Senior Practitioner Psychologist

We are transforming our community services for people experiencing complex emotional difficulties in West Sussex. The development of a new CED pathway is well-underway and comes with training, posts and new models of working.

To support the implementation of this work we are recruiting to a new Senior Practitioner Psychologist post based in our Western locality (primarily Bognor ATS).

The successful applicant will have the opportunity to train in some or all of the psychological treatment modalities on the pathway (e.g. schema-informed therapy, DBT skills). You will work closely with other senior colleagues across the wider Western community teams and access specialist supervision and support from an experienced Principal Psychologist with expertise in this area.

We are looking for individuals with excellent clinical skills, an aptitude for engaging with colleagues and service users in an innovative and positive way, and a passion for working with people with these difficulties. You will be able to think creatively with partnership organisations about developing alliances in our treatment pathways, modelling our strong commitment to recovery, trauma-informed approaches, co-production, and equality.

To protect the health and safety of our staff/workers, patients, and those attending our sites, we encourage our workforce to get fully vaccinated against COVID.

As a Practitioner Psychologist working in our complex emotional difficulties pathway, you will work closely with other trained psychological therapists and multi-disciplinary colleagues. You will be required to offer assessments, formulations, and evidence-based interventions for people with CED. As the posts sit within community services, you will offer supervision and training to both psychological professionals as well as multidisciplinary colleagues. There will also be opportunities to build close working relationships with our local community of psychological professionals working into other teams. Amongst us we have a rich and diverse range of skills and experience and pride ourselves on being a helpful and supportive group. Your career progression is important to us and we will provide local opportunities to develop leadership and supervision skills.

Sussex Partnership provides mental health and learning disability care for all age groups across Sussex and for children and young people in Hampshire.

**Living and Working in West Sussex**:
Travel easily between coast and countryside, with a blend of picturesque villages and seaside towns
- Embrace the South Coast with a great range of historic and contemporary seaside towns
- According to the Met Office West Sussex is the sunniest county in the UK, making exploring the vast countryside all the more enjoyable
- We also have great schools locally.Find a school, academy or college - West Sussex County CouncilNurseries in West Sussex (childcare.co.uk)

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.

**Key survey results include**:

- 70% highlighting flexible working opportunities as a key point for satisfaction at work
- 79% reporting feeling able to make suggestions to improve the work within their team

77% identifying the opportunities to show initiative in their roles

**REQUIREMENTS**:
In order to be a successful Practitioner Psychologist in our team you will:

- Be a qualified Clinical or Counselling Psychologist, registered with the HCPC
- Have experience/understanding of evidence-based assessments and interventions for people experiencing complex emotional difficulties.
- Be comfortable working in a varied role, where you will support us in developing this pathway

**It would also be advantageous if you are**:

- Experienced in a leadership role and in providing supervision and teaching
- Have existing qualifications in CBT, schema therapy, DBT, Mentalisation Based Therapy or Structured Clinical Management.

We are committed to the promotion of excellent professional standards by embedding professional practice within the Trust clinical governance structures and we facilitate continuing professional development by a range of support structures including regular professional meetings. Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust promotes high quality clinical research, and our links with the research and development department are valued and strong.

See attached Job Description and Person Specification for full details.