Educational Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP) - London
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.
We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’.
We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone’s potential as change makers.
The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.
Our Values
We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I’m going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you’ll be part of something special.
As a Trust we are happy to talk flexible working.
Job overview
The MHSTs are a new service designed to help meet the mental health needs of children and young people in education settings. They are made up of senior clinicians, CAMHS Practitioners and Educational Mental Health Practitioners (EMHP)'s, who are also known in the SLaM Trust as Education Wellbeing Practitioners (EWPs).The MHST is based across education settings as an additional resource within a whole-system approach to promote resilience and wellbeing, to support earlier intervention, enable appropriate signposting and deliver evidence-based support, care and interventions.
The MHSTs will partner with education settings to design a bespoke offer, based on each school’s individual needs, and works with the mental health and wellbeing services that are already in place, such as counselling, educational psychology, school nurses, pastoral care, educational welfare officers, VCSEs, the local authority, including children’s social care, and NHS Children and Young People Mental Health Services (CYPMHS) and this work is supported and delivered by the EWP role.
The Post holder will be based in a small MHST Hub working with a cluster of schools and experienced MHST colleagues, to plan and deliver direct intervention to children and parents, as well as class groups, assemblies , welcome events, coffee mornings and access events.
Main duties of the job
There is a requirement to work with schools remotely and face to face in delivering low level Guided Self-Help to Young People and Families. This will be across various educational settings within the Lewisham school clusters, remote working from home and Lewisham CAMHS.
EWPs play a key role as members of the Mental Health Support Team, who will have the responsibility for delivering schools' whole school approach to mental health and emotional wellbeing for children and young people.
Ensure Confidentiality of information is always maintained in accordance with Trust policies and code of ethics and professional conduct.
Working for our organisation
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) provide the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK as well as substance misuse services for people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. We work closely with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London and are part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre.There are very few organisations in the world that have such wide-ranging capabilities working with mental illness. Our scope is unique because it is built on three major foundations: care and treatment, science and research, and training.
By coming to work at SLaM, you will gain experience of being part of an organisation with a rich history and international reputation in mental health care. You will have access to professional development and learning opportunities, and have the chance to work alongside people who are world leaders in their field.SLaM delivered more than 14,000 training experiences in 2014; providing an extensive range of learning opportunities for staff at all levels. In addition, our working relationship with King's Health Partners allows those working at the Trust to get involved in academic research.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The MHST are a friendly and supportive team who have developed a close partnership with Lewisham schools in providing low intensity interventions, creating workshops and groups and adapting services to meet the needs of schools, young people and families in Lewisham in line with CYP-IAPT principles.
The successful candidate will be employed by the MHST deliver emotional wellbeing interventions using Guided Self-Help strategies. You will be equipped with the necessary skills, knowledge and capabilities to work as a qualified EMHP, as an autonomous and responsible practitioner within your scope of practice, alongside education and health colleagues.
You will be confident in providing Guided Self-Help to young people and families in anxiety, low mood and challenging behaviours. You will be flexible and creative in responding to the needs of the school populations, with excellent support from your team and supervision.You will also be able to adapt to working remotely and prioritising access to services and resources.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria- Successful completion of the HEE commissioned 1yr ‘Education Mental Health Practitioner’ post graduate diploma
- Professional registration with the BPS or BABCP as an EMHP
- Evidence of CPD -Continuous Professional Development in Child and Adolescent Mental Health or Family work training
Experience
Essential criteria- Experience of working with children and young people, their families and others in educational and health settings with mild to moderate mental health problems.
- Experience of delivering specific therapeutic interventions to children, young people or their families (e.g. Guided Self Help, CBT, parent work)
- Experience of assessing children and young people who present with more severe problems to rapidly access more specialist services. Ability to conduct other group therapeutic interventions with children and their families
- Experience of liaising and working effectively with the wider network around the child including educational, social care, family and health.
- Experience of working with cultural diverse populations and adapting services to improve access.
- Experience of liaising and working effectively with the wider network around the child including educational, social care, family and health.
- Experience of assessing and meeting the communication needs of the schools to deliver psycho-education on mental health or emotional wellbeing to different groups including parents, teaching staff and young people.
- Experience of adapting resources to be able to delivery online/ via phone/ google classroom
Abilities
Essential criteria- Ability to carry out 1:1 therapeutic mental health interventions with children and families.
- Ability to conduct group parenting and group young person programmes
- Ability to work within educational settings to increase mental health awareness within the staff group
- Ability to conduct mental health assessments and screenings of children and young people
- Ability to make an assessment of risk and to record and communicate it appropriately and to take appropriate action to mitigate or manage
- Ability to conduct other group therapeutic interventions with children and their families
- Ability to teach others about mental health issues
- Ability to think and work systemically
The Trust is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect and dignity and in promoting equality and human rights. We aim to put this commitment into practice by:
- Embedding our commitment to tackling inequality, eliminating discrimination and harassment; promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good relations in our everyday practice
- Ensuring that all our services and all staff understand and support our commitment
- We believe that people who use our services, their carers and our staff, should be treated with compassion, respect and dignity
Please note:
- That all applications for this post will need to be made online
- That you read and understand the Job Description and Personal Specification attached to the role. Your Statement in Support should reflect the requirements specified as your application will be judged against these criteria
- That the closing date listed is a guide only and that the vacancy may close earlier should sufficient number of applicants have been received. We advise that you submit your application as early as possible
- That once you have submitted your application you agree to your application being transferred to a 3rd party e-recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs
- That should you not have heard from us within three weeks from the closing date your application has not successful
- That priority consideration for applications may be given to at-risk NHS employees
- That should you be successful and appointed, you authorise South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to confirm your previous NHS service via an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process
- That we are a smoke-free Trust
SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion , Stonewall is the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans (LGBT) rights charity in Europe’