Job summary
- Main area
- Secure Care and Offender Health
- Grade
- Band 7/8a
- Contract
- Permanent: Fixed term also available
- Hours
- Part time
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 436-7495388
- Employer
- Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Tamarind Centre
- Town
- Birmingham
- Salary
- £47,810 - £62,682 per annum, pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 28/10/2025 23:59
- Interview date
- 10/11/2025
Employer heading
Band 7/8A Practitioner Psychologist Preceptorship - Tamarind Centre
Band 7/8a
Please note that this post may close earlier than the indicated closing date if a sufficient number of applications are received.
Job overview
Our two men’s medium secure inpatient services, Reaside and Tamarind Centre, are seeking four Band 8A Practitioner Psychologists to join our team—three permanent (two at Tamarind, one at Reaside) and one fixed-term maternity cover at Tamarind. We warmly encourage newly qualified Band 7 practitioners interested in forensic settings to apply, offering structured preceptorship and supervision to support your progression. Experienced psychologists interested in forensic inpatient work are also warmly welcomed.
As part of our multi-disciplinary team, you will provide safe, connected psychological care to individuals with complex presentations—many with histories of trauma, neglect, and offending. Our approach is recovery-focused, balancing therapeutic work with effective risk management. We support service users to understand their mental health and offending behaviours while fostering their recovery.
We seek people who:
Bring integrity, warmth, and resilience in working with diverse, complex populations and are passionate about collaborative, trauma-informed, recovery-focused care.
Are eager to use and develop skills across psychological models such as CBT, CAT, EMDR, DBT, Compassion Focused Therapy, Schema Therapy, and ACT.
Are familiar with structured clinical judgement tools and psychometric assessment.
Main duties of the job
In this role, you will contribute meaningfully to service development, research, and therapeutic excellence within a supportive environment. Regular clinical, managerial, and model-specific group supervision offer valuable space to reflect and grow professionally while navigating the complexities of the work. These include CBT (including ACT), CAT, DBT, EMDR, and Compassion Focused Therapy. Similarly, there are spaces and opportunities to develop your forensic practice and knowledge of models of offending.
We value the wide range of skills Practitioner Psychologists bring and support your involvement in quality improvement and research. Our workstreams focus on family and carer involvement, addressing health inequalities, and enhancing trauma-informed care.
Working within SCOH requires emotional resilience, confidence, and dedication. Our staff navigate the challenges and rewards of supporting people towards safer, better lives. We prioritize both service user needs and staff well-being through robust support.
If you’re looking for a role where you can bring your whole self to work, grow within a thoughtful and skilled team, and make a meaningful difference, we’d be delighted to hear from you. We warmly invite you to get in touch for a visit or informal conversation. If you’re passionate about delivering excellent, innovative NHS care within forensic mental health, we encourage you to apply and join our compassionate, evolving services.
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.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- 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
Essential criteria
- 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.
Desirable criteria
- 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
Essential criteria
- 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.
Desirable criteria
- 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
Essential criteria
- 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
Essential criteria
- 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
Applicant requirements
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.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Abdullah Mia
- Job title
- Consultant Forensic Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 0121 301 0774
- Additional information
Please note, this advert is part of a broader recruitment drive in BSMHFT Secure Care and Offender Health. If you are applying for more than one post, please make this clear in your personal statement.
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