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.
CAMHS Acute & Urgent Care; Patient Flow Clinical Service Delivery Lead
Accepting applications until: 15-Nov-2026 08:00
Vacancy status: Open
Accepting applications until: 15-Nov-2026 08:00
Key details
Location
- Site
- The Harbour Unit
- Address
- Princess Royal Hospital Lewes Road
- Town
- Haywards Heath
- Postcode
- Rh16 4EX
- Major / Minor Region
- West Sussex
Contract type & working pattern
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time
- Flexible working
Salary
- Salary
- £66,582 - £77,368 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Grade
- (NHS AfC: Band 8b)
Specialty
- Main area
- 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 tools like AI are becoming part of everyday life and you may choose to use them when preparing your application. We welcome this, as long as what you submit reflects your own experience, skills and voice. AI can be helpful for structuring or refining your answers, but it should not replace your own examples or create content that isn’t based on your real experience.
Our recruitment process is designed to get to know you, and we’ll explore your examples further at interview, so it’s important your application genuinely represents what you bring. You can read more about using AI in applications and interviews on our recruitment process page.
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.
Job overview
This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced and ambitious clinical leader to help transform urgent and acute mental health services for children and young people across Sussex.
We are seeking a CAMHS Acute & Urgent Care Patient Flow Clinical Service Delivery Lead to provide strategic and clinical leadership across our urgent and acute pathway, including COAST, CAMHS Liaison, Inpatient Services and Transitions.
About the Role
As a senior clinical leader, you will take overarching responsibility for the coordination, quality and performance of the acute and urgent care pathway. Working closely with clinical leaders, service managers and system partners, you will drive improvements in patient flow, reduce avoidable admissions, minimise length of stay and support timely, safe discharge planning.
You will provide visible leadership across services, ensuring that clinical priorities are translated into effective operational delivery and that services remain responsive to changing demand and system pressures.
The role will have clinical oversight of:
- CAMHS Outreach, Support and Treatment Service (COAST)
- CAMHS Inpatient Services
- CAMHS Liaison Services
- Transition Services
Advert
What You'll Be Doing
- Providing clinical and strategic leadership across the acute and urgent care pathway.
- Leading initiatives to improve patient flow and reduce delays in care.
- Driving implementation of the CYP IMHS model locally.
- Working collaboratively with acute hospitals, community CAMHS, social care, education and wider system partners.
- Supporting development of community alternatives to admission and intensive community support models.
- Leading quality improvement, governance and performance initiatives.
- Supporting workforce planning, recruitment, professional development and service sustainability.
- Contributing to business planning and engagement with commissioners and key stakeholders.
- Ensuring the voices of children, young people and families remain central to service development and delivery.
Working for our organisation
We provide mental health and learning disability care for children, young people and adults across Sussex.
Working in Sussex:
- Travel easily between coast and countryside, with a blend of picturesque villages and seaside towns.
- Enjoy a range of beautiful rural settings and bustling city locations.
- With easy access to Gatwick and Heathrow and excellent railway links across the UK there is plenty of opportunity for adventure.
This is a rare opportunity to play a leading role in shaping the future of urgent and acute mental health services for children and young people across Sussex. You will join a highly committed team at the forefront of service transformation and have the opportunity to influence care across the entire pathway.
Most importantly, you will make a lasting difference to the lives of children, young people and families at some of the most challenging times in their lives.
If you are a compassionate, innovative and influential clinical leader who is committed to improving care for children and young people, we would love to hear from you.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Essential Criteria
Qualifications & Registration
- Professional registration with a relevant healthcare profession (e.g. Nursing, Social Work, Occupational Therapy, Psychology or equivalent).
- Educated to Master's level or able to demonstrate equivalent knowledge and experience.
- Evidence of continuing professional development.
Experience
- Significant senior leadership experience within CAMHS, mental health, urgent care, crisis services, inpatient services or a related healthcare setting.
- Experience of leading multidisciplinary teams across complex services and organisational boundaries.
- Experience of managing clinical risk, patient flow, demand and capacity within healthcare services.
- Experience of leading service transformation and implementing change programmes.
- Experience of quality improvement, governance, performance management and service development.
- Experience of partnership working with a range of agencies including health, social care, education and acute hospital providers.
- Experience of staff management, supervision, recruitment and workforce development.
Knowledge
- Excellent understanding of children and young people's mental health services and care pathways.
