Consultant Practitioner Psychologist and Professional Lead | Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust
| Dyddiad hysbysebu: | 26 Chwefror 2026 |
|---|---|
| Cyflog: | Heb ei nodi |
| Gwybodaeth ychwanegol am y cyflog: | £76,965 - £88,682 per annum pro rata |
| Oriau: | Rhan Amser |
| Dyddiad cau: | 02 Ebrill 2026 |
| Lleoliad: | North Chailey, BN8 4JN |
| Cwmni: | Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust |
| Math o swydd: | Parhaol |
| Cyfeirnod swydd: | 7807824/150-CP2454-PC |
Crynodeb
We are seeking a qualified and highly experienced practitioner psychologist to be the consultant and lead for our children’s neuropsychology team at Chailey Clinical Services for 15 hours per week.
We provide a highly specialist neuropsychology-led service for children and young people (0–19) with perinatal or acquired brain injury, structural brain abnormalities, and complex neurodisability. Our work includes outpatient neuropsychological assessment and intervention, multidisciplinary paediatric neurorehabilitation, and consultation and intervention at Chailey, a specialist day and residential school for children with profound and complex neurodisability.
The role will include provision of consultancy and supervision to wider Trust colleagues, in particular with regards to psychology input into Child Development Centres and the Neurodevelopmental Pathway.
In this role, a Consultant Practitioner Psychologist will further develop their leadership and specialist neuropsychology expertise while working alongside highly specialist multidisciplinary teams supporting children and young people with complex neurodisability.
We would welcome applications from practitioners who have completed the knowledge and research components of the paediatric Qualification in Clinical Neuropsychology (QiCN) and are in the process of completing the practice component. If appointed, such candidates would be employed on a Band 8B development post, until the full qualification has been achieved.
• Work autonomously as a clinician, providing psychological assessment and treatment to patients and families with neurodevelopmental and psychological difficulties arising from factors associated with their brain injury and/or complex disability, and the emotional, social, behavioural and health needs that accompany these.
• Ensure delivery of quality comprehensive assessments which may include psychological and neuropsychological testing, screening by parent- and self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care.
• Formulate and devise psychological treatment plans based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of a client’s problems, employing methods based upon evidence of effectiveness across the full range of care settings.
• Adjust and refine these formulations, drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining several provisional hypotheses. Such analyses, interpretations and decisions should take account of both theoretical and therapeutic models as well as highly complex factors concerning biological, developmental and environmental processes, current and historical, that may have shaped the client.
Please refer to the attached Job description for further details.
We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays.
Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.
Why work for us?
• Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeing
• Varied environments: community hospitals, patients’ homes, and bases across Sussex
• Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retirement
• Excellent training, development, and research opportunities
• Accredited Living Wage Employer, we ensure fair pay for all our staff
• Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brighton
• Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networks
• Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust
Our values—Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence—guide everything we do.
We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.
This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.
Job summary
This role of Consultant Practitioner Psychologist and Professional Lead for the Chailey Paediatric Neuropsychology Service entails working in the field of brain injury, pathology or other abnormality and complex physical, learning and neurodisability using a wide range of clinical skills that include formal and informal assessment, formulation and diagnosis, behavioural and therapeutic intervention, teaching and consultation.
A Consultant Practitioner Psychologist works autonomously as an experienced clinician with complex cases, provides leadership to less experienced colleagues and yet-to-qualify staff through direction, support and supervision, and contributes to the wider service Leadership Team. Consultant Practitioner Psychologists also use their research and service development skills to make positive contributions and changes to their department at a more organisational level. Key attributes of a Consultant Practitioner Psychologist include:
• Commitment to supporting change
• Ability to understand and analyse a range of complex information
• Ability to manage one’s own emotions and the emotions of others
• Drive, self-motivation and assertiveness
• Exemplary listening skills
• Enthusiasm for joint working within multidisciplinary teams
• Ability to communicate in a variety of ways
• Advocacy for colleagues and client groups, ensuring proper regard for people’s dignity, choice and racial, cultural, sexual, and religious needs and preferences.
The postholder will be a key leader and supervisor to a vibrant and dynamic team of experienced and newly-qualified psychological professionals, trainee clinical psychologists on placement and assistant psychologists. The team works closely alongside a wider multidisciplinary team of Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists and Paediatricians, as well as teachers, care staff and nurses within a residential education setting. Knowledge and expertise in assessment and therapeutic intervention work with children, young people and their families is required, as well as experience in consultation with other professionals, and support and supervision for more junior qualified and trainee clinical psychologists. The postholder will also form part of the Senior Leadership Team, supporting operations and contributing to wider leadership oversight and governance of Chailey Clinical Services. The postholder will work autonomously within professional guidelines and within the overall framework of the Service’s policies and procedures. The role will include provision of consultancy and supervision to wider Trust colleagues, in particular with regards to psychology input into Child Development Centres and the Neurodevelopmental Pathway. The postholder will need to pass enhanced background checks.
The postholder will:
• hold a professional post-doctoral qualification in paediatric neuropsychology
• be eligible for full membership of the Division of Neuropsychology (DoN) and the Specialist Register of Clinical Neuropsychologists (SRCN)
• be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
• be a member or encouraged to pursue membership of the British Psychological Society (BPS) or similar national network and special interest groups
Communication and working relationships
• The postholder will have excellent communication skills working with vast and varied professionals, families and other organisations.
• The postholder will be expected to confidently communicate highly complex condition-related information to children who may present with emotional and behavioural challenges, and their families. Some of this may be very distressing.
• The postholder will provide expertise and advice to facilitate effective and appropriate psychological care of patients by all staff in and associated with CCS.
• The postholder will oversee, supervise and/or support the work of psychology students, assistants, trainees and qualified practitioner psychologists in CCS and in the CDCs.
• The postholder will be an autonomous practitioner who is responsible and accountable for their own practice and decision making, working to professional guidelines, standards and boundaries, and in accordance with Trust policies, and leading and supporting the development of other psychology professionals within the team to do the same.
• The postholder will ensure effective and timely communication at all levels (with patients, families, multidisciplinary team members and external agencies).
• The postholder will have experience and skill in working with children and adults who are confused and agitated, potentially aggressive, and in heightened states of emotional distress, including serious mental illness, where there is safeguarding concern, parental and family disharmony, etc.
• The postholder will be adept in communicating significant, sensitive, distressing and potentially life-changing information to patients and families when required.
Key Responsibilities
• Contribute to the evaluation and monitoring of the team’s operational policies and pathways through the deployment of professional skills in service evaluation, clinical audit and research, leading to an improvement in service delivery that has impact beyond own area of responsibility.
• Contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychology within CCS and the CDCs, by exercising the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of psychology, neuropsychology and related disciplines, and leading others to do the same.
• Assess and treat specialist caseloads of clients at an advanced clinical level and maintain associated records. Make highly skilled professional evaluations and decisions, both in autonomous clinical psychological assessment, clinical decision making, treatment selection and treatment evaluation, and in multidisciplinary team settings.
• Form judgments in leadership and practice and offer specialist opinion and support in relation to highly complex conditions, issues and situations that take account of the wide variety and sometimes conflicting needs of patients, families, colleagues, team and service, and in the context of limited resources. This, whilst maintaining service quality, team wellbeing and wider staff morale.
• Plan, manage and prioritise relevant waiting lists and clinical caseloads.
• Provide, develop and manage highly specialist interventions.
• Be responsible for the planning, management, and prioritisation of a clinical caseload.
• Contribute to the development of measures of outcome from psychological treatments, and methods of feedback from patients and families.
• Acknowledge and take responsibility for assessing and managing risk, including in a crisis or safeguarding situation, and supporting junior colleagues to do the same.
• Coordinate provision of specialist services; provide specialist advice to other professions and carers; provide psychological consultation to both psychology and non-psychology professionals.
• Promote partnership with colleagues in other health and social care settings and associated external services.
• Establish and maintain effective relationships with colleagues, other agencies, service users and their families.
• Develop and deliver education and training to the multidisciplinary team.
• Design and conduct clinical audit, service development and other governance activity in CCS and the CDCs in line with trust priorities, maintaining and implementing best practice according to recent evidence base from research findings and developments within the field of paediatric neuropsychology.
• Recruit, retain and supervise qualified, trainee and assistant psychological practitioners, and provide senior supervisory clinical psychology support to the multidisciplinary rehabilitation and transition team and to Child Development Centres, as required.
• Be a member of the Chailey Clinical Services Senior Leadership Team, contributing to the development and implementation of Trust and Service policies and procedures.
This advert closes on Tuesday 10 Mar 2026