NHS employer · Wolverhampton, West Midlands

Allied health careers at Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is a mental health trust based in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, organisation code TAJ. Below: what the published data says about this organisation, what its type means for an allied health caseload, and where the courses that feed it are taught.

Mental health trustEngland
Mental health trust Organisation type ODS code TAJ
£32,073 Band 5 starting salary England, 2026/27 scale
Not published CQC rating Not in the open dataset for this organisation
Not published Staff survey response rate Not in the open dataset for this organisation
165.1 Allied health staff Full-time equivalent across 6 published professions, 31 December 2025
3,700.1 Staff overall Full-time equivalent, all staff groups, 31 December 2025

What working here is like

A mental health trust runs inpatient units, community mental health teams, crisis and home treatment services, child and adolescent services, and often learning disability and forensic services. Allied health practice here is much less about acute physical recovery and much more about function, occupation, communication and participation over a long arc.

Occupational therapy is the largest allied health workforce in these organisations, and it is where the profession’s original purpose — meaningful occupation as therapy — is most visible in the job description. The arts therapies are concentrated almost entirely in this kind of employer, in CAMHS, in secure settings and in adult community teams. Dietetics, speech and language therapy and physiotherapy all have established roles too, particularly around eating disorders, communication needs and the physical health of people with severe mental illness.

None of that is specific to Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust — it is what the organisation type tells you, and it is the part that reliably holds. The parts that vary between two organisations of the same type are the size of each department, how rotations are structured, how much band 6 progression is built into the establishment, and how far apart the sites are. Those are questions for the recruitment page and for the informal visit that most allied health departments will happily arrange before you apply. Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s own website is the authoritative source for current vacancies and department structure.

Organisation type
Mental health trust
Based in
Wolverhampton
Region
West Midlands
NHS region
Midlands
Nation
England
ODS code
TAJ
Pay scale that applies
Agenda for Change 2026/27, England

Allied health professions employed here

The professions Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust publishes staff figures for come first; the rest are services a mental health trust normally runs, listed because the workforce return does not cover every profession. Each page covers the caseload, the pay ladder and where the local courses are.

Physiotherapist at Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

People of all ages with musculoskeletal pain and injury, neurological conditions, respiratory and cardiac disease, frailty and falls risk, long-term conditions, and those recovering from surgery or critical illness.

Usually starts at band 5Taught in the West Midlands
OT

Occupational therapist at Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

People of all ages recovering from surgery, stroke or injury, and people living with mental illness, learning disability, dementia, long-term conditions or physical disability who want to live more independently.

Usually starts at band 5Taught in the West Midlands
RD

Dietitian at Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

People of all ages with medical conditions affected by diet — including digestive, kidney, metabolic and swallowing disorders, malnutrition, food allergy, obesity and eating disorders — as well as healthy populations.

Usually starts at band 5Taught in the West Midlands
SLT

Speech and language therapist at Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Children and adults with speech, language, communication or swallowing needs, including people after stroke or brain injury, autistic people, people with learning disabilities, progressive neurological conditions, head and neck cancer and voice disorders.

Usually starts at band 5Taught in the West Midlands

Art therapist at Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Children, young people, adults and older people living with mental health difficulties, trauma, learning disabilities, neurodivergence, dementia, life-limiting illness or emotional and behavioural difficulties.

Usually starts at band 6

Music therapist at Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

People of all ages with emotional or mental health difficulties, learning or physical disabilities, developmental conditions including autism, neurological conditions, dementia, and life-limiting or palliative illness.

Usually starts at band 6

Dramatherapist at Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

People of all ages — children, young people, adults and older people — with emotional, behavioural or mental health difficulties, learning disabilities, physical disabilities, neurological conditions or serious illness.

Usually starts at band 6

Allied health staff at Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Published full-time equivalent staff by profession as at 31 December 2025. These are staff in post, not vacancies — but the size of a department is the single best guide to what working in it is like. A large establishment means more specialisms in-house, more senior colleagues to be supervised by and more rotation slots; a small one means a broader scope of practice earlier and fewer people to learn it from.

Allied health professions employed by Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Profession Full-time equivalent As at
Occupational therapist 97.1 31 December 2025
Speech and language therapist 37.1 31 December 2025
Physiotherapist 22.8 31 December 2025
Dietitian 5.7 31 December 2025
Art therapist 1.4 31 December 2025
Music therapist 1 31 December 2025

The largest allied health group published here is occupational therapists, at 97.1 full-time equivalent of 165.1 across every profession published here, in an organisation of 3,700.1 staff in total. Professions with no published row are not necessarily absent — the feed publishes what the organisation returned.

The organisation as a whole

Staff group totals as published, for context on the figures above.

Published staff group totals for Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Staff group Full-time equivalent Headcount As at
All staff groups 3,700.1 4,164 31 December 2025
Scientific, therapeutic & technical staff 511.5 591 31 December 2025

Where it is, and who trains near it

Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust sits in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, within the Midlands NHS region. Geography matters more in allied health recruitment than in most NHS careers, because pre-registration courses carry a large block of supervised clinical practice and those placements are commissioned with the trusts and boards nearest the university. Students placed with an organisation know its systems, its staff and its patients before they graduate, and a substantial share of newly qualified appointments go to people who were placed there. 9 universities in the West Midlands run approved allied health courses, training physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dietitians and speech and language therapists among others.

Pay is a national question rather than a local one: Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust pays the England Agenda for Change rates for 2026/27, the same as every other NHS employer in the nation. For context, band 5 starts at £32,073 while median full-time pay across all occupations in the West Midlands was £37,064 in 2025. What does vary between employers is everything around the salary: how long a rotation lasts, how much protected time you get for supervision and continuing professional development, whether band 6 progression is planned into the establishment, and how far you will drive between sites.

Universities in the West Midlands

The providers whose placement circuits are most likely to include this organisation.

Other NHS organisations in the West Midlands

The realistic alternatives if you are looking for a first post in this area — they pay the same bands, so the difference is the caseload.

NHS organisations in the West Midlands
Organisation Type Based in
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust Mental health trust Birmingham
Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust Community trust Birmingham
Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust Specialist trust Birmingham
Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust Mental health trust Coventry
George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust Acute trust Nuneaton
Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust Integrated care organisation Worcester
Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust Mental health trust Stafford
North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust Mental health trust Stoke-on-Trent
Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust Acute trust Smethwick
Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust Community trust Shrewsbury
South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust Acute trust Warwick
The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust Acute trust Dudley
The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Specialist trust Oswestry
The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Specialist trust Birmingham
The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust Acute trust Wolverhampton
The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust Acute trust Shrewsbury
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust Acute trust Birmingham
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust Acute trust Coventry
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust Acute trust Stoke-on-Trent
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust Acute trust Walsall
West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust Ambulance service Brierley Hill
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust Acute trust Worcester
Wye Valley NHS Trust Acute trust Hereford

How the pay ladder works here

The same four steps apply at every NHS employer; what differs is how quickly the posts come up.

£32,073 Band 5 · Newly qualified First post after registration, usually rotational.
£39,959 Band 6 · Specialist Typically two to four years in; a defined clinical specialty.
£49,387 Band 7 · Advanced or team lead Clinical leadership, complex caseload, supervision.
£57,528 Band 8a · Consultant or service lead Service-wide responsibility or consultant practice.

Next steps

Where this page’s data comes from