Band 8b Principal Practitioner Psychologist - Reaside Clinic

Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 64,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

A mental health service provider in Birmingham seeks an experienced Principal Practitioner Psychologist to join their Secure Care and Offender Health Services. Candidates should be enthusiastic and innovative, working within a multidisciplinary team to enhance psychological treatment for individuals with complex histories. The role offers opportunities for professional development, including supervisory responsibilities and service improvement initiatives. Salary ranges from £64,455 to £74,896 per annum, pro rata.

Benefits

Continuing professional development resources

Supervision support

Qualifications

• Qualified psychologist with British Psychological Society accredited Doctoral degree.
• Minimum 4 years of post-qualification experience, including 2 years at a senior level.
• Ability to supervise clinical psychology trainees.

Responsibilities

• Lead psychological treatment interventions for complex cases.
• Participate in multidisciplinary clinical team discussions.
• Contribute to service development and training.

Skills

Consultation skills

Psychological assessment and intervention

Team collaboration

Crisis management

Education

Doctorate in Clinical Psychology

Post-doctoral training in special areas

Job description

Band 8b Principal Practitioner Psychologist - Reaside Clinic

The closing date is 23 October 2025

Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (BSMHFT) invite applications specifically for permanent roles at Reaside Clinic, Rubery, Birmingham - a 92 bedded, medium secure inpatient service for adult males, who are experiencing severe mental health problems that have often also had a component or history of violence.

We are seeking enthusiastic, innovative and resilient professionals to join our expanding Secure Care and Offender Health Services (SCOH).

This role will include inputting into a multi-disciplinary clinical team to ensure good psychological treatment is formulation driven and aligned with Divisional and Trust objectives and values. You will deliver clinical interventions and offer a specialist psychological view of service user recovery. A large focus of the role will also include contributing to the delivery of the Divisional Psychological Therapies strategy. Your role will be to liaise with stakeholders, develop and implement a strategy alongside colleagues that is responsive to the professional and interpersonal challenges of working within forensic services with people who have a complex history. You will be supported in your work by a team of psychologists who are keen to ensure that the experience of working in secure care and offender health is rewarding, as much as it is challenging.

Main duties of the job

The role also encompasses opportunities for research, service development, training and evaluation. There will be an expectation of line management and supervisory responsibilities with this role. We will also work with you to find your 'shiny thing' to ensure you develop in line with service needs.

We are looking for enthusiastic, robust, resilient, creative, and innovative practitioners interested in working with people who have complex presentations, encompassing risk, personality difficulties and mental health. The service has identified resources supporting continuing professional development, including excellent multi-model supervision structures.

Whilst secure experience is preferred, 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 them, we hope that you speak to us and apply.

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.

Please click on the link for a little insight into our services and our people

https://vimeo.com/benthompsonfilms/psychologyrecruitment?share=copy

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Satisfactory completion of a British Psychological Society accredited Doctoral Level postgraduate professional training course in clinical psychology (the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996), the completion of which includes the study of models of psychopathology, psychometric and neuropsychological assessment, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.
• The Graduate Basis for Registration (further to completion of an honours degree in psychology accredited by the British Psychological Society, or, in the case of courses that are not accredited or where the first degree is not in psychology, by completion of the Society's Qualifying examination, or completion of a Society accredited Conversion Course).
• Post-doctoral training in one or more highly specialist areas of psychological practice / therapy.

Experience

• Assessed experience of working as a registered practitioner psychologist for a minimum of 4 years post qualification, with a minimum of at least 2 years at the Senior (highly specialist) level.
• Experience of highly 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, with clients of all ages across the lifespan and of wide-ranging presenting problems that reflect the full spectrum of clinical complexity and severity.
• Relevant post-qualification experience, and formal training in supervision, enabling the post holder to independently supervise clinical psychology trainees in accordance with relevant criteria adopted by local University Clinical Psychology Training Course criteria
• Experience of the application of clinical forensic psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of working therapeutically with 'difficult to treat' and or 'hard to reach' groups and clients.
• Experience of safeguarding and risk management across several agencies, including appropriately escalating concerns

Skills

• Skills in providing consultation and advice from a psychological perspective to members of other professional and non-professional groups
• Highly developed skills, commensurate with doctoral level training and post qualification training and experience, in the formulation of highly complex problems from a psychological perspective and in the implementation of highly specialist psychological therapies, interventions and management techniques that are appropriate for use with highly complex presenting problems. Able to deliver established/evidenced based psychological therapy to fidelity.
• In depth knowledge of information governance legislation and information sharing practices across agencies

Personal

• Is a 'team player' and has demonstrated ability to work and deliver to team and organisational objectives
• Capacity for tolerating frustration, change and high levels of demand with an ability to work effectively under pressure.

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

£64,455 to £74,896 a yearper annum, pro rata