Band 7 Senior Mental Health Practitioner

Ministry of Defence (Defence Medical Services); Stanford on Soar; On-site; GBP 46,000 - 53,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading government health service seeks a Band 7 Senior Mental Health Practitioner at Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre. The role involves providing specialized mental health services for military personnel. Applicants should have significant experience in psychological therapy and relevant registration. Offers include flexible working options and professional development opportunities.

Benefits

Access to learning and development

Flexible working options

Free parking

Swimming Pool and Gym Access

9 Hole Golf Course

Qualifications

• Significant experience as a psychological therapy practitioner.
• Registered with a professional body such as HCPC.
• Experience in adult community mental health.

Responsibilities

• Provide psychological assessment and evidence-based interventions.
• Supervise less experienced therapists.
• Ensure high-quality mental health patient management.

Skills

Clinical assessment skills

Psychological therapy delivery

Clinical supervision

Team collaboration

Education

Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Registered Mental Health Nurse

Post-graduate training in NICE recognised modality

Tools

Psychological assessment tools

Therapeutic frameworks (e.g., CBT)

Job description

Band 7 Senior Mental Health Practitioner

The closing date is 15 October 2025

At the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC) we are an inclusive, dedicated organisation working to provide outstanding care to our entitled personnel.

Are you a Band 7 Senior Mental Health Practitioner looking for an exciting role, working alongside the military, which offers numerous benefits and opportunities? If the answer is yes, then we are looking to appoint a professional and patient-focused individual with a strong commitment to providing a high-quality service to work within our friendly and welcoming team at Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre Stanford Hall, Loughborough.

The post is full time working 37.5 hours per week.

Could this be the role for you? If so, we'd love to hear from you!

• Access to learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity
• Free parking
• Swimming Pool and Gym Access
• 9 Hole Golf Course
• Woodland Walk
• Small Shop and Canteen on Site

Main duties of the job

The Senior Mental Health Practitioner will work within a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) setting to provide a specialised/occupational mental health service, for service personnel who are receiving inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation at DMRC. There will also be a requirement to network as required outside DMRC, to the broader Defence Community Mental Health teams (DCMHs) and Defence Medical Services.

The post holder will have extensive experience of delivering manualised psychological therapy in a stepped care service.

About us

Our success depends on our people, our Whole Force regular and reservist military, civil servants and contractors, all working as one, working together seamlessly to deliver for us.

Our civil servants are a central part of this Whole Force, developing strategy, making policy, supporting ministerial decision-making and Parliamentary processes. In fact, with over 2,000 different roles working across 650 sites around the world, now really is an excellent time to join one of the largest, most exciting departments in government.

The Ministry of Defence is committed to attracting and retaining people from across the full range of backgrounds and enabling flexible ways of working as the norm. We offer maternity, adoption or shared parental leave of up to 26 weeks full pay followed by 13 weeks of statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid, and paternity leave of 2 weeks full pay.

In return, you can expect a department that helps you learn and develop that recognises your expertise and contribution, both as an individual and part of a team.

If you've ever wanted to do more, see more, go further or be better, we have roles in more professions and vocations than ever before. Let's see where your future will take you, together.

Job responsibilities

The Senior Mental Health Practitioner will be required to:

• Require robust clinical assessment skills and an understanding of an occupational role and needs of individuals presenting to the service.
• Provide psychological assessment and evidence based interventions both to individuals and via group delivery formats.
• Clinically supervise less experienced therapists.
• Be responsible for ensuring clinical outcome data is routinely entered and appropriately collated, and lead in service evaluation, outcome measurement, audit and research projects to benefit service users.
• Ensure the systematic provision of high-quality mental health patient management. This will be through risk assessment, and mental health assessment and treatment. Facilitating liaison between the Departments of Community Mental Health (DCMHs), the Psychological Wellbeing Service (PWS), and all teams within DMRC to maintain the patient journey and patient safety.

Please refer to the attached Job Description and Person Specification.

Selection Process

The sift will be completed within 10 working days of the vacancy closing date. Interviews will be held on a date to be confirmed.

At application stage you will be assessed against the following:

Behaviours:

• Leadership
• Developing Self and Others
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together

Experience: CV

• Please ensure you demonstrate that you have the required skills, knowledge, experience, qualifications and memberships in your CV and that you have saved it, making sure that any reference to your personal details have been removed from your CV prior to submitting your application.
• Please provide information of how you meet the criteria set out in the Job Description. You may wish to further include examples of how you have tackled similar tasks or demonstrated the skills outlined in the job advert.
• Please ensure you show how you meet the behaviours listed above.

