Education Mental Health Practitioner
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
This is an exciting opportunity for a fully qualified CYP MH Practitioner to work within a multi-disciplinary, early intervention Mental Health Support Team (MHST) to increase and improve emotional wellbeing and mental health provision within education settings for 5-18 year olds.You will be working as an EMHP within a successful MHST site, which has emerged out of the governments December 2017 plans: Transforming Children and Young Peoples Mental Health Provision: a Green Paper.
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 Lambeth MHST schools and remote working from home.
EMHPs 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.
Working for our organisation
We are committed to ensuring our staff get the most out of their benefits package and understand the importance of a healthy work life balance. There is an extensive range of excellent benefits for you and your family. We want you to feel like you are part of a close-knit team at SLaM.It’s important to us that you valued and appreciated and that are why we have a comprehensive benefits package on offer
Some of our benefits are highlighted here:
- Generous pay, pensions and leave. We offer a comprehensive pay, pensions and leave package which is dependent on the role and length of service.
- Work life balance. We support a range of flexible working options, such as: part-time working and job sharing.
- Career development. There are plenty of opportunities to progress your career and we support your development through a number of programmes such as mentoring, coaching, positive people management, collective leadership and other talent programmes.
- Car lease. Our staff benefit from competitive deals to lease cars.
- Our staff benefit from keyworker housing, which is available on selected sites.
- NHS discounts. With discounts of up to 10% from a variety of well-known retail brands through the Health Service Discounts website.
Other benefits include:
- Counselling services
- Wellbeing events
- Long service awards
- Cycle to work scheme
- Season ticket loan
- Childcare vouchers
- Staff restaurants
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The successful candidate will be employed by Lambeth CAMHS where the MHST deliver emotional wellbeing interventions using Guided Self-Help strategies. You will have successfully completed training as a trainee EMHP. You will be equipped with the necessary skills, knowledge and capabilities to work as a qualified EMHP/ CWP, with supervision 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 behaviours that challenge from different cultural backgrounds and ages, using interpreters when necessary and should be committed to equal opportunities.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.
Helping children and young people within these settings who present with more severe problems to rapidly access more specialist services. Supporting and facilitating staff in education settings to identify and where appropriate manage issues related to mental health and wellbeing.
Working with and within education environments to afford better access to specialist mental health services. To use the acquired skills, knowledge and abilities to deliver a service based within education settings that builds on and reinforces but does not replace those initiatives that already exist within these environments.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria- Successful completion of the HEE commissioned 1yr ‘Education Mental Health Practitioner’ post graduate diploma
- Successful completion of Certificate in Children’s Wellbeing Practice (CWP), with post qualification experience as a CWP and experience of working in schools
- 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)
- 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 and young person 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 deliver online
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 conduct other group therapeutic interventions with children, young people and their families
- Ability to teach others about mental health
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’