Job summary
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a senior Practitioner Psychologist to be part of a supportive and innovative ATS team in Crawley. This role, which will involve taking a senior psychology role in psychology and psychological therapies within the Crawley Assessment and Treatment Team, has become available after our current 8a post holder was promoted within one of the other local North West Sussex ATS teams.
You will join a friendly, highly-skilled and enthusiastic community of psychologists and psychological therapists in North West Sussex. As well as the MDT team, the team comprises of an 8b lead psychologist, two 8a senior psychologists, one CAT therapist, one CBT therapist and two Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioners. Our psychological therapists offer specialist assessments and interventions, psychological formulation and team consultation. NW Sussex has also recently led on an initiative to set up compassion-focussed reflective practice groups for staff in each ATS team and compassionate leadership and trauma-informed care are models which are highly valued in the local area.
Main duties of the job
The successful candidate will have skills and experience in supervising other psychologists and psychological therapists, either qualified or in training. They will also have an interest in supporting colleagues to develop and use psychological thinking in their work and in contributing psychological perspectives to the wider team and service.
Crawley is the West Sussex pilot site for the national strategy to develop neighbourhood mental health services. As part of the Community Transformation innovations there have been a range of working groups and initiatives including embedding co-production at all levels and focussing specifically on reaching underrepresented communities.
Staff wellbeing is of central importance in the trust as a whole and in the North West Sussex Service. Our most recent psychological therapies away day focussed on this, as did our last NWS leadership away day. There is an emphasis on encouraging and supporting our staff to develop, whilst working in psychologically safe environments.
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is committed to becoming a diverse employer and inclusive workplace in which people from all backgrounds can belong and pursue enriching careers. We aspire to reflect the communities we serve and, therefore, encourage applications from candidates from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. You can read more about our equality and diversity strategy here.
About us
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.
We'd love you to join our Trust, rated 'good' overall and 'outstanding' for caring by the CQC. Our staff agree: in our recent staff survey, 82% told us that they recognise that care for patients is our top priority.
Other key survey results:
1. 70% highlighting flexible working as a key point for satisfaction at work
2. 79% reporting feeling able to make suggestions to improve the work in their team
3. 77% identifying opportunities to show initiative in their roles
Your benefits:
4. Excellent NHS Pension
5. Generous holiday entitlement (starting at 27 days + 8 bank holidays)
6. Access to a host of NHS discount schemes (Blue Light Card, Health Service discounts, discounted petrol etc.)
7. Free parking on-site
8. Access to full psychological support, via our internal wellbeing team
9. Excellent supervision programmes, with ongoing opportunities for training and development
Sussex Partnership is committed to reducing carbon emissions for healthier lives; we're actively working towards more sustainable healthcare across our whole Trust.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Sussex Partnership provides mental health and learning disability care for all age groups across Sussex.
Living and Working in West Sussex:
10. Travel easily between coast and countryside, with a blend of picturesque villages and seaside towns
11. Embrace the South Coast with a great range of historic and contemporary seaside towns
12. According to the Met Office West Sussex is the sunniest county in the UK, making exploring the vast countryside all the more enjoyable
13. Crawley is commutable from both London and Brighton
For informal enquiries please contact Dr Emma Bell, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Lead for Psychology and Psychological Therapies in North West Sussex Adult Community Services 07738758120
We would be happy to consider candidates interested in working across teams/ specialties in a split post ATS with Acute or ATS with Crisis teams or ATS with DOPMH, etc. We can be flexible in developing these opportunities and would welcome informal discussions.
If you have a disability and require reasonable adjustments throughout the application or recruitment process, please get in contact with the hiring manager.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
14. Post-graduate doctoral level training in applied psychology [or its equivalent for those trained before 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.
15. Professionally registered as a Practitioner Psychologist with the Health Professions Council (HCPC).
Knowledge/Experience
Essential
16. 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
17. Demonstrate specialist experience gained post-qualification 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).
18. Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
19. 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.
20. Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision. Experience of the application of applied psychology in different cultural contexts and experience of working within a multicultural framework.
21. Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
22. Experience or demonstrable knowledge of working with the particular client group served by the team/service
23. Knowledge of guidance and legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.
24. Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialist psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups ( personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).