with people with complex mental health problems.

The successful candidate will join a friendly, highly-skilled and enthusiastic community of psychologists and psychological therapists in Brighton & Hove working as part of the Assessment and Treatment Service.

Please see the attached Job Description document for full details of main duties and responsibilities.

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 HPC
• Professionally registered as a Practitioner Psychologist with the Health Professions Council (HPC)

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 HPC

Sussex Partnership NHS FT is committed to supporting a diverse workforce that reflects our communities. Our workforce is currently under-represented from Black and Minority, Ethnic and disabled communities and we would welcome applications from these communities.

We regret that we are unable to advise candidates if they have not been shortlisted. If you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date please assume that you have been unsuccessful on this occasion.

In the event of an excessive number of applicants the Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy earlier than indicated.

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust takes its responsibilities for the safeguarding and protection of children and young people and vulnerable adults very seriously and expects this of all its employees and bank workers. The Trust works with adult and children's social care to ensure that the integrated service has systems in place to equip staff and bank workers with the knowledge and skills to recognize abuse, and take action to safeguard and protect vulnerable adults and children and young people. It is expected that all staff and bank workers familiarise themselves with the appropriate structures and policies and with the Sussex child protection and safeguarding procedures and the Sussex multi-agency policy and procedures for safeguarding vulnerable adults and undertake the relevant essential training and further training appropriate to their role.

Successful candidates are normally offered salaries at the bottom of the relevant salary range. However, where previous or equivalent NHS experience in a similar role can be demonstrated and evidenced, this may be taken into consideration when setting the starting salary.