Consultant Psychiatrist, East Assessment & Treatment Service

We are seeking a Consultant Psychiatrist to join the East Assessment and Treatment Service (ATS) in Brighton & Hove for a three-month secondment. You will be joining a mutually supportive, friendly and enthusiastic team with a real passion for what we do. Brighton and Hove Community services are split into two main teams, East and West ATS, each one further subdivided into 3 smaller clusters. Each cluster has a geographical patch determined by alignment to a small number of GP surgeries, this helps facilitate good liaison with our Primary Care colleagues. This post will be in Park Crescent Cluster.

This job attracts a Recruitment and Retention payment of £25,000, in addition to (up to) £8000 relocation allowance. The RRP payment is paid in the following instalments:

• £5000 payment paid on appointment
• £5000 retention payment paid at 12 month anniversary of employment
• £6500 retention payment paid at 30 month anniversary of employment
• £8500 retention payment paid at 48 month anniversary of employment

The Recruitment and Retention payment is pro rata for part time employees. If you would like further information, or to know the full terms of the Recruitment and Retention Payment and/or the Relocation Allowance, then please do not hesitate to contact our Medical Staffing Team.

Main duties of the job:

• Provide specialist medical/psychiatric assessment and evidence-based treatment to patients referred to the service.
• Provide clinical supervision to the HST and informal advice and supervision to non-medical members of the team.
• Fulfil the duties of Responsible Clinician for patients subject to Community Treatment Orders including attendance at Managers Hearings and Tribunals.
• Mental Health Act assessments for patients on the team caseload.
• Liaison with inpatient Responsible Clinicians.
• Liaison with the forensic team/drug and alcohol services and risk panel as required.

Sussex Partnership provides mental health and learning disability care for all age groups across Sussex and for children and young people in Hampshire. Brighton & Hove is a unique, vibrant and exciting place to live and work, offering a lively city life with the opportunity to get away from it all to the South Downs National park just on the doorstep. The city offers excellent access to London and is in close proximity to Gatwick Airport. Brighton is proud to be a diverse and inclusive city, and this is reflected in the staff mix employed by SPFT, and by the ethos of the Trust. 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 are a teaching Trust with strong links with Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS). Every cluster has a trainee, including F2, GP trainees, core or higher trainees. We also provide training for medical students and Physician Associate students from BSMS.

The successful candidate will work as part of the wider MDT and demonstrate:

• Excellent clinical skills using bio-psycho-social perspective and wide medical knowledge;
• A wide range of specialist and sub-specialist experience relevant to post within NHS or comparable service;
• The ability to manage clinical complexity and uncertainty;
• Commitment to shared leadership & collaborative working to deliver improvement;
• The ability to work in a participatory way so that shared decision making and conversations around formulation/diagnosis and ongoing care are a collaborative endeavour with the people who access our service.

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

Person specification:

• MB BS or equivalent medical qualification
• Fully registered with the GMC with a licence to practise at the time of appointment.
• Included on the GMC Specialist Register OR within six months
• In good standing with GMC with respect to warning and conditions on practice
• Approved clinician status OR able to achieve within 3 months of appointment
• Holds and will use valid UK driving licence OR provides evidence of proposed alternative.

Excellent knowledge in specialty, excellent clinical skills using bio-psycho-social perspective and wide medical knowledge, excellent oral and written communication skills in English, wide range of specialist and sub-specialist experience relevant to post within NHS or comparable service.

Sussex Partnership NHS FT is committed to supporting a diverse workforce that reflects our communities. Our workforce is currently under-represented from Black and Minority, Ethnic and disabled communities and we would welcome applications from these communities.

We regret that we are unable to advise candidates if they have not been shortlisted. If you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date please assume that you have been unsuccessful on this occasion. In the event of an excessive number of applicants the Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy earlier than indicated.

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust takes its responsibilities for the safeguarding and protection of children and young people and vulnerable adults very seriously and expects this of all its employees and bank workers.

Successful candidates are normally offered salaries at the bottom of the relevant salary range. However, where previous or equivalent NHS experience in a similar role can be demonstrated and evidenced, this may be taken into consideration when setting the starting salary.