Education Mental Health Practitioner

NHS; Gloucester; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

An exciting opportunity exists for a Qualified Education Mental Health Practitioner within the Gloucestershire Mental Health Support Team. This role focuses on delivering evidence-based interventions for children and young people, working collaboratively across educational and healthcare settings. Candidates must have completed relevant training and will be integral in enhancing mental health support for children in Gloucestershire.

Qualifications

• Completion of the HEE commissioned 1yr 'Education Mental Health Practitioner' course or equivalent.
• Experience working with children and young people in educational settings.
• Ability to engage with diverse stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Deliver evidence-based interventions for children with mental health difficulties.
• Support children and families in managing mental health issues.
• Collaborate with educational staff to improve access to mental health services.

Skills

Evidence-based intervention

Collaboration

Inclusivity

Education

Postgraduate Diploma Psychological Therapies Practice

Teaching qualification

Youth Mental Health First Aid

Job description

Go back Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

Education Mental Health Practitioner

The closing date is 23 May 2025

An exciting opportunity has arisen in the Gloucestershire Mental Health Support Team for the recruitment of Qualified Education Mental Health Practitioner's (EMHP) or Children's Wellbeing Practitioners. In line with the government's priority to increase access and availability of mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people, the EMHP role is an exciting opportunity to deliver evidence-based early interventions for children and young people, working across both educational settings and healthcare sectors.

Successful candidates will be employed on a full-time basis based within Gloucestershire, and will play a key role as members of the Mental Health Support Team, who will have the responsibility for delivering schools' overarching approach to providing mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people.

Potential candidates will have already successfully completed the HEE commissioned 1yr 'Education Mental Health Practitioner' course or the equivalent 'Children's Wellbeing Practitioner' course.

As part of this role there may be a requirement to travel across the localities.

Please be advised that this vacancy may close ahead of schedule due to a high volume of applicants.

Main duties of the job

To allow the post holder, with appropriate supervision, to work as an autonomous and responsible practitioