Specialist Psychological Therapist: Cognitive Behavioural Therapist

This is an exciting opportunity for a dynamic and enthusiastic band 7 qualified CBT Therapist or Practitioner Psychologist to join the established Mental Health Support Teams (MHST) based in East Sussex. The post is 0.6 wte (3 days a week) and is a permanent contract. You will be expected to deliver evidenced based interventions for mild-moderate mental health issues, supervise clinical practitioners within the team and offer advice and consultation to schools.

You will mainly cover Hastings and Rother teams, including “Hastings 2”, a brand-new team. You will therefore have the benefits of working across an established team with the added opportunities that come with developing a new service. You will have the chance to build key relationships with Educational Psychologists and school Mental Health Leads, shape MHSTs development and be involved in Whole School Approach work.

You will have access to appropriate professional supervision, access to training opportunities offered by Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust and East Sussex County Council and the opportunity to join wider professional psychology or CBT networks within Sussex Partnership Trust/East Sussex CC.

You will play a key role in supporting the development of this team. You will hold a small caseload delivering brief evidence-based interventions to children and young people and/or their parents, for mild to moderate mental health difficulties, primarily adopting a cognitive behavioural approach. You will also have the opportunity to use other evidenced based modalities in your work, if formulation led, and may be able to develop the use of other approaches in the wider team develop (e.g. Solution-focused work).

Another key aspect of this role is offering supervision to trainee and qualified Educational Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) and, where appropriate, other members of the team.

You will be involved in triaging referrals, liaising with senior mental health leads in schools and working in partnership with the MHST and East Sussex County Council (ESCC) leadership team. You will also contribute to the development and evaluation of the service.

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

Working in Sussex:

• Travel easily between coast and countryside, with a blend of picturesque villages and seaside towns.
• Embrace the city life with great access to visit Brighton and London
• With easy access to Gatwick and Heathrow and excellent railway links across the UK there is plenty of opportunity for adventure

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:

• 70% highlighting flexible working as a key point for satisfaction at work
• 79% reporting feeling able to make suggestions to improve the work in their team
• 77% identifying opportunities to show initiative in their roles

Add East Sussex CC details

REQUIREMENTS

In order to be a successful Practitioner Psychologist or CBT therapist in our team you will be:

• Registered with the relevant professional body - the HCPC for Practitioner Psychologists or Accreditation with the BABCP for Cognitive Therapists.
• Experience in the delivery of evidenced based practice (including CBT) including assessment, formulation, intervention and evaluation.
• Passionate about supporting the prevention and early intervention of mental health difficulties for children and young people Experienced working within a mental health setting

It would also be advantageous if you are:

• Experienced working with Children and Young People experiencing mental health difficulties
• Experienced working within a school or have a good understanding of the school system

See attached Job Description and Person Specification for full details.

Anyone successful in this role will be enrolled on the PGCert Supervision of Therapeutic Practice at the University of Sussex. This is part of the MHST project development to

ensure appropriate supervision of EMHPs in delivering low intensity cognitive behavioural interventions within MHSTs. The course starts in October 2023 and runs for one year with 1 teaching day a week during term time from October to May. If all criteria are not met for enrolment on the supervision course, CPD will be offered. Course fees are covered by Health Education England as part of MHST development and job plans will be amended to provide study time to meet the demands of the course.

Please apply using the link in this advert, or for more information explore the attachments or contact: Kalpana Dorlikar Kalpana.Dorlikar@eastsussex.gov.uk