Clinical Psychologist

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust; Brighton; On-site; CAD 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional mental health service provider is seeking a Band 8a Psychologist to lead the Long-Term Conditions segment within the Paediatric Psychological Support Service at the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital in Brighton. This role involves managing a clinical caseload, supervising junior staff, and fostering collaborations with healthcare teams. The ideal candidate will possess doctoral-level qualifications in applied psychology, professional registration, and experience with children in health contexts. Flexible working arrangements are available to support a balanced work/life dynamic.

Benefits

Flexible working arrangements

Continuous training and development opportunities

Qualifications

• Experience in psychological assessment and treatment in various care settings.
• Registered Practitioner Psychologist with HPC.
• Experience with multicultural client groups.

Responsibilities

• Supervise band 7 psychologists and trainees.
• Manage clinical caseload of 4 cases weekly.
• Liaise with medical teams and social services.

Skills

Working with children

Specialist psychological assessment

Supervision of clinical cases

Cultural competency in psychology

Research methodology knowledge

Education

Doctoral level training in applied psychology

Professionally registered as a Practitioner Psychologist

Tools

Clinical supervision tools

Job description

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Band 8a Psychologist, to lead the Long-Term Conditions part of Paediatric Psychological Support Service based at the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital.

The post-holder will be part of a small team of psychologists working with children diagnosed with a range of long-term medical conditions (e.g. inflammatory bowel diseases, juvenile arthritis, epilepsy) living in Brighton and Hove. This role includes close collaboration with another 8a psychologist who leads on working with children with long-term conditions living outside of Brighton and Hove.

Main duties of the job

The Long-Term Conditions Service offer short-term therapy, as well as consultation and training to support the needs of children diagnosed with long-term medical conditions. as a service, we draw on a range of therapeutic approaches including CBT, systemic, mindfulness, ACT and EMDR. The focus of this role would be to oversee the incoming referrals to the service and responses to these, including holding a clinical caseload and supervising the clinical work of a band 7 psychologist (and at times a trainee clinical psychologist). This role would suit a flexible and dynamic practitioner who is able to develop treatment plans that are tailored to the needs of children, young people and their families, which might include individual, parent-child, parent or group work, as well as close liaison with medical teams and other agencies. There is room for innovation within the service, with previous practitioners offering Tree of Life groups, Woodland Wellbeing days and sea swimming groups to support young people to have a different experience of themselves and build their confidence. Opportunities to develop appropriate staff training and group work is also supported where this meets a clinical need. The post-holder would be encouraged to supervise or co-supervise a trainee clinical psychologist.

About us

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust provides mental health and learning disability services in and across Sussex. Psychological therapies are highly valued in Sussex Partnership and Psychological therapists occupy a range of senior positions across the Trust, it is a great Trust to work in as a Psychologist. Working here offers continued training and development, variety, plus all the benefits of living in Sussex. Sussex is a beautiful county with good transport links, vibrant communities, rural areas, and tourist attractions, including the Coast and the South Downs. The Trust has recently been rated by the CQC as Good overall and Outstanding for care.

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.

Job responsibilities

We are looking for an enthusiastic and innovative practitioner who is passionate about and skilled in working in health settings and/ or of working with children, who is keen to develop their skills in the psychology of health conditions. If this sounds like you, please contact us.

• Supervision of band 7s 2 x 1 hour per month
• Supervision of a trainee could co-supervise with a colleague (1 hour per week s/v) or supervise full placement (1.5-2 hours per week s/v)
• Oversight of and responses to referrals/ queries about the service outside of referrals meetings and afterwards (e.g. reviewing and confirming referral response letters drafted by admin)
• Attendance at referrals meeting/ LTC team meeting/ business meeting (currently all on a Tuesday)
• 4 direct clinical cases weekly if not supervising a trainee. If supervising a trainee, weekly direct clinical hours would be replaced by supervision (3 clinical cases for co-supervising; 2 direct clinical cases if supervising full placement)
• Occasional more urgent response on ward if there is capacity
• Liaison with medical teams/ school/ social care/ other agencies ad hoc as needed for cases/ referral queries

Person Specification

Qualifications

• 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, approved by the HPC.
• Professionally registered as a Practitioner Psychologist with the Health Professions Council (HPC)

Knowledge/Experience

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings.
• Demonstrate specialist experience gained postqualification of working as an applied psychologist with evidence of having received a substantial amount of clinical supervision (normally in the region of approximately 50 hours).
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical 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 the application of applied psychology in different cultural contexts and experience of working within a multicultural framework
• Knowledge of guidance and legislation in relation to the client group and mental health
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialist psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).
• High level of knowledge and skills in neuropsychology and evidence of further practice and/or training since qualification.
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists
• Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HPC

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.