Band 8d Director of Psychological Services

Job summary

We are excited to offer a brand-new opportunity for an outstanding Director of Psychological Services. This newly established senior leadership position will lead the delivery of psychological informed care across UHB, with a key role in strategic planning, clinical governance and organisational leadership.

This is a unique time to join our leadership team, with psychologists from Clinical Health Psychology and Clinical Neuropsychology Services joining via TUPE alongside those already embedded within the Trust. You'll have the autonomy and support to shape psychological care pathways, building a cohesive, effective, and well-supported team, fostering strong multidisciplinary collaboration. As a highly expert Consultant Practitioner Psychologist you will combine both strategic vision and clinical leadership across a high-impact, multi-site service.

Our professionally diverse services provide input into a wide range of clinical areas, across adult and paediatric care, and including regional and supra-regional specialties such as burns, cancer and neuropsychology, offering a stimulating clinical landscape. As one of the UK's largest teaching trusts, UHB is a global leader in innovation and frequently involved in pioneering research.

We are seeking a values-driven leader with a passion for high-quality care, collaborative working, staff wellbeing. If you're ready to shape the future of psychological services at UHB we'd love to hear from you.

Interview date will be 6th February 2026

Main duties, tasks & skills required

This is a newly created leadership role with responsibility for the strategic planning, professional management, organisational development, and clinical delivery of psychological therapies across the Trust.

As the Director of Psychological Services, the post holder will ensure effective psychological governance across all clinical and corporate divisions and support the development and integration of new services. They will provide senior strategic leadership on Trust-wide initiatives, including Risk Management, Patient Safety, Clinical Effectiveness, and Quality Improvement, offering expert input on post-incident response, behavioural change, and learning systems such as Appreciative Inquiry.

The role also involves representing Psychological Services at regional and national levels, contributing to policy, service development, and innovation. The post holder will ensure excellent clinical standards and governance across services.

They will lead and manage the Psychological Professionals across the Trust, including Assistant Psychologists, Trainees, Researchers, and other psychological professionals--fostering a strong, values-led culture of excellence, supervision, and professional development.

About us

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust strives to have an inclusive culture where everyone feels like they belong, can thrive, knows that they add value and feels valued. We do this by developing compassionate and culturally competent leaders, being values driven in all that we do and by creating a welcoming and inclusive workplace that thrives on the diversity of our people. As such we want to attract and recruit talented individuals from all backgrounds, and for each of you to feel supported for the diversity you bring, to achieve your full potential. For those staff with a disability, including physical disability, long term health condition, mental health or neurodiverse condition, this also means being committed to making reasonable adjustments needed for you to carry out your role.

Job description

*Please Note : For a detailed job description for this vacancy, please see attached Job Description* 

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential

*2:1 or above Degree in Psychology with eligibility for Graduate Basis for Chartership (GBC) with the BPS.

*Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS), including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.

*Post-doctoral level training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice

*Registration as an HCPC regulated Practitioner Psychologist

*Additional leadership and/or management training

Desirable

*Qualification in supervision

*Registered with the British Psychological Society and/or Association of Clinical Psychologists.

Experience

Essential

*Assessed extensive experience of working as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, including additional extensive post qualification experience within physical health psychology and/or clinical neuropsychology.

*Extensive experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings including inpatient, outpatient, community, primary care, residential care settings including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.

*Extensive experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment and working within the context of a multidisciplinary team.

*Extensive experience of teaching, training and professional and clinical supervision.

*Evidence of highly specialist expertise in the delivery of evidence based and high intensity psychological interventions.

*Extensive experience of professional management of qualified and pre-qualified clinical psychologists.

*Demonstrable evidence of significant specialist clinical supervision within a scientist-practitioner framework, including individual supervision, group supervision and case presentations.

*Experience in audit and evaluation of clinical services.

*Experience of NHS management tasks and negotiating with NHS managers, professionals, colleagues and other agencies.

*Extensive experience of representing the profession in policy and practice fora.

*Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.

*Knowledge and experience of working with other relevant client groups within physical health and / or clinical neuropsychology.

*Extensive experience working with other client groups who have highly complex psychological problems.

*Extensive experience of working within a multicultural framework.

*Extensive experience of operationally and/or professionally managing other Psychologists and Psychological Professionals.

Desirable

*Evidence of peer reviewed publications, presentations at conferences, or similar contributions.

*Experience of relevant local and national roles e.g. as a National Assessor, as a committee member for Special Interest Groups, or within the British Psychological Society or Association of Clinical Psychologists.

*Experience of establishing, developing and maintaining partnerships with Higher Education Institutes.

Additional Criteria

Essential

*Doctoral level knowledge of clinical psychology including highly developed knowledge of lifespan developmental psychology, models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, and two or more distinct psychological therapies.

*Skills in the use of highly complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.

*Ability to use the highest level of interpersonal and communication skills to convey and receive highly complex / sensitive information effectively requiring empathy and reassurance in a highly emotive atmosphere and the ability to overcome psychological resistance to potential threatening information whilst maintaining a high degree of professionalism at all times.

*High level ability to communicate

effectively at both a written and oral level complex, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and a wide range of lay and professional persons within and outside the NHS.

*Skills in providing consultation and supervision to other multi-disciplinary professional and non- professional groups.

*Ability to manage staff (including line management) and negotiate specialty issues.

*Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.

*Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology.

*Knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management.

*Ability to design and implement policy for services and to propose service changes that impact beyond that area of activity.

*Ability to plan a clinical service and to formulate a long term strategic plan which may involve uncertainty

*Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS.

*Formal training in supervision of other psychologists.

*Extensive experience in the supervision and line management of other Psychologists, Psychological Professionals and other disciplines.

*Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific complex or "difficult to treat" groups.

*Highly developed knowledge of the theory and practice of highly specialised psychological therapies.

*Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge of complex work procedures and clinical practices such as organisational development, mediation, coaching & mentoring, continuous improvement, change management etc.

*Uses IT equipment & software as required, including statistical, database, spreadsheet and presentational.

*Enthusiasm for a broad range of psychological phenomena, an interest in models of service delivery, and an ability to articulate the value added by psychology services to Trust Clinical and Corporate activities.

*Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to contain the stress of others.

*Extensive experience in and ability to demonstrate excellent senior leadership and management skills.

*Ability to identify, and employ, as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the support

*and maintenance of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material.

*Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings.

*Ability to articulate and interpret clearly the role of the psychological professions

based upon a good understanding of the framework of government and national professional policy.

*Demonstrable commitment to supporting and promoting the needs of a diverse population.

Desirable

*A commitment to the evaluation of services, enthusiasm for both multi professional and uni- professional audit, and a wish to continue to develop expertise in the service area. 

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.

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.

UK Professional Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.

For help with your application, contact: 

Clare Hassan 

Clare.Hassan@uhb.nhs.uk 

01213713474