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

At interview you will be assessed against the following:

Behaviours:

• Leadership
• Developing Self & others
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together

Technical Skills:

• NHS Core NHSC1 Communication
• NHS Core NHSC2 Personal & People Development
• NHS General NHS G6 PeopleManagement
• NHS Health & Wellbeing HWB7 Interventions & Treatment

At interview a case study will be required; the case study will be provided 10 minutes before the interview.

The interview will consist of a mix of direct questions and clinical situation-based scenarios.

Access to the NHS pension scheme is available to the successful candidate.

There will be no reimbursement for any travel expenses for the interview.

Requests to work flexibly and/or part time will be considered, taking into account business needs.

All employees joining Ministry of Defence who are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a 6-month probation period (unless otherwise advised) effective from the employment start date.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check.

If found successful for this position, you will be required to provide evidence of your immunity to Hepatitis B. Please note that evidence of your vaccination is not a proof of your immunity, but your serology levels will be required. Failure to provide sufficient evidence may result in the offer of employment being withdrawn.

To be considered for this role, qualifications and memberships detailed must be held in full, prior to submitting your application.

There is no requirement to deploy as this is met by our uniformed personnel, but you will form the continuity of care required by our patients when based at home.

The post does NOT offer relocation expenses (move of home, excess fares or temporary transfer). Non-Standard move applicants will be eligible for the full package, subject to eligibility.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a visa. It is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system.

Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

This vacancy is part of the A Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/making-the-civil-service-a-great-place-to-work-for-veterans

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please [e-mail].

The Ministry of Defence requires all candidates who are successful at interview to declare any outside interests. These declarations will be discussed with successful candidates following the interview process and before a formal offer of employment is made, as some outside interests may not be compatible with MOD civilian roles. This will not, in the majority of cases, prevent employment in MOD, but it is a measure that must be taken to ensure that appropriate mitigations can be put in place to manage any potential, perceived or actual conflicts of interest from the first day of employment.

The Ministry of Defence adopts a zero tolerance approach to unacceptable behaviours, which includes bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination, and victimisation. You will not be eligible and will not be considered for this post if you have been dismissed from a role for such unacceptable behaviours within the last five years. This will also apply if you resign or otherwise leave a role but, because of an adverse decision, would have been dismissed for gross misconduct had you continued in that employment. Pre-employment checks will be carried out.

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. This is a non-contractual arrangement where all office-based employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in office, subject to capacity and any required workplace adjustments. Requirements to attend other locations for official business, or work in another MOD office, will also count towards this level of attendance. Applicants can request further information regarding how this may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details). Defence Business Services cannot respond to any questions about working arrangements.

Person Specification

Experience

• Significant experience working as a psychological therapy practitioner in a stepped care service and demonstrating the competences as required and are registered under a professional body such as Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and accredited to a governing body such as BABCP.
• Experience of working in adult community mental health.
• Experience of service and/or line management responsibility
• Post-qualification training in clinical supervision
• An interest in working with the military.

Registrations and Memberships

• Please provide your membership registration number.
• Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC),
• Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
• Social Work England (SWE)
• Demonstrate clinical competence in an evidence-based psychological therapy by accreditation with the appropriate governing body (e.g., with the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) for CBT or EMDR United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland
• You are required to be registered with the relevant professional body, as detailed in the advert, prior to submitting your application.
• Your application will not progress should you fail to provide a valid membership registration number.

Provide a CV

• Please copy and paste your full CV as your response to this question; you will not be able to upload your CV as an attachment.
• Please ensure to refer to the essential criteria where applicable as your application may be rejected should insufficient information to shortlist be included.
• Please use double spacing where possible.

Qualifications

• Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Registered Mental Health Nurse
• Social Worker or Occupational Therapist (OT)
• Post-graduate training and accreditation in National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recognised modality for common mental disorders (e.g. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing)
• Demonstrable experience of working as a graduate level professional in adult mental health.

Functional Competence Framework

• The application of specialist knowledge to the specific needs of the patient population e.g., substance misuse and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
• Additional post-qualification training in psychological therapies.
• Application of previous experience to the development of the MH liaison role, including developing links with the inpatient physical health nursing cadre to increase their level of knowledge and competence with mental health presentations.
• Provide advanced mental health practitioner knowledge and skills, in relation to the area of clinical expertise, regarding psychological wellbeing.

Behaviour Statement

• Have you been dismissed for gross misconduct relating to bullying, harassment, discrimination or victimisation from any role in the past five years, or resigned or otherwise left a role but would have been dismissed for such gross misconduct because of an adverse decision, had you continued in that employment?
• Please respond with Yes or No as appropriate.

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.

Ministry of Defence (Defence Medical Services)

Address

Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre Stanford Hall

£46,148 to £52,809 a year, pro-rata for part time. *Pay award pending

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

K0003-25-0373

Job locations

Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre Stanford Hall