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Go back Ministry of Defence (Defence Medical Services)

The closing date is 07 January 2026

Are you an experienced mental health professional looking for a new challenge? Would you like to add military mental healthcare to your career portfolio? We are looking for someone with vision, substantial clinical experience and drive who can adapt to a new organisational culture whilst still adhering to the highest standards of professional practice. Your experience of assessing and managing risk will help to keep our serving military personnel safe whilst your clinical skills and knowledge will support timely and efficient service delivery. Experience of working with military populations would be welcome but it is by no means a pre‑requisite for application. Your commitment and enthusiasm are more important!

We are seeking to recruit a mental health practitioner for 37.5 hours per week, to join a military Department of Community Mental Health (DCMH) and Defence Mental Health Network (DMHN). DCMHs are multi‑disciplinary teams comprising military and civilian staff: psychiatrists, mental health nurses, social workers, mental health practitioners and psychologists. The job is challenging and varied. Whilst there are similarities with NHS roles, to make the most of this opportunity you will need to be willing to embrace a different organisational culture, take on significant responsibility for risk management and apply your clinical skills in new and interesting ways.

Employee benefits include:

• Free parking
• Access to gym
• Learning and development opportunities

As the successful post holder, you will provide a rapid, timely and high‑quality mental health service to all patients referred to the Department of Community Mental Health (DCMH) and Defence Mental Health Network (DMHN) for assessment and treatment of mental health problems and implementing changes as and when vital.

You will need to be experienced, enthusiastic and committed to service delivery and improvement.

Being able to cope well under pressure, be flexible and assertive and have the ability to communicate at all levels. Functioning as a member of the Multidisciplinary Team (MDT), whilst working autonomously.

The post holder will provide flexible and individualised care packages to meet the mental health (MH) needs of military personnel with mental health problems.

Our success depends on our people, our Whole Force regular and reservist military, civil servants and contractors, all working as one, working together seamlessly to deliver for us.

Our civil servants are a central part of this Whole Force, developing strategy, making policy, supporting ministerial decision‑making and Parliamentary processes. In fact, with over 2,000 different roles working across 650 sites around the world, now really 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.

In return, you can expect a department that helps you learn and develop that recognises your expertise and contribution, both as an individual and part of a team.

If you've ever wanted to do more, see more, go further or be better, we have roles in more professions and vocations than ever before. Let's see where your future will take you, together.

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

• Receiving, appraising, and advising on the direct referrals for mental health problems from relevant General Practitioners/Medical Officers (GP/MO).
• Providing initial assessment and formulation of the mental health and treatment needs for referred patients, planning, implementing, and evaluating care with a high level of autonomy.
• Delivering up to date, evidence‑based interventions for mental health problems based on guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the National Treatment Agency (NTA), which can include individual, group and tele‑therapy.
• Ability to carry out comprehensive mental health assessments and make decisions about ways to positively manage risk.
• Ability to devise creative and effective care packages of support for adult mental health, communicating effectively with clients/patients and professionals, both orally and in writing.
• Effective time management skills with the ability to work under pressure, planning own workload.
• Ability to work flexibly in response to the developing needs of the service.

Please see attached Job Description and Person Specification for role requirements in further detail.

To be eligible to be considered for this role, qualifications and memberships detailed must be held in full, prior to submitting your application.

Selection Process

At application stage you will be assessed against the following:

CV:

Please ensure you demonstrate that you have the required skills, knowledge, experience, qualifications and memberships in your CV and that you have saved it, making sure that any reference to your personal details have been removed from your CV prior to submitting your application.

Please provide information of how you meet the criteria set out in the Job Description. You may wish to further include examples of how you have tackled similar tasks or demonstrated the skills outlined in the job advert.

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/artificial-intelligence-and-recruitment/

At interview you will be assessed against the following:

Technical Skills:

• NHS Health & Wellbeing HWB7 Interventions & Treatment
• NHS Information & Knowledge NHS IK1 Information Processing

A short case study will be required, the case study will be provided 10 minutes before the interview.

Please see the link to our YouTube channel for advice preparing your best responses with some hints and tips on answering behaviour‑based questions. Hints and tips such as: Your behaviours can be based on situations from work, volunteering or home; match your situation to the behaviour requested and how to use your 250‑word limit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEpdNWKQSRI

NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework https://www.msg.scot.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/KSF-Handbook.pdf

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home‑based working. This is an‑contractual arrangement where all office‑based employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in office, subject to capacity and any required workplace adjustments. Requirements to attend other locations for official business, or work in another MOD office, will also count toward this level of attendance. Applicants can request further information regarding how this may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details). Defence Business Services cannot respond to any questions about working arrangements.

The sift will be completed within 10 working days of the vacancy closing date. Interviews will be held on a date to be confirmed.

