Trac proudly powers the recruitment for

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

About

We provide NHS care and treatment for people living in south east England. Our mental health services provide care and treatment for people with conditions such as psychosis, depression, anxiety, dementia and personality disorder. Our vision is to provide outstanding care and treatment you can be confident in.

Contact

Address: Swandean; Arundel Road; Worthing; West Sussex; BN13 3EP
Contact Number: 01903 843000

Find out more

Jobs Website

Open

Ref: 354-CS-21837 Vacancy ID: 7700259

Senior Clinical Psychologist

Accepting applications until: 26-Mar-2026 08:00

Vacancy status: Open

Accepting applications until: 26-Mar-2026 08:00

Location

Gwefan: Orchard House
Cyfeiriad: Nevill Road
Tref: Lewes
Cod post: BN71PE
Major / Minor Region: West Sussex

Contract type & working pattern

Contract: Permanent
Oriau: Full time - 37.5 hours per week

Salary

Cyflog: £55,690 - £62,682 pa
Cyfnod cyflog: Yearly
Gradd: (NHS AfC: Band 8a)

Specialty

Prif leoliad: Mental Health

Come and join us

We’re looking for people who share our values of compassion, accountability and optimism to help us provide high quality care for the patients, carers, families and communities we serve. We specialise in NHS mental health and learning disability services and we’re proud to make a difference every day.

At SPFT we put people first. We’ll do everything possible to help you feel respected, valued and included. You’ll have opportunities to learn, grow and gain new experiences to support your career, with access to lifelong learning and professional development.

We actively promote flexible working and understand how important work life balance is, especially in healthcare. Whether it’s part time hours, hybrid working or flexible start and finish times, we’ll explore what works for you and the role.

We recognise that AI is becoming part of daily life and you may choose to use it to help prepare your application. We welcome innovation but ask that anything you submit reflects your own abilities, experience and voice. AI can support how you describe your skills and experience, but it should never replace your own words as we want to get to know you.

We’re shaping a workplace where ideas are encouraged, technology supports you and everyone has a voice in how we improve. If that sounds like the kind of organisation you want to be part of, we’d love to hear from you.

Swydd-ddisgrifiad a phrif gyfrifoldebau manwl

Scope and Authority

To provide a qualified, high-quality specialist psychology service to individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams, in line with best, evidence-based practice and trust care pathways.

To be responsible for holding and managing a clinical caseload and to exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the planning and prioritising of own workload and the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients, within the bounds of the service operational policy.
To use analytical and judgment skills and be responsible for taking clinical management decisions in complex clinical issues.
To clinically supervise assistant psychologists, trainee psychologists and junior psychologists, psychological therapists or counsellors and other staff as appropriate.

To professionally supervise and, when appropriate, manage, assistant psychologists and trainee psychologists

To provide consultation, mentorship, supervision and advice about psychological issues to other members of the team/service and other professionals working with service users, across a range of agencies/ settings as appropriate.

To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service/team.

To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team’s operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit, and to advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.

To utilise research skills to undertake service evaluation, audit and research as appropriate and disseminate the results in the service and nationally.

To propose and implement policy changes within the area served by the service.

Key knowledge and skills:

Significant assessed experience of working as a qualified practitioner psychologist
Experience of exercising clinical responsibility for clients’ psychological care and treatment
Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in the specific client group served by the team/service.
Experience of teaching, training and/or professional and clinical supervision.
Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
Demonstrate support for the values and beliefs of the Care Group and those of the Trust.

Main responsibilities:

To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
To undertake complex specialist psychological assessment and treatment of children young people, families and carer's accessing the service, including comprehensive risk assessment/management and care planning.
Provide advice, consultation, training and clinical supervision to other members of the service.
To exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service area.
To be responsible for contributing psychological knowledge and expertise to service development through participation, where practical, in regional multidisciplinary meetings and special interest groups, working parties etc that may impact on the functioning of the whole care group.

SPFT is committed to building a workforce that reflects the communities we serve. We particularly welcome applications from people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and from disabled candidates, as these groups are currently underrepresented.

Successful candidates are normally appointed to the bottom of the pay scale unless previous NHS experience in a similar role can be evidenced.

SPFT takes its responsibilities for safeguarding children, young people and adults at risk very seriously. We expect all staff and bank workers to share this commitment and complete the relevant safeguarding training for their role.

If you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date, please assume your application has been unsuccessful. However, we’ll always do our best to keep you informed as we know how much time and care goes into applying for a role.

In the event of a high number of applications, we may close this vacancy early.

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.

Person specification

Qualifications

Meini prawf hanfodol

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.
*For forensic psychologists working in forensic settings: Masters degree (with the award of the British Psychological Society qualification in forensic psychology or equivalent)
Professionally registered as a Practitioner Psychologist with the Health Professions Council (HCPC).

Knowledge/Experience

Meini prawf hanfodol

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 teaching, training and/or supervision.
Experience of the application of applied psychology in different cultural contexts and experience of working within a multicultural framework.
Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
Experience or demonstrable knowledge of working with the particular client group served by the team/service.
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).