Senior Practitioner Psychologist - Cancer PsychologyClosing date: 16 August 2026
Job summaryAre you a compassionate and committed practitioner psychologist who champions inclusivity and making healthcare more psychologically-informed? Would you like to join our service to help facilitate coping and adjustment to the impact of cancer and improve the mental health and wellbeing of those affected by cancer and teams supporting them?
We are seeking a compassionate, enthusiastic and committed Practitioner (Clinical/Counselling/Health) Psychologist to join our Cancer Psychology Service to enhance our outpatient service. As well as direct patient work, you will be involved in new projects such as developing psychological prehabilitation for patients and training for staff in psychological skills. Whilst the post is fixed term initially, we will be seeking an extension of the role.
In addition to working with a growing Cancer Psychology Service alongside more senior practitioner psychologists, you will be welcomed by multidisciplinary colleagues across cancer services who highly value the expertise of psychological professionals. You will also be a valued colleague in our Department of Psychological Services.
If you thrive on challenge, creativity and a dynamic and supportive work environment, along with the opportunity to shape the future of the service, this is the job for you.
If you are interested, we would welcome your call to learn more about the post. Please contact the Lead for Cancer Psychology (Hanan Hussein) on 0121 3714455 or email hanan.hussein@uhb.nhs.uk
Main duties of the job- To provide direct clinical care within the designated speciality, which may include support to patients, carers and family members including individual and group based psychological therapy and intervention, as deemed clinically appropriate.
- Maintains a caseload of clients for therapy, consultation and extended assessment and formulation. Delivers psychological interventions to fidelity, protocol guidelines or appropriate professional standards for individual clients, couples or families as appropriate.
- To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, their partners or carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
- To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide general advice to other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.
- To decide upon appropriate courses of action and exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of patients whose problems are managed by psychologically based treatment plans according to a professional code of conduct.
- Maintain registration with the HCPC and comply with the Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics.
About usUniversity 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.
DetailsDate posted: 03 August 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 7
Salary: £49,387 to £56,515 a year
Contract: Fixed term
Duration: 12 months
Working pattern: Full-time, Flexible working
Reference number: 304-1102867
Job locations: Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Mindelsohn Way, Birmingham, West Midlands, B15 2TH, United Kingdom
Job descriptionJob responsibilitiesPlease Note: For a detailed job description for this vacancy, please see attached Job Description.
Person SpecificationQualificationsEssential- Doctoral level training in clinical, counselling or health psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.
- HCPC registration as a Practitioner Psychologist.
- (Candidates for posts who i) possess a qualification in clinical/counselling/health psychology obtained oversees, that does not fully meet UK training requirements; ii) are seeking lateral transfer from another branch of applied psychology; or iii) hold a research degree in a clinical subject, must provide evidence that they have obtained a Statement of Equivalence in awarded by the BPS Committee for the Scrutiny of Individual Clinical Qualifications, further to the satisfactory completion of such additional training as is required by the CSICQ.
Desirable- Pre-qualification training and/or qualifications in research methodology, staff training, health psychology and/or other fields of applied psychology that may be relevant in a clinical health psychology setting.
ExperienceEssential- Experience of specialist psychological assessment and 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 including physical health problems that reflect the full spectrum of clinical complexity and severity.
- Experience of working with people experiencing both physical and mental health difficulties
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment.
- An understanding of the specific needs and difficulties of people affected by the condition or clinical issue for whom the psychology service for this post works with.
- Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical/counselling/health psychology.
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS.
- Experience maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
Desirable- Experience of working in acute physical health settings.
- Experience representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
- Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
- Experience of working with people affected by physical illness.
- Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies and assessment methodologies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).
- Awareness of legislation and policy in relation to the clinical specialty and mental health
- Experience of short-term care provision e.g. brief assessments, short inpatient stays.
- Experience providing supervision to assistant psychologists or graduate psychologists
Additional CriteriaEssential- Adaptable and able to work flexibly when required (e.g. in the light of changing service priorities).
- Capacity for tolerating frustration, change and high levels of demand with an ability to work effectively under pressure.
- Capacity to attend to and concentrate on clinical and research related information on a frequent basis (e.g. when undertaking client assessments or analysing statistical data) and to concentrate for prolonged periods of time on an at least occasional basis (e.g. when undertaking psychometric assessment).
- Capacity to frequently sit in constrained positions for client assessment and therapy.
- A commitment to the involvement of service users and carers on the development and delivery of mental health and other care services.
Desirable- Experience of working within a multicultural framework.
- Experience of service development.
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 Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website. 
