Band 8b Principal Practitioner Psychologist - Reaside Clinic

Bsmhft; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 67,000 - 77,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Leadership development

Research opportunities

Multidisciplinary teamwork

Career progression across SCOH

Job summary

Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Band 8b Principal Practitioner Psychologist at Reaside Clinic in Birmingham. The role focuses on leadership within a secure mental health service for adults with complex needs, delivering supervision, research, and strategic development.

You will join a multidisciplinary team and drive psychologically informed care across SCOH, with opportunities for professional growth and contributing to innovative practice in forensic

Qualifications

• Satisfactory completion of a British Psychological Society accredited Doctoral Level postgraduate professional training course in clinical psychology.
• Graduate Basis for Registration or equivalent for non-UK trained entrants.
• Post-doctoral training in one or more highly specialist areas of psychological practice.

Responsibilities

• Provide leadership and line management within a developing psychological therapies team.
• Deliver formulation-led interventions and shape recovery pathways.
• Support supervision, research, audit, and training projects.
• Develop professionally and mentor others within forensic mental health services.

Skills

Leadership experience

Supervision of trainees

Forensic psychology expertise

Risk assessment

Education

Doctoral-level clinical psychology training

Graduate Basis for Registration

Post-doctoral training in specialis ed practice

Job description

Band 8b Principal Practitioner Psychologist - Reaside Clinic

Band 8b

Main area Secure Care and Offender Health Grade Band 8b Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 436-8360665

Site Reaside Clinic Town Birmingham Salary £66,582 - £77,368 per annum, pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 22/11/2026 23:59 Interview date 07/12/2026

Job overview

Join Our Psychological Therapies Team at Reaside Clinic

Are you:

Creative, reflective and resilient

Passionate about supporting people with complex needs

Interested in mental health, trauma, personality difficulties and risk

Collaborative and able to challenge systems constructively

Compassionate, authentic and relationship-focused

If so, apply for this permanent role at Reaside Clinic, part of Secure Care and Offender Health Services (SCOH), a 92-bed medium secure service supports adult men with severe, complex mental health needs and histories of violence or offending.

We seek enthusiastic, resilient and compassionate professionals who want to make a difference in forensic mental health and develop their careers.

You will join a supportive, growing Psychological Therapies team of Practitioner Psychologists, Arts Psychotherapists, Specialist Psychological Practitioners, Assistant Psychologists and Trainee Psychologists. Working within a multidisciplinary team, you will deliver formulation-led interventions, shape recovery pathways and strategy, support innovation, and build specialist forensic expertise.

Main duties of the job

This is not just a clinical role. This is a leadership position within an existing and developing team. It combines a combination of opportunities to influence, lead and contribute to service development initiatives, help integrate develop psychologically informed systems and cultures across services provide supervision and line management, support research, audit, training, and evaluation projects , and develop professional growth in yourself and others.

We recognise that working in secure care can be both rewarding and challenging. You will be supported by experienced colleagues and strong multi-model supervision structures designed to support your professional development and wellbeing.

We are also committed to helping staff identify and develop their own professional interests — your “shiny thing” — aligning your growth with both your aspirations and service needs.

We actively value diverse backgrounds and perspectives that can bring fresh thinking to our evolving services.

We are committed to continuous professional development and offer:

• Opportunities for leadership development
• Access to research and innovation projects
• Supportive multidisciplinary working
• Career progression opportunities across SCOH services

If you are ready for the next stage in your career and want to contribute to meaningful, psychologically informed care within a supportive and ambitious team, we would love to hear from you.

Working for our organisation

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.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

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

• 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

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Name Victoria Wilkes Job title Consultant Forensic Psychologist Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 0121 301 3111 Additional information

As our services operate regionally, some travel and cross-site working may occasionally be required.

Successful applicants are subject to enhanced Disclosure and Barring Services and Pre-Employment checks.