Band 7 Senior Mental Health Practitioner

NHS; Wrexham; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Part time

Job summary

A healthcare organization in Wrexham is seeking a part-time Senior Mental Health Practitioner to provide specialized mental health services to military personnel. The ideal candidate will have a background in psychological assessment and CBT, along with at least 2 years of post-registration experience. This role offers flexible working hours, learning opportunities, and a supportive team environment.

Benefits

Access to learning and development

Flexible working options

Free parking

Reimbursed professional registration fee

Qualifications

• Minimum 2 years post-registration experience in adult community mental health.
• Experience delivering psychological therapy in a stepped-care service.
• Registered with a professional body.

Responsibilities

• Provide a high-quality mental health service for assessment and treatment.
• Lead psychological assessments and interventions for individuals and groups.
• Clinical supervision of less experienced therapists.

Skills

Psychological assessment

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

Mental health service delivery

Education

Registered Mental Health Nurse or similar

Job description

Band 7 Senior Mental Health Practitioner

Closing date: 27 November 2025.

At Defence Primary Healthcare (DPHC) 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 yes, 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 Hightown Barracks, Wrexham.

The post is part‑time, working 32 hours per week.

• 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
• Professional registration fee reimbursed

Please be advised that the Department is reviewing all pay‑related allowances which could impact on those allowances that the post currently attracts.

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 all Service and entitled personnel within the Department of Community Mental Health (DCMH) and network as required.

The post holder will have extensive experience delivering psychological therapy in a stepped‑care service, robust clinical assessment skills and an understanding of occupational roles and needs of individuals presenting to the service.

They will work with service personnel with complex common mental health disorders for which cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is demonstrated to be clinically effective, individually, in groups and via face‑to‑face and digital platforms while undertaking a programme of training for this role.

They will directly provide highly specialist psychological assessment and interventions to individuals and groups, clinically supervise less experienced therapists and be responsible for entering and collating clinical outcome data, leading service evaluation, outcome measurement, audit and research projects to benefit service users.

About us

Our success depends on our people – the Whole Force, regular and reservist military, civil servants and contractors, all working as one, seamlessly to deliver for us. With over 2,000 different roles across 650 sites worldwide, it 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.

Job responsibilities

Duties and responsibilities for the role include but are not limited to:

• Provide a timely and high‑quality mental health service to all patients referred to the DCMH for assessment and treatment of mental health presentations.
• Provide a wide variety of clinical work depending on qualifications, stretching capability where appropriate.
• Act as a clinical resource, liaise with Medical Officers/General Practitioners and offer advice to the chain of command on mental health matters, administrative management of personnel with mental health difficulties and mental health promotion.
• Work flexibly within 32 hours per week, with core service hours of 8am–5pm, across a network of locations.
• Provide training in assessment, formulation and other CBT‑based practices to the team.
• Deputise for the team manager and hold delegated professional management of the team as required.

Please refer to the attached Job Description and Person Specification for the full list of duties.

Selection Process

At application stage you will be assessed against your CV. Please ensure you demonstrate that you have the required skills, knowledge, experience, qualifications and memberships in the CV section of the application form. Include examples of how you meet the criteria and how you have tackled similar tasks or demonstrated the required skills.

• All examples and statements provided must be truthful and factually accurate.
• Plagiarism or AI generated content presented as your own may lead to withdrawal of the application.

At interview you will be assessed against the following technical skills:

• NHS Health & Wellbeing HWB7 Interventions & Treatment
• NHS General NHS G6 People Management

You will be required to answer questions on a short case study, to be provided 10 minutes before the interview.

All interviews will mix direct questions and clinical situation‑based scenarios. Further information will be provided by the Vacancy Holder.

Further Information

Where business needs allow, a combination of office and home‑based working may be suitable. Official business may require attendance at other MOD offices. Applicants may request further information regarding working arrangements from the Vacancy Holder. Defence Business Services cannot respond to any questions about working arrangements.

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

All employees joining the 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.

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

Successful candidates must provide evidence of immunity to Hepatitis B; failure to provide sufficient evidence may result in the offer of employment being withdrawn.

The post does NOT offer relocation expenses. 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 effective 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 business critical. This role does not meet that category and therefore we will not sponsor a visa. This position is not open to applications from those who require sponsorship.

Should you apply and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer withdrawn.

Person Specification

Experience

• Experience of working in adult community mental health.
• A minimum of 2 years post‑registration experience.
• An interest in working with the military.

Registrations and Memberships

• Registered Mental Health Nurse, Social Worker or Occupational Therapist (OT) with post‑graduate training and accreditation in NICE‑recognised modality for common mental disorders (e.g., CBT).
• OR significant experience working as a psychological therapy practitioner in a stepped‑care service and demonstrating the competences required, registered under a professional body such as HCPC and accredited to a governing body such as BABCP.

Behaviour Statement

• Have you been dismissed for gross misconduct relating to bullying, harassment, discrimination or victimisation from any role in the past five years? Please answer Yes or No.
• Provide your membership registration number.
• You are required to be registered with the relevant professional body, prior to submitting your application. Your application will not progress if you fail to provide a valid membership registration number.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and requires a submission for Disclosure to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Ministry of Defence (Defence Medical Services)