Job overview
We have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Practitioner Psychologist to join our South East Forensic CAMHS service; a specialist community child and adolescent mental health service for children and young people who present with a serious risk of harm to others and have a range of complex needs, across the South East of England.
Our multidisciplinary service is made up of three locality teams in 1) Kent & Medway, 2) Surrey and 3) Sussex who work closely together in a single professional network, to share knowledge and experience and provide supervision and support.
We are looking for a post holder to join colleagues across the Region and provide input and support to Kent and Medway. The post is 22.5 hours per week/ 0.6FTE
Main duties of the job
We run a predominantly liaison and consultation service, offering specialist advice, support, structured consultation and training to multiagency colleagues who are working with young people whose behaviour is causing significant concern for their families, community and others involved in their care. In some cases we may offer specialist assessment and intervention.
The successful applicant will benefit from a varied job role that will include specialist direct work, consultation, developing and delivering training and offering supervision to colleagues in the team. There will also be opportunities to drive research and audit and access specialist training.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The Kent locality team offers a flexible and accessible service across the entirety of the county. The post holder will have some flexibility to negotiate a nominal base most suitable to them, but will be expected to work in an agile way, supporting the team and multiagency colleagues across the wider South East Region.
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
Essential
- 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
Essential
- 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)
- High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies
- High level of knowledge and skills in neuropsychology and evidence of further practice and/or training since qualification.
- Formal training in supervision of other psychologists
- Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC.
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Applying for this NHS job
This advert is for Senior Practitioner Psychologist in Forensic CAMHs with Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust in Highmore. It is listed as a Band 8 Psychologist role. The advertised salary is £57,528 - £64,750 Pro rata. The contract type is Permanent: 1 vacancy based in Kent + Medway. The application deadline is 10 Sep 2026.
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