- Knowledge of the CYP Intensive Mental Health Services (CYP IMHS) model and relevant national policy and guidance.
- Understanding of patient flow principles, admission avoidance, discharge planning and least restrictive practice.
- Knowledge of safeguarding, clinical governance and quality assurance frameworks.
- Understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion within healthcare delivery.
Skills & Abilities
- Strong strategic and operational leadership skills.
- Proven ability to influence and manage across organisational and professional boundaries.
- Excellent communication, negotiation and stakeholder management skills.
- Ability to analyse complex information and make timely decisions in challenging environments.
- Ability to lead through change and maintain focus on service quality and patient outcomes.
- Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage competing priorities.
Personal Attributes
- Compassionate, credible and visible leader.
- Committed to improving outcomes and experiences for children, young people and families.
- Resilient and able to work effectively in a fast-paced and complex environment.
- Demonstrates integrity, accountability and professionalism.
Applicant requirements
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Educated to Masters level in relevant subject or equivalent level or equivalent experience of working at a senior level
- Professional registration - Social Work England, NMC, HCPC, UKCP etc.
Desirable criteria
- Post-graduate degree, MBA or Masters in Management Studies or similar qualification or evidence of critical thinking, research, analysis and report writing at Masters degree level
Knowledge & Experience
Essential criteria
- Extensive experience at senior management level in a health or social care organisation.
- Demonstrated experience of leading organisation-wide change programmes and projects in complex and challenging environments.
- Experience of working with senior stakeholders, managing their expectations and reporting progress with delivery.
- Management of resources and good track record with change management, efficiency savings and financial recovery plans.
- Experience of writing and presenting successful Business Cases.
- Significant experience of working with local partners and the public in changing services including service closures and staff redundancies.
- Working successfully with partner organisations and stakeholders, including staff, in a consensual but decisive manner. Experience of managing stakeholder relationships.
- Significant experience of involving service users and carers in the development and improvement of services.
- Experience of setting up and implementing internal processes and procedures.
- Knowledge of Financial Systems e.g. monitoring budget management, processing invoices and procurement. Managing significant budgets and achievement of recurrent efficiency savings.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of creating and giving presentations to a varied group of internal and external stakeholders.
Skills, capabilities & attributes
Essential criteria
- Understanding of the national and local context for Mental Health, Substance Misuse and Learning Disability services, clinical and corporate governance and the regulatory framework for Foundation Trusts and can translate and apply into clear service strategies and plans.
- Clear understanding of multi-agency policies and programmes relating to this age group.
- Excellent verbal and written communication. Track record of meeting competing priorities and delivering under pressure.
- Strategic and business planning – able to think and plan strategically, tactically and creatively and gain agreement to relevant plans and to implement plans through service delivery.
- Ability to travel across sites.
- Ability to prepare, produce and present concise yet insightful communications for dissemination to senior stakeholders and a broad range of stakeholders as required. Ability to communicate complex technical issues clearly to a non-technical audience.
- Experience of developing and maintaining effective partnerships with stakeholders in the redesign of services.
- Ability to work systematically, effective planning and prioritisation.
Analytical & Judgement skills
Essential criteria
- Ability to analyse very complex issues where material is conflicting and drawn from multiple sources.
- Ability to effectively provide and receive complex information which may require analysis and interpretation and develop solutions if required.
- Capability to act upon incomplete information, using experience to make inferences and decision making.
- Numerate and able to understand complex financial and performance issues combined with deep analytical skills.
- Ability to analyse and judge the impact of projects on the organisations processes and ensure that any process changes are managed across the Trust.
- An understanding of effective systems for project and programme governance and the management of clinical and nonclinical risks.
People Management/Leadership
Essential criteria
- An open and facilitative style of leadership which can be adapted when necessary to ensure delivery of objectives.
- Leading and developing teams of managers, clinicians and administrative staff.
- Good performance management skills combining clarity around expectations, direction and holding others to account.
- Ability to secure resources for Programmes across all projects, negotiating with colleagues across the Trust for the release of resources - some part-time - to support the work programme.
- Experience of modernising services without additional resources.
- Demonstrated capabilities to manage own workload and make informed decisions in the absence of required information, working to tight and often changing timescales.
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Nicola Chainey
- Job title
- Head of Service CAMHS Acute & Eating Disorders
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07391415265
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