Band 7/8a Specialist Clinical Psychologist - Ardenleigh in Birmingham

Band 7/8a Specialist Clinical Psychologist - Ardenleigh

Band 7/8a

Main area Secure Care and Offender Health - Health and Justice Vulnerability Service Grade Band 7/8a Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 436-8421724

Site Ardenleigh Town Birmingham Salary £49,387 - £64,750 per annum, pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 24/11/2026 23:59

Please note that this post may close earlier than the indicated closing date if a sufficient number of applications are received.

Job overview

1 x 0.7 - Band 7/8a Practitioner Psychologist with preceptorship (permanent) – Ardenleigh Women’s Secure Blended Service (full time

An exciting job opportunity has arisen to recruit a band7/8a Practitioner Psychologist, with preceptorship, to join our innovative psychology team at Ardenleigh.

The Women’s Secure Blended Service (WSBS) at Ardenleigh has an incredible national reputation, having been a successful pilot site for the blended security model and a key influence in the National Women’s Secure Pathway Transformation (WSPT) programme. The service is particularly proud of its gender sensitive, trauma informed model of care and commitment to co-production and improvement.

We work alongside a number of professionals, providing safe, containing environments and interventions to help people understand themselves, their mental health and offending behaviour. The team has been at the forefront of service developments, such as establishing the Outreach Service to prevent avoidable admissions, developing partnership working across the pathway to improve quality of care, diversifying psychological therapies to meet the needs of the client group, and leading on the planning and delivery of a national conference in 2023. The service is currently developing a step-down accommodation to support transitions to the community, improving the pathway for women who access secure mental health services.

Main duties of the job

This exciting role offers the suitable candidate opportunities for leadership, service development and complex clinical work, with a rewarding client group. You will be joining a large and diverse psychological therapies team, consisting of clinical and forensic psychologists, arts therapists, specialist psychological practitioners and assistant psychologists.

We currently have a 0.7wte team psychologist vacancy but if you are looking for a full-time role, please do get in touch and we can look to accommodate this within the division.

The Practitioner Psychologist role will involve working alongside staff to ensure that service users have the most effective, efficient, relationally connected and contained experience. Within Ardenleigh we also have a strong service user involvement and co-production ethos, having developed group pathways, interventions and training. We will advocate for you to maintain all aspects of your professional role, including service development, research, therapeutic excellence, and leadership as appropriate. We are looking for registered Practitioner Psychologists who are interested in working in secure environments with highly sensitive content. Whilst secure experience will be highly desirable, we encourage a breadth of experience to help bring new thinking to our services as the culture evolves.

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/forensic psychology completion of which includes the study of models of psychopathology, psychometric and neuropsychological assessment, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.
• Eligibility for entry onto the Register of Chartered Psychologists

Experience

• Experience of 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, including forensic contexts with clients of all ages across the lifespan and of wide-ranging presenting problems that reflect the full spectrum of clinical complexity and severity.
• At least 2 years post qualification experience, and formal training in supervision, enabling the post holder to independently supervise psychology trainees in accordance with relevant criteria adopted by local University Psychology Training Courses criteria.

Knowledge

• Well developed theoretical and practical knowledge of the field of clinical psychology, consistent with doctoral level professional training and further post qualification study, training and supervised experience during a minimum of 18 to 24 months as a Specialist Clinical/Forensic Psychologist.
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills (written and verbal) including the ability to empathically, sensitively and effectively communicate clinical and condition related information to clients, their families, carers and professional colleagues (within and outside the NHS) that is extremely complicated or technical; extremely sensitive and potentially distressing to the recipient; or that is extremely contentious or challenging.
• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment commensurate with doctoral level training, including specialist clinical interviewing, behavioural observation, complex psychometric testing and specialist neuropsychological testing.
• Skills in providing consultation and advice from a psychological perspective to members of other professional and non-professional groups
• Awareness and understanding of the differential needs of people from black and minority ethnic groups and of the service issues arising within a multicultural urban area.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific ’difficult to treat’ groups (e.g. personality disorder, challenging behaviour, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and DoH policy and implementation guidelines in relation to mental health in general and the client group with which this post is concerned.

Personal

• Ability to interact and to build and sustain relationships with people with mental health problems and associated disabilities
• Is a ‘team player’ and has demonstrated ability to work and deliver to team and organisational objectives
• Ability to interact effectively with staff from all disciplines.

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

Our Trust is committed to treating individuals fairly and ensuring they have the same opportunities to fulfil their potential, even if this means doing things differently for different people sometimes. We are working hard to ensure our workforce reflects the diversity within Birmingham and Solihull and that our services meet the needs of all diverse service users and carers.

The Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. As part of our safe recruitment practice pre-employment checks will be undertaken before any appointment is confirmed. As part of the selection process you may be required to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, however all cases of criminal record history are dealt with on a case by case basis.

Please note, if applicable for your role you will be required to cover the cost of your DBS certificate. This will be deducted from your salary over 3 months.

All successful applicants will be required to complete the Trust’s induction programme. The Fundamental (Statutory and Mandatory) training will be in an e-learning format. You will be required to complete training modules online (approx. 9-14 hours depending on post) by the end of your second week with us.

If you are successful at the shortlisting stage of the recruitment process we may contact you via email to advise you of the interview details. Please ensure you access your email account from which you applied regularly once the position has closed. Our selection process may involve more than one interview or assessment.

Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the United Kingdom (UK) are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. However, please ensure that you check if this role meets the eligibility criteria for sponsorship. Non UK /Republic of Ireland candidates wishing to apply can self-assess the likelihood of obtaining a Certificate of Sponsorship here Browse: Work in the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) . The minimum salary threshold for a Health and Social Care is £25,000 and for the Skilled Worker route is £38,700. If the starting salary for this role is below this, we will not be able to provide sponsorship.

Relocation expenses may be reimbursed subject to eligibility. The policy provides for reimbursement up to £8,000.

Please note - if you are applying for a role within Police custody, due to Police Vetting requirements you must have been a UK resident for the last years.

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 Rachel Oakley Job title Principal Clinical Forensic Psychologist Email address rachel.oakley@nhs.net Telephone number 0121 301 4535 Additional information

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