Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist, | South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust


Company:	South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Salary:	£113,565 - £150,569 per annum
Hours:	Full-time
Location:	Beckenham, BR3 3BX
Job type:	Contract
Posting date:	28 Aug 2026
Closing date:	27 Sept 2026

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Summary

An exciting opportunity has risen for a fixed term, 10 PA consultant psychiatrist post at the Channi Kumar Mother and Baby Unit, at Bethlem Royal Hospital. The successful candidate will work with other multidisciplinary members of the Mother and Baby Unit and linked perinatal community services across South London and Maudsley and The South London Partnership, as well as nationally, to deliver high quality, safe, excellent, evidence-based care. The pots holder will support service innovations, quality improvements and clinical research, education in perinatal psychiatry within SLaM, sharing strong clinical leadership within the team.

This is an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic and committed consultant psychiatrist to work in a leading national Mother and Baby Unit, providing flexible clinical leadership and consultant responsibility and working closely with other members of the multidisciplinary team including an existing consultant. The post holder will provide clinical work specifically in the Mother and Baby Unit in the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM).

• To Provide Clinical Leadership and Consultant input

• To participate in the framework of Clinical Governance

• To take consultant responsibility for patients on MBU, assessment and devising or helping to devise appropriate investigation and treatment plans

• To deliver on the quality and outcomes

• To provide RC and Section 12 responsibilities to patients

• Reviewing patients on the case load on a regular basis and in line with changes in new ways of working

• To work flexibly with the other consultants on MBU and across the community boroughs

• To offer advice and provide clinical and educational supervision to CT and ST residents

• To offer expert risk assessment and management skills

• To promote and advocate for the principles and practice of Perinatal Psychiatry locally and nationally

• To work flexibly and creatively as part of a MDT

• To deliver Service Line management

• Liaison with/advice to General Practitioners concerning service users subject to CPA.

• To provide reciprocal cover under Section 12 of the Mental Health Act for the leave

• To encourage and lead as appropriate service based research and teaching.

• Education and training of midwifes and health visitors.

• To maintain help to address clinical governance issues within MBU.

• Participation in, contribution to service audit, service evaluation and research.

• Attendance at audit/academic/management meetings, appropriate to the needs of the service.

The Channi Kumar Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) is a world renown local and national, 12 bedded acute psychiatric ward, that provides multi-disciplinary specialist care for women aged 18+ who are pregnant (third trimester) or have a baby under one year and are experiencing moderate to severe mental illness. Women aged 16–18 may also be admitted with CAMHS support.

It was established in 1981, is a regional and national inpatient service within the Operations Directorate of Psychological Medicine and Older Adults at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM). It works alongside linked Community Perinatal Mental Health Teams serving Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, and Croydon, and their associated acute hospitals (St Thomas’s, King’s College Hospital, University Hospital Lewisham, and Croydon University Hospital).

Since 2023, the MBU has been part of the South London Partnership Perinatal Provider Collaborative, a partnership between Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, SLaM, and Southwest London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust (SWLStG).

The post is to work alongside another consultant. The caseload and clinical responsibility will be split equally between the two consultant psychiatrists. The consultant psychiatrist has the overall responsibility, to lead the overall care of the patient and their baby and family, integrating biological, psychological and social aspects of assessment, investigations and treatment. The post holder will work alongside the multidisciplinary team including co- consultant psychiatrist, psychologist (adult and developmental), nurses, nursery nurses, occupational therapist, social worker, team manager, operational team in PMOA and administrative staff. The post holder will also work alongside the local and more national community perinatal mental health teams, maternity services, general psychiatric liaison, other secondary mental health services, local authority and partner agencies. The MBU provides both local and national services to mothers who have a range of psychiatric disorder, diagnosed during pregnancy, or the postpartum period, up to the infant being approximately one year old. The community psychiatrists also see some women are seen for preconception advice, when they have past history of moderate to severe mental illness and want to conceive and require possible advice on their risk of relapse, their care, their medication plan and the potential impact on the developing foetus. Women in the community perinatal teams are screened in the antenatal period in the maternity hospitals and those with a moderate to severe mental illness are assessed, and treated throughout pregnancy and the post-natal period.

Women admitted to the MBU are either in the last trimester of pregnancy or post partum up the baby being 12 months old. Women have a range of moderate-severe mental health and psychiatric difficulties, from mood disorders, severe mental illness, psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders including obsessive compulsive disorder, personality disorders. There may be comorbidities including the need to assess neurodiversity, a growing area. There may be risk to themselves or to others including the baby, which the consultant will need to lead the assessment of. There may be bonding and parenting difficulties for the index mothers/ parents. The unit supports the entire family unit and the diversity of parenting. The women are from diverse social and ethnic backgrounds. Average length of stay is about 8 weeks and can vary.

Following assessment new patients are allocated to the Consultant; where patients are reviewed by the consultant and relevant members of the multidisciplinary team. Patients can access specialist input from psychiatrists, perinatal psychological therapies, developmental psychology, couple and family work, nursing and nursery nurse, occupational therapy activities, ward based social workers. The postholder may be required to see patients on other wards, in the community, other hospitals, or in the home environment, as part of the inpatient admission.

The team has an 0.5 session senior resident doctor and a full-time resident doctor, who will be clinically supervised by the consultants. The post holder must have an educational supervisor portfolio to be considered for educational supervision of other residents in the trust, and will provide clinical advice to the resident doctors as required.

The post holder will regularly update their knowledge and skills in the use of psychotropic medication during pregnancy and breast feeding. The post holder will also have good psychological therapy skills to support the work on the unit. They will also contribute to, and when needed lead, multiagency working and the importance of safeguarding issues related to the unborn child and the baby. The postholder will be required to undertake including Mental Health Act assessments on the MBU and in the community. There will also be attendance at Mental Health Act Tribunal and attendance at Family Courts as needed. The post holder will also work alongside colleagues in the community perinatal mental health services across the South London Partnership and more nationally, facilitating admissions and discharges from the inpatient MBU.

The post holder must be approved or eligible for approval under the section 12(2) of the Mental Health Act. The post holder is accountable and professionally responsible to the Clinical Lead in Perinatal Psychiatry and the Clinical Director.

There is a linked Parent Infant Psychotherapy Service in SLaM which is also part of the Psychological Medicine and Older Adults (PMOA) Directorate.

The post holder will be expected to have a significant role in teaching multidisciplinary staff across primary and secondary health care services as well as social care.

The post-holder will have an office space in the Mother and Baby Unit, share with the other consultant. The post is supported by the team administrators based at the Mother and Baby Unit. The MBU is networked to the Trust Intranet with IT support from the central services of the Trust. The post-holder will have his or her own computer and will have administrative support.

The post-holder will be expected to participate in the National Units Consultant on-call out of hours rota. They will be asked to participate in the perinatal consultant day rota (working hours Mon- Fri 9-5 pm) for telephone advice 1 day per week.

The post holder and co- consultant provide Responsible Clinician and con consultant cover when the other is on annual leave.

The post holder will also be expected to cover community consultant colleagues. The detailed job plan will be developed, agreed and regularly reviewed, including ad hoc should there be a significant workload change, with Dr Livia Martucci Perinatal Community Services Clinical Lead, and Dr David Okai, Associate Clinical Director, PMOA.

This advert closes on Sunday 13 Sep 2026

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