Band 8b Principal Practitioner Psychologist - North Assertive Outreach

Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

Band 8b Principal Practitioner Psychologist - North Assertive Outreach

The closing date is 08 December 2025

Are you seeking an opportunity to develop your leadership and consultation skills? Do you enjoy being part of a multidisciplinary team? Are you looking for the opportunity to work creatively and collaboratively with individuals who have complex mental health needs? If so, we invite you to apply for this Principal Practitioner Psychologist post in our Assertive Outreach Services.

Our Trust has six Assertive Outreach Teams (AOTs), forming part of our Integrated Community Care and Recovery (ICCR) service. This post is based with North AOT in Erdington, Birmingham. The post holder will join the current principal psychologist in a job share, working in the specialist team, providing flexible, trauma informed, and holistic support to people with psychosis or bipolar disorder who have been reluctant to engage with mainstream mental health services. They will also be welcomed into a well established and supportive team of psychologists working in Assertive Outreach and our Steps to Recovery inpatient and community rehabilitation services. The post is part time, working 15 hours per week.

Main duties of the job

AOTs use a well coordinated, team based approach. The post holder will have opportunities to develop skills in specialist assessment, shared formulation, and application of evidence based psychological interventions to help service users achieve their recovery goals.

Experience of working in multidisciplinary teams and with clients from culturally and socially diverse communities who have a range of mental health needs is desirable, as is the motivation to support positive risk taking so that service users can lead as autonomous and valued a life as possible. We also support multidisciplinary team members to build their knowledge, skills, and confidence by delivering a programme of training, supervision, and reflective practice, to which the post holder would contribute.

Our psychological service has a reputation for clinical excellence and innovation in Assertive Outreach and rehabilitation, and we are actively involved in service development, evaluation, and research. We have access to a comprehensive CPD programme and external training, including leadership development, and provide strong professional supervision, offering a range of clinical models and accreditation opportunities.

If you share our recovery focused commitment to keep service users at the heart of what we do and would like to develop your clinical and leadership skills, we would love to hear from you. Please contact us for further information about the post or to arrange an informal visit.

About us

Our Trust employs around 4,000 clinical and support staff who work to improve mental health wellbeing and meet the needs of 70,000 people 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 research and innovation. Our population is culturally diverse and, in places, characterised by high levels of deprivation, creating an increasing demand for our services and a necessity for us to ensure everyone can access the help they need. We are a team of compassionate, inclusive and committed people working together to provide excellent care.

Job responsibilities

For further information about the main responsibilities of this post please see the attached job description and person specification.

Person Specification Qualifications

• HCPC/BPS accredited training in Clinical, Forensic, or Counselling Psychology
• HCPC registration or eligible for this
• Additional pre or post qualification training in an accredited psychological therapy or other field of applied psychology

Experience

• Significant post qualification experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients with complex difficulties across multidisciplinary adult secondary or tertiary care settings
• Significant post qualification experience of working with a variety of client groups of working age with wide ranging presenting problems
• Significant post qualification experience of receiving supervision (minimum 50 hours) so can supervise other psychologists
• Experience of working therapeutically with service users who are reluctant to engage with services, presenting with complex mental health needs and risks
• Experience of team based risk assessment and formulation
• Experience of working in a multicultural framework

Knowledge and Skills

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, including psychometric testing
• Skills in psychological formulation, with individual clients and with teams
• Skills in implementation of highly specialist psychological therapies, interventions and management techniques appropriate for use with complex presenting problems
• Skills in providing consultation and advice from a psychological perspective to members of other professional and non professional groups
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies with clients who are reluctant to engage with services
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies

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.

Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

£64,455 to £74,896 a year per annum, pro rata