Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Principal Practitioner Psychologist / Principal Psychological Therapist
Get notified of more jobs like this · No spam, ever
How your CV stacks up
Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role
?%
Principal Practitioner Psychologist / Principal Psychological Therapist
NHS AfC Band 8b
£66,582 to £77,368 per annum (pro rata)
Permanent | Part time, 15 hours per week
Based at 78 Crawley Road, Horsham
Closing date: 1 October 2026
Looking for a senior leadership role where specialist trauma expertise can make a lasting impact?
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an experienced Principal Practitioner Psychologist or Principal Psychological Therapist to join our specialist Level 2 Rehabilitation Service at 78 Crawley Road in Horsham.
This is an exciting opportunity
Provide clinical and professional leadership within a highly specialised rehabilitation setting supporting adults with complex mental health needs, including severe and enduring mental illness, trauma-related presentations, dissociative disorders, autism, learning disabilities and personality difficulties.
As a key member of the multidisciplinary team, you will help shape psychologically informed care and play a central role in supporting recovery, independence and successful community living.
The opportunity
78 Crawley Road provides specialist inpatient rehabilitation through an 8-bed intensive rehabilitation unit and 16 rehabilitation bungalows, offering a flexible pathway tailored to individual recovery needs.
This role combines highly specialist clinical work with leadership, supervision, workforce development and service innovation. You'll work alongside colleagues across psychology, psychiatry, nursing, occupational therapy and social care to deliver evidence-based interventions and support positive outcomes for people with some of the most complex presentations within mental health services.
Reasons to use Rodeo
Start with a chat, not a search bar
Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
It searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
You'll also have the opportunity to contribute to service development, quality improvement and research activity within a Trust that places strong emphasis on trauma-informed care, co-production and lived experience.
What you'll be doing
- Providing highly specialist psychological assessment, formulation and intervention for adults with complex mental health needs
- Leading psychological provision within the Level 2 Rehabilitation Service
- Supporting multidisciplinary assessment, care planning and risk management
- Providing consultation and expert psychological advice to colleagues across the service
- Delivering clinical supervision, teaching and workforce development
- Promoting psychologically informed and trauma-informed approaches throughout the service
- Leading and contributing to service development, audit, research and quality improvement initiatives
- Supporting recovery-focused interventions that promote independence and successful transition to community living
About you
We're looking for an experienced and accredited psychologist, psychotherapist or psychological therapist with substantial post-qualification experience working with complex mental health presentations.
You will hold professional registration or accreditation with an appropriate body such as HCPC, UKCP, BACP, BABCP, ACP or BPC.
Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
You'll also bring experience in trauma-informed practice and dissociative disorders, alongside a passion for clinical leadership, service development and supporting multidisciplinary teams to deliver outstanding care.
Experience of supervision, staff development and service improvement will be particularly valuable.
Why join Sussex Partnership?
Sussex Partnership provides mental health, learning disability and neurodevelopmental services across Sussex and is committed to creating psychologically safe environments where staff can thrive.
We're proud of our commitment to:
- Trauma-informed care and recovery-focused practice
- Co-production and valuing lived experience
- Staff wellbeing and professional development
- High-quality clinical research and innovation
- Strong links with research and development teams
- Flexible and supportive ways of working
This is an opportunity to influence both clinical practice and service development while working in a specialist setting where psychological leadership is highly valued.
Ready to make a difference?
If you're passionate about trauma-informed rehabilitation, clinical leadership and improving outcomes for people with complex mental health needs, we'd love to hear from you.
Click Apply to view the full job description and person specification and complete your application through our recruitment system.
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London
Location