Band 8b Principal Psychological Practitioner: Sponsorship Available

Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

Job summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced, innovative and ambitious Clinical Psychologist to join the Acute and Urgent Care Division as a Band 8b Principal Clinical Psychologist working across Newbridge House and the Zinnia Centre.

This role provides strategic psychological leadership across both sites and combines senior clinicalpractice, leadership, consultation, supervision, service development, workforce development,quality improvement and strategic influence.

The post sits within the wider Acute and Urgent Care Psychological Professions leadershipstructure and offers access to: A bespoke Acute and Urgent Care Leadership DevelopmentProgramme for Principal Psychological Practitioners. NHS England-supported CPD opportunities.Leadership and management development opportunities. Participation in Trust-wide PsychologicalProfessions networks.

Why Join BSMHFT?The Trust is pioneering locality-based working across all pathways, champions a life-course approach to mental health care, and is embedding the principles of the Culture of Care programme.

Vision:Excellent Care. Empowered People. Thriving Communities.

Main duties of the job

Newbridge House is a specialist acute inpatient service for women experiencing severe andcomplex mental health difficulties.Zinnia Centre provides acute inpatient assessment and treatment and includes both male and female inpatient wards.

The psychology workforce includes: One full-time Assistant Psychologist at Newbridge House. One full-time Assistant Psychologist at the Zinnia Centre. Both Assistant Psychologists deliver low-intensity psychological interventions and psychologically informed skills groups for serviceusers across the wards.

The Division is committed to embedding trauma-informed and trauma-responsive approaches throughout its services. Dedicated investment includes: Funding for accredited EMDR training. Access to specialist EMDR supervision and consultation. NHS England-supported CPD opportunities. Protected opportunities for service development, quality improvement and research.

Provide highly specialist assessment, formulation and intervention. Deliver consultation to multidisciplinary teams. Lead trauma-informed and psychologically informed practice. Supervise Assistant Psychologists and other psychology staff. Contribute to service development, audit and quality improvement.

Person Specification

Qualifications and Experience

Essential

  • Registered with the HCPC
  • Eligibility for entry onto the Register of Chartered Psychologists
  • Satisfactory completion of a British Psychological Society accredited Doctoral Level postgraduate professional training course in clinical psychology
  • The Graduate Basis for Registration (further to completion of an honours degree in psychology accredited by the British Psychological Society, or, in the case of courses that are not accredited or where the first degree is not in psychology, by completion of the Society’s Qualifying examination, or completion of a Society accredited Conversion Course)
  • Post-doctoral training in one or more highly specialist areas of psychological practice

Desirable

  • Assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical/counselling psychologist post qualification, with extensive experience at the Senior (Band 8a) level.
  • Experience of highly 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, with clients of all ages across the lifespan and of wide-ranging presenting problems that reflect the full spectrum of clinical complexity and severity
  • Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision
  • Relevant post-qualification experience, and formal training in supervision, enabling the post holder to independently supervise clinical psychology trainees in accordance with relevant criteria adopted by local University Clinical Psychology Training Course criteria
  • Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for the psychological care and treatment of referred clients, and of working within a multidisciplinary context wherein carries responsibility for the psychological aspects of a multidisciplinary care plan.
  • Experience of representing psychology within a multidisciplinary context

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 the 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).

Closing Date: 30 September 2026

To apply for this job please visit apps.trac.jobs.