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

Requests to work flexibly and/or part time will be considered, taking into account business needs. Please note the salary will be pro‑rata where part time hours are undertaken.

All employees joining 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.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check.

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

If found successful for this position, you will be required to provide evidence of your immunity to Hepatitis B. Please note that evidence of your vaccination is not a proof of your immunity, but your serology levels will be required. Failure to provide sufficient evidence may result in the offer of employment being withdrawn.

To be considered for this role, qualifications and memberships detailed must be held in full, prior to submitting your application.

There is no requirement to deploy as this is met by our uniformed personnel, but you will form the continuity of care required by our patients when based at home.

The post does NOT offer relocation expenses (move of home, excess fares or temporary transfer). 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 which came into effect on 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 to be business critical. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a visa. It is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points‑based system.

Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

This vacancy is part of the A Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/making-the-civil-service-a-great-place-to-work-for-veterans

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact dbscivpers-sgdmsresourcing@mod.gov.uk.

The Ministry of Defence requires all candidates who are successful at interview to declare any outside interests. Those declarations will be discussed with successful candidates following the interview process and before a formal offer of employment is made, as some outside interests may not be compatible with MOD civilian roles. This will not, in the majority of cases, prevent employment in MOD, but it is a measure that must be taken to ensure that appropriate mitigations can be put in place to manage any potential, perceived or actual conflicts of interest from the first day of employment.

The Ministry of Defence adopts a zero tolerance approach to unacceptable behaviours, which includes bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination, and victimisation. You will not be eligible and will not be considered for this post if you have been dismissed from a role for such unacceptable behaviours within the last five years. This will also apply if you resign or otherwise leave a role but, because of an adverse decision, would have been dismissed for gross misconduct had you continued in that employment. Pre‑employment checks will be carried out.

The Ministry of Defence is committed to providing a safe and healthy working environment for its staff which includes educating them on the benefits of not smoking, protecting them from the harmful effects of second‑hand smoke and supporting those who want to give up smoking. Under the Smoke‑Free Working Environment policy, Smoking and the use of all tobacco products (including combustible and chewing tobacco products) will not be permitted anywhere in the Defence working environment. The policy is Whole Force and includes all Defence personnel, contractors, visitors and other non‑MOD personnel. All applicants seeking, considering, or accepting employment with the Ministry of Defence should be aware of this policy and that it is already in place at a number of Defence Establishments.

• Have you been dismissed for gross misconduct relating to bullying, harassment, discrimination or victimisation from any role in the past five years, or resigned or otherwise left a role but would have been dismissed for such gross misconduct because of an adverse decision, had you continued in that employment?
• Please respond with Yes or No as appropriate.

• Ability to carry out comprehensive mental health assessments and make decisions about ways to positively manage risk.
• Skills in effective risk assessment and risk management.
• Ability to devise creative and effective care packages for common mental disorders in adult mental health.
• Ability to communicate effectively with clients/patients and professionals, both orally and in writing.
• Ability to work under pressure, managing own caseload and time.
• Effectively prioritising own workload and using team resources effectively.
• Responding flexibly and appropriately to unforeseen circumstances and the developing needs of the service.
• Computer literate including competent use of email/internet, Microsoft office software and medical record systems.

• Training in Mental Health Nursing, Mental Health Social Work or Occupational therapy (Mental Health Experience).
• Evidence of CPD and professional portfolio in support of above registration.
• OR
• Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (PWP) qualification plus sufficient post‑qualification experience working as a qualified PWP to confer eligibility for Senior PWP designation.
• Current registration with British Psychological Society (BPS) or British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP).

• Experience of working with people with mental health problems.
• Able to demonstrate an appropriate level of knowledge of mental health practice from previous experience.
• Knowledge of Community Mental Health Framework (CMHF) formerly care programme approach.
• Understanding and contribution to the Clinical Governance Agenda.
• Previous experience in similar role. Risk assessment experience.
• Crisis resolution and risk management experience.
• Experience in delivering National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommended psychological interventions.
• Ability to run clinical and psycho‑education groups.
• Experience of supervising staff or receiving supervision.
• Post graduate qualifications in an evidence based psychological therapy.
• Have at least 18 months post‑qualification experience.

• Registered with one of the following regulatory bodies: NMC, HCPC.
• or
• Registered with Social Work England SSSC, the CCW or NISCC.
• Please provide your registration numbers.

• Please copy and paste your full CV as your response to this question - you will not be able to upload your CV as an attachment.
• Please ensure to refer to the essential criteria where applicable as your application may be rejected should be insufficient information to shortlist be included.
• Please use double spacing where possible.

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.

Ministry of Defence (Defence Medical Services)

£38,682 to £46,580 a year Per Annum (Pro‑rata for part time) pay award pending