Band 7/8A Practitioner Psychologist

NHS; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 47,000 - 63,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare provider in Birmingham is seeking a Practitioner Psychologist for a role that involves providing psychological care in secure units. Candidates should have completed accredited training in clinical psychology and possess significant experience in assessment and treatment across various settings. The position promotes service user involvement and offers competitive salary. Join a supportive team committed to making a difference in mental health care.

Qualifications

• Satisfactory completion of a British Psychological Society accredited training course.
• Experience in psychological assessment and treatment across care settings.
• At least 2 years post qualification experience with training supervision.

Responsibilities

• Provide psychological advice and care to service users.
• Work alongside staff for effective service delivery.
• Promote a culture of service user involvement.

Skills

Clinical assessment

Psychotherapy

Communication skills

Teamwork

Education

Doctoral Level Postgraduate Professional Training in Clinical Psychology

Eligibility for Chartered Psychologists Register

Job description

Band 7/8A Practitioner Psychologist Preceptorship - Reaside Clinic

The closing date is 15 February 2026

Several exciting job opportunities are available within our established psychology team at Reaside Clinic and Hillis Lodge.

We have vacancies for permanent roles within our team. We are looking for someone who aligns with our values as a team and can also challenge us with compassion to be better.

Within the team, we have a range of experienced staff including Practitioner Psychologists, an Art Therapist, Specialist Psychological Practitioner and Assistant Psychologists. We also support the development of trainee psychological practitioners, who bring with them innovation, ideas and invitations to improve our work. We are down to earth, authentic and open in our communication, bringing in the diverse experiences we hold within the team across gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality, amongst other characteristics. Those who have worked here have loved it and others have even returned!

The Practitioner Psychologist vacancy at Reaside Clinic (male medium-secure unit) and Hillis Lodge (male low secure unit) involves working alongside a range of professionals, providing safe, containing and connected psychological advice, care and therapy to help people understand themselves, their mental health and offending behaviour.

Main duties of the job

Part of your role will be to work alongside staff to ensure the service user has the most effective, efficient and relationally connected and contained experience. We value and promote an ethos of service user involvement and co-production and are part of the National Culture of Care Programme.

The Practitioner Psychologist role is broad, and we advocate for you to maintain all aspects of your professional role, including service development, research, therapeutic excellence, and leadership as appropriate. You will be encouraged to find your 'shiny thing' to help you feel valued, and to promote the creativity and development of the team whilst contributing to the evidence base. We are looking for Registered Practitioner Psychologists who are interested in working in secure environments with highly sensitive content. Whilst secure experience will be highly desirable, we encourage a breadth of experience to help bring new thinking to our services as the culture evolves.

If you are ready for the next stage of your career progression, and able to compassionately challenge systems and staff to be better, hold integrity and also connect with the people around you, we hope you apply. The team at Reaside Clinic and Hillis Lodge will make you feel welcome, connected and push you to excel in ways that you can envision and beyond, so that alongside service users we are proud of what we do.

About us

Welcome to Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. Our 4000 clinical and support staff help us to improve mental health wellbeing and meet the needs of the 70,000 people we serve each year. We provide a range of mental healthcare services across Birmingham and Solihull, as well as specialised services nationally. We also offer medical, nursing and psychology training and are proud of our international reputation for both research and innovation.

Our population is culturally diverse, characterised in places by high levels of deprivation which create an increasing demand for our services and a necessity for us to make sure everyone can access the help they need. We are a team of compassionate, inclusive and committed people working together to provide excellent care to support our community. If you are looking for a place to belong, where you can make a real difference to people's lives, join our team where our warm welcome is waiting for you.

Job responsibilities

For further information about the main responsibilities please view the attached job description and person specification.

Psychology recruitment (youtube.com)

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Satisfactory completion of a British Psychological Society accredited Doctoral Level postgraduate professional training course in clinical/forensic psychology completion of which includes the study of models of psychopathology, psychometric and neuropsychological assessment, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.
• Eligibility for entry onto the Register of Chartered Psychologists

Experience

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and individual and group based treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including primary and secondary/ specialist care and inpatient/residential, outpatient and community team settings.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, including forensic contexts with clients of all ages across the lifespan and of wide-ranging presenting problems that reflect the full spectrum of clinical complexity and severity.
• At least 2 years post qualification experience, and formal training in supervision, enabling the post holder to independently supervise psychology trainees in accordance with relevant criteria adopted by local University Psychology Training Courses criteria.

Knowledge

• Well developed theoretical and practical knowledge of the field of clinical psychology, consistent with doctoral level professional training and further post qualification study, training and supervised experience during a minimum of 18 to 24 months as a Specialist Clinical/Forensic Psychologist.
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills (written and verbal) including the ability to empathically, sensitively and effectively communicate clinical and condition related information to clients, their families, carers and professional colleagues (within and outside the NHS) that is extremely complicated or technical; extremely sensitive and potentially distressing to the recipient; or that is extremely contentious or challenging.
• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment commensurate with doctoral level training, including specialist clinical interviewing, behavioural observation, complex psychometric testing and specialist neuropsychological testing.
• Skills in providing consultation and advice from a psychological perspective to members of other professional and non-professional groups
• Awareness and understanding of the differential needs of people from black and minority ethnic groups and of the service issues arising within a multicultural urban area.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific 'difficult to treat' groups (e.g. personality disorder, challenging behaviour, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and DoH policy and implementation guidelines in relation to mental health in general and the client group with which this post is concerned.

Personal

• Ability to interact and to build and sustain relationships with people with mental health problems and associated disabilities
• Is a 'team player' and has demonstrated ability to work and deliver to team and organisational objectives
• Ability to interact effectively with staff from all disciplines.

Other

• Ability to accept and use supervision appropriately and effectively.
• Awareness and understanding of the purpose and mechanisms of clinical governance and an ability to employ such mechanisms to maintain and improve standards of clinical practice

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

£47,810 to £62,682 a year per annum, pro rata