Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, Women's Service

NHS; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 109,000 - 146,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading mental health trust is seeking a consultant forensic psychiatrist to join the women's secure service. This role involves providing medical leadership, delivering excellent clinical care, and contributing to the service's development. The ideal candidate will have full GMC registration, relevant psychiatric qualifications, and experience working with complex mental health needs. Competitive salary and full-time hours offered.

Qualifications

• Substantial experience of psychiatry, including severe mental illness.
• Commitment to multi-disciplinary, person-centred patient care.
• Experience in teaching and training at undergraduate/postgraduate level.

Responsibilities

• Provide medical leadership to a multidisciplinary clinical team.
• Deliver clinical care for inpatients to an indicative caseload of 10 patients.
• Contribute to the development of secure mental health care services.

Skills

Excellent communication skills

Leadership

Multi-disciplinary teamwork

Education

Full GMC registration

MRCPsych or equivalent

Inclusion on the Specialist Register

Job description

Job Summary

BSMHFT is one of the largest mental health Foundation Trusts in the country, providing mental health services to a culturally and socially-diverse population. The secure care and offender health programme provides medium and low secure inpatient services for men, women and adolescents across the West Midlands. As the lead provider for Reach Out, the West Midlands Provider Collaborative, we have significantly expanded our forensic community outreach service over recent years and have successfully reduced the numbers of people from the West Midlands in secure beds. We also provide prison healthcare and a range of smaller community based clinical services.

About the role

We are seeking to recruit a consultant forensic psychiatrist to work within the women's secure service based at Ardenleigh. It is an established service, which provides inpatient services to women from the West Midlands who have complex mental health needs and require treatment in conditions of security. The successful candidate will join two existing Consultant Forensic Psychiatrists in the women's service.

Main duties

You will provide medical leadership to a multidisciplinary clinical team within a shared leadership framework in which the contributions of all are valued. You will deliver excellent clinical care for inpatients to an indicative caseload of 10 patients. The service is currently developing dedicated women's community step down accommodation in partnership with a local women's charity. It is anticipated the post holder will retain Consultant responsibility for on average 2 patients during the initial six months of discharge. The post also involves undertaking assessments for women referred to the service and a weekly prison clinic at HMP Foston Hall (a women prison).

You will contribute as a senior leader to the further development of the service, and work with colleagues within the provider collaborative to support the commissioning and delivery of secure mental health care across the region. There will be opportunities to take on additional clinical sessions, pursue relevant clinical interests and many of our current consultants have additional leadership roles within our large and diverse Trust.

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.

Key details

Posted: 31 October 2025
Pay scheme: Hospital medical and dental staff
Grade: Consultant
Salary: £109,725 to £145,478 a year per annum
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 436-MEDICAL-CONS-ARDENLGH
Job location: Ardenleigh, 385 Kingsbury Road, Birmingham, B29 9SA

Person Specification

Essential

• Full GMC registration with a licence to practice
• Expected to be approved to act as an approved clinician for the purposes of the Mental Health Act 1983 prior to commencement of post
• MRCPsych or equivalent
• Obtained inclusion on the Specialist Register; or within six months of the award of a Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training (CCST) in a psychiatric specialty; or eligible for inclusion on the Specialist Register
• Commitment to personal programme of Continuing Professional Development
• Substantial experience of psychiatry, including working with people suffering from severe mental illness, complex presentations and serious risk behaviours
• Values a multi-disciplinary, person centred approach to patient care
• Experience of teaching and training at an undergraduate/postgraduate level
• Commitment to clinical audit within multi-disciplinary team
• Evidence of potential for effective leadership
• Excellent communication skills
• Ability to work creatively within multi-disciplinary team
• Willingness to be involved in management of service
• Able to participate in Consultant on-call rota
• Able to travel

Desirable

• Additional qualification or higher degree in medical education, clinical research or another relevant field
• Inclusion on the specialist register for, or within six months of the expected award of a CCST in, forensic psychiatry
• Experience serving a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic population
• Experience of stakeholder engagement in service delivery
• Experience of contributing to or completion of a service improvement project
• Completed and disseminated research or audit projects

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit: UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab). From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer Details

Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

Address: Ardenleigh, 385 Kingsbury Road, Birmingham, B29 9SA

Employer's website: https://www.bsmhft.nhs.uk/