HMP Bullingdon is seeking an experienced and dedicated Acting Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist to lead our Mental Health Team. This pivotal role offers an exceptional opportunity to provide clinical leadership and strategic oversight within a challenging and rewarding environment.
As the Acting Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, you will be responsible for delivering high-quality forensic psychiatric care to a diverse prison population, leading a multidisciplinary team, and contributing to the development and delivery of mental health services within the prison.
The post holder will join the Forensic Consultant on-call rota. The current frequency of on-calls is 1 in 13.5, category A, low frequency, banded at 3.0%. The on-call rota attracts an additional 0.25PA payment for work done out of hours, mainly seclusion reviews at weekends. The on-call rota is exclusively for Forensic Psychiatry and covers the Thames Valley region., The successful applicant will play a pivotal role in the ongoing expansion and enhancement of mental health services at HMP Bullingdon. Working alongside another experienced consultant forensic psychiatrist, you will be an integral part of a well-established and multidisciplinary Mental Health Team dedicated to delivering exceptional care.
You will lead the care of prisoners receiving treatment and support from the integrated Mental Health Team (MHT), providing comprehensive psychiatric assessment and treatment both on the residential wings and within the healthcare unit. This will include initiating transfers to psychiatric hospitals when clinically necessary and managing the safe return of patients to the prison once hospital treatment is complete.
As most prisoners at HMP Bullingdon are from Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, transfers will frequently be made to psychiatric units within Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.
In addition, you will liaise closely with general adult and community forensic mental health teams to ensure smooth, well-coordinated transitions between prison and community services, supporting continuity of care.
Cross-cover arrangements are in place with other Forensic Consultants based in prisons or across the wider Thames Valley region, fostering collaborative working and shared clinical responsibility in this dynamic environment., As part of the Forensic Service leadership, the post holder will work collaboratively with consultant colleagues to ensure the smooth and effective running of the service. This will involve active engagement with the management structures within both the Division and the wider Trust, fostering a supportive and well-coordinated clinical environment.
Supervision
For those interested and suitably approved, there is the exciting opportunity to supervise psychiatric trainees. The Thames Valley Higher Forensic Training Scheme offers six national training numbers, including a dual Forensic and CAMHS post. The current Forensic Training Programme Director, Dr. Hasanen Al Taiar, along with the Director of Medical Education, Dr. Alastair Reid, provide excellent leadership and support for trainee development within the scheme., The post holder will be encouraged to actively engage in training programmes and teaching sessions. There are also opportunities to contribute to wider training events within the Division. Medical students frequently visit HMP Bullingdon, and the Consultant may play a vital role in educating and supporting multi-disciplinary staff development.
Continuing Professional Development, Mentorship, and Induction
Ongoing professional development is essential, and the Trust fully supports consultants in maintaining their Royal College CPD requirements, including access to study leave and funding for conferences. The post holder will participate in Trust consultant meetings, audits, and academic events, maintaining continuous professional growth through membership of a Personal Development Plan (PDP) group and annual appraisal.
New consultants benefit from a structured induction programme and are supported through mentorship, with suitable mentors nominated to guide and support them.
Forensic psychiatry consultants hold monthly peer supervision sessions on Wednesdays and quarterly reviews of PDPs-an excellent forum for professional support and collaboration, which the successful applicant will be invited to join.
Additionally, the Forensic Psychiatry Academic Programme runs on Wednesday afternoons during Oxford University term time, featuring visiting speakers and rich academic content. The post holder is expected to contribute actively here, as well as participate in the broad programme hosted by the Department of Psychiatry at the Warneford Hospital on Tuesday mornings.
Research and Audit
The post holder will contribute to service-related audit projects, working alongside the multidisciplinary team and Trust audit department to continually improve care quality.
The Thames Valley Forensic Mental Health Service (TVFMHS) is committed to expanding academic forensic mental health in partnership with Oxford University. This role offers exciting opportunities to collaborate on research projects with the forensic psychiatry department at the Warneford Hospital, under the leadership of Professor Seena Fazel.
Mental Health Act Assessments
The Consultant will be expected to obtain Section 12(2) approval under the Mental Health Act. The Trust provides full support for acquiring Section 12 approval and Approved Clinician status if required.
Job Planning
The post holder will engage in annual job planning with the Forensic Associate Medical Director, ensuring the role is tailored collaboratively to reflect clinical and professional interests. Any changes to the job plan will be negotiated bilaterally. Annual appraisal will be conducted as part of the Trust's appraisal process, supporting readiness for revalidation.
The exact timetable will be agreed upon with the Clinical Lead, with an expected ratio of 7.5 sessions of direct clinical care to 2.5 sessions dedicated to Supporting Professional Activities (SPA) on a pro-rata basis. SPA time may include special interest clinical work, CPD, peer group activities, teaching, supervision, governance, audit, service development, management, business planning, research, and academic involvement.
+ All new starters have a thorough induction process, both local and Trust wide, which aims to create a positive supportive working environment allowing new employees to learn key elements of their role over a reasonable timescale.
+ Appointment to this post is subject to the trust receiving satisfactory references covering 3 years of employment or study. Please ask your referees to respond promptly to reference requests.
+ We're advocates of flexible working and many of our roles offer a range of employment options to help you balance your work and personal life.
+ Employees are expected to undertake mandatory and statutory training related to their role.
+ We are ambitious in our pursuit of excellence, driven by the belief that a fair, just and fully inclusive organisational culture enables our teams to deliver the best quality of care and services possible and we work hard to ensure that our diverse workforce reflects the communities that we serve.
+ We welcome applications from all sections of the community, are an Equal Opportunities employer with a number of internal networking groups to support our employees and where possible will always look to make reasonable adjustments in order that you can fulfil the role to recognise your full potential. All our employees are committed to demonstrating through their behaviour our core values - safe, caring and excellent.
+ We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, we expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
+ Oxford is a world-renowned centre of excellence for research. Oxford Health works closely with the University of Oxford department of Psychiatry and the Department of Primary care, has a Biomedical Research Centre dedicated to improving mental health and the NIHR Clinical Research Facility at the Warneford site. The Trust also hosts the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) which carries out applied research that directly impacts patient health and wellbeing

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has been rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
We are a responsive and innovative Foundation Trust that places our values of Caring, Safe and Excellent at the heart of everything we do. We take great pride in our staff and believe that investing in you is key to us achieving our vision of outstanding care delivered by outstanding people.
We work with a wide range of partner organisations to deliver care and support to people in their own homes and from a number of hospitals and community bases. We focus on delivering care as close to home as possible for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.
We actively support anti-racism, equality, diversity, and inclusion so, if you're excited about this job opportunity and you meet our Trust values, but feel unsure about applying, then please get in touch and we will be happy to have a conversation with you.
We are also committed to increasing diversity in the workforce, that is why we actively encourage applications from those groups of people who are currently under-represented, which include amongst others: people with disabilities; men from all socio-economic backgrounds; people from diverse ethnic backgrounds; and people from the LGBTQIA+ community., The Thames Valley Forensic Mental Health Service (TVFMHS) provides treatment in a range of inpatient settings across the region (Oxford, Aylesbury and Milton Keynes). The service also inputs into local prisons and provides services for the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) Pathway in the community.
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust holds a lead role across the whole South-Central Region, as part of the Thames Valley and Wessex Provider Collaborative., Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust is a proud teaching Trust with strong, close ties to Oxford University. The Oxford University Department of Psychiatry, based at the Warneford Hospital, is internationally renowned for its medical teaching and cutting-edge research. More information can be found on their [website](https://www.psych.ox.ac.uk/).