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Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust; Shaftesbury; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust invites a Consultant Psychiatrist to join our prison health services, delivering specialist care across two category C prisons, with leadership for in-reach teams and a focus on trauma-informed approaches.

The role includes psychiatric assessment, management of chronic psychosis and mood disorders, collaboration with psychology and substance misuse services, and participation in wider governance and CPD activities.

Qualifications

• Eligible for inclusion in the Specialist Register in Forensic Psychiatry, General Adult Psychiatry, Learning Disability Psychiatry or Addictions Psychiatry.
• Provide medical leadership to the Mental Health In-reach Team at the prisons.
• Assessing and reviewing prisoners and formulating management plans with MDT input.
• Lead MDT meetings and ensure treatment aligns with NICE and GMC standards.
• Availability to act as Section 12(2) approved doctor for Mental Health Act assessments.

Responsibilities

• Actively involved in or lead MDT meetings within the service.
• Coordinate transfer decisions and CPAs with hospital or community services as required.
• Offer expert guidance for patients with complex mental states and risk.
• Identify resource needs and contribute to service development and governance.

Skills

Specialist Register eligibility

MDT leadership

Prison healthcare experience

Trauma-informed care

Education

Eligibility for Specialist Register in Forensic/General Adult/LD/Addictions Psychiatry

Job description

Consultant Psychiatrist HMP Guys Marsh & HMP Erlestoke | Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

This is an excellent opportunity for a Consultant Psychiatrist to join our team of diverse, talented healthcare professionals to deliver care that is not only efficient but deeply centred on the patient. This is a newly created post as a result of additional funding received to expand our healthcare services within our prison portfolio.

This post will require working across two category C prisons, HMP Erlestoke & HMP Guy's Marsh. Both sites house sentenced prisoners and due to the stability of their populations, there is scope for some transformational work in service users lives within a team and prison setting structured to deliver this. The prison population is complex from a Mental Health perspective with SMI, neurodevelopmental disorders, substance misuse, trauma and personality disorder all significantly overrepresented in relation to the general population.

The post will be divided as follows;

The post holder will have 2.5 SPA allocated in their job plan for undertaking activities that support the professional role such as teaching, training, clinical management, clinical governance, service development and other relevant activities.

We are keen to accommodate flexibility and encourage interest from applicants with varied availability – we are open to working patterns, days, and number of PA's (open to discussion of full-time).

The post holder will work across HMP Erlestoke and HMP Guy's Marsh and provide medical leadership to the mental health in-reach teams at each site. There is significant input from psychology to work with trauma and personality disorders prevalent in the prison population and the teams work to a model of trauma informed care. The mental health services work alongside a dedicated substance misuse service provided by Change Grow Live. The role of the Consultant Psychiatrist is thus in particular to assessment and management of those conditions requiring pharmacological input, most commonly chronic psychotic illness, mood disorders and ADHD. The work takes place in the wider context of rehabilitative work delivered by the prison who deliver a variety of Offending Behaviour Programmes and interventions at these sites.

Much of the clinical work involves seeing patients within a healthcare department of the prison on an Outpatient basis. Patients are case worked by the In-reach team, analogous to a CMHT. Occasionally a prisoner may require transfer from prison to hospital under the Mental Health Act and if a prisoner becomes extremely unwell it may be necessary to assess them on the prison wing. The Consultant Psychiatrist will be expected to maintain s12(2) approval lead on transfers under the Mental Health Act.

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children's centres, schools and people's homes.

We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:

Clinical duties of post holder

• The post holder will be eligible for inclusion in the Specialist Register in Forensic Psychiatry, General Adult Psychiatry, Learning Disability Psychiatry or Addictions Psychiatry.
• The primary duties of the post holder will include Consultant Psychiatrist leadership for the Mental Health In-reach Team at the prisons.
• Assessing and reviewing prisoners; and working in collaboration with MDT and prisoners to formulate management plans that is then incorporated into individualised care plans.
• Actively involved or lead MDT meetings within the service.
• To ensure treatment of patients in accordance with acceptable and established standards, protocols and guidelines (including NICE, Royal College of Psychiatrists and the General Medical Council
• Availability to act as Section 12(2) approved doctor for the purpose of Mental Health Act Assessments if indicated.
• Liaising with services outside the prison to arrange CPAs, aftercare plans or transfers to hospital and when required with other agencies such as via Mappa or with police and probation colleagues.
• Providing expert advice and guidance for individuals with complex mental state and risk
• Identifying and advocating for needed resources including staff as necessary
• Any other care which could reasonably be expected of a consultant acting in an in-reach capacity in a prison

Wider Duties include

• Taking part in administrative/management duties within the teams, directorate and the Trust as a whole
• Participating in clinical governance, clinical audit, various medical advisory committees and other committees as may be necessary
• To comply with the Trusts agreed policies and procedures and always to practice in line with the Royal College of Psychiatrists Good Psychiatric Practice and the General Medical Councils Good Medical Practice
• To ensure that he/she participates in Continuing Professional Development through registration with the Royal College of Psychiatrists CPD Programme, regular peer group meetings and attendance at appropriate professional/academic meetings. Also, to ensure that he/she receives job planning and appraisals annually

This advert closes on Monday 21 Sep 2026