At Sussex Partnership, we offer a range of career development opportunities to Allied Health Professionals to progress a career supporting adults and children through our mental health, learning disability and neurodiversity services.
Allied Health Professionals apprenticeships
We offer a number of apprenticeships within the Allied Health Professions.
This apprenticeship is available to existing members of staff and is delivered internally. Being a senior healthcare support worker involves providing high quality and compassionate specialist health and social care for a range of people, including children and young people. This apprenticeship is a particularly good option for support workers working in our Children and Adolescent Mental Health services (CAMHS).
For more information about this apprenticeship opportunity, please email skills.advisor@spft.nhs.uk.
We provide a career development pathway to enable support staff from within the Trust to progress and complete a degree-level occupational therapy apprenticeship to achieve their HCPC Registration. Occupational therapists work with individuals to enable them to participate in meaningful occupations and activities in everyday life.
The apprenticeship involves a wide mix of learning at the University of Brighton, in the workplace, formal off-the-job training and the opportunity to practice new skills in a real work environment. The occupational therapy apprenticeship programme is typically four years, usually starting in September.
Join us as an occupational therapist.
Apprenticeship pathway to becoming an Occupational Therapist
If you are thinking about becoming an occupational therapist via an apprenticeship route, the following sets out a potential career pathway. Depending on your existing qualifications, you may be eligible to apply for an occupational therapist apprenticeship first, without first having to do a Level 2 or Level 3 qualification.
All applicants will need to have approved level 2 qualification in English and maths, such as GCSEs/O Levels at a grade C or above. The Trust has an ESOL and Functional Skills programme to support staff members who do not have the necessary qualifications and require further support.
Commitment: 12 weeks
Entry criteria: To be working in a healthcare supporting role.
Overview
Mandatory training for all substantive healthcare support workers.
Job role
Roles include: Healthcare Assistant, Nursing Assistant, Occupational Therapy Assistant, Physiotherapy Assistant and Community Support Worker.
The Care Certificate is achieved by completing both theory and applied practice within the work environment. Completion of statutory and mandatory training requirements account for the completion of seven standards. The remaining eight modules are achieved through workbook completion and observed practice.
Commitment: 12 – 15 months
Entry criteria: Care Certificate
Overview
Frontline staff who help adults with care and support needs.
Job role
Support individuals to achieve their personal goals and live as independently and safely as possible, enabling them to have control and choice in their lives which is at the heart of person-centred care. May work in residential or nursing homes, domiciliary care, day centres, a person’s own home or some clinical healthcare settings.
Commitment: 15 – 18 months
Entry criteria: Care Certificate
Overview
Providing high-quality and compassionate specialist health and social care for a range of people.
Job role
Help registered practitioners deliver healthcare services to people. You will carry out a range of clinical and non-clinical healthcare or therapeutic tasks, under the direct or indirect supervision of the registered healthcare practitioner. You provide high quality, compassionate healthcare, following standards, policies or protocols and always acting within the limits of your competence.
Commitment: 48 months
Entry criteria: Level 3 qualification or equivalent and direct healthcare experience.
Overview
Working with individuals enabling them to participate in meaningful occupations and activities of everyday life.
Job role
Developing knowledge and professional skill set to enable you to work across a range of settings and environments. Working with individuals from birth to end of life, including those with physical and mental health conditions, injury, learning disabilities, long-term conditions, palliative care needs and those who find themselves displaced from their societies.
Find out more about the occupational therapy apprenticeship.
Advanced Clinical Practitioner
Advanced Clinical Practitioners manage defined episodes of clinical care independently, from beginning to end, providing care and treatment. This is a Level 7 Degree Apprenticeship.
Applicants must be registered with an appropriate professional healthcare body in the UK (e.g. HCPC, NMC or RCOT) and should normally have a minimum of three years post-registration experience.
Applicants must hold an existing degree qualification.
Applications for this apprenticeship are supported by the Nurse Education Team. If you would like to discuss this opportunity in more detail and find out when the recruitment process begins, please email NursingEducation
Find out more about the advanced clinical practitioner apprenticeship.
Preceptorship – Newly Qualified Practitioners
We support newly qualified occupational therapists and other Allied Health Professionals through our online preceptorship programme. As a newly qualified occupational therapist, when you start at Sussex Partnership you will be allocated a Preceptor to support you through the process of preceptorship and help you to further develop your practice. You will be given the time and space to consolidate your skills through a personally tailored development programme. You will also have the opportunity to connect with other new graduates for peer support.
You will receive regular clinical, professional and managerial supervision and be able to access internal training and development opportunities to help you to grow in confidence and skills as a professional and further develop your professional identity.
For more information on our preceptorship programme, please email AHP
Occupational therapy
We support learners for their clinical practice placement opportunities from a wide range of Universities, across the South East of England and further afield. We support the whole range of Occupational Therapy placement levels, from both the part and full-time routes and including Apprentice Occupational Therapists, working towards registration. Placements are provided across the broad range of Sussex Partnership's clinical delivery service areas.
We also hold career events each year for individuals interested in training as an occupational therapist, as well as attending local career sessions hosted by universities, to meet with learners directly.
Practice educators courses
AHP practice educator courses are facilitated by local universities throughout the year, and may be hosted online. A requirement for attending the training is for the clinician to offer to host a placement and then attend a follow up day to focus on reflections, group discussions and additional learning related to the experience of taking students.
Physiotherapy, Speech and Language Therapy and Dietetics
We provide a growing number of placements to physiotherapy, speech and language therapy and dietetic student learners. These can be organised within learning disability, neurodevelopmental services or our mental health services, depending on the competencies and requirements of the clinical placement.
To find out more about any of our professional education placements, please email AHPStudents
Read more about joining Sussex Partnership as an Allied Health Professional.
Return to Practice
We offer Return to Practice placements on request. Return to Practice provides the opportunity for Allied Health Professionals who have been away from the professions for some time to refresh their clinical and professional skills, and to reach the standard required to register with the HCPC. Find out more about our Return to Practice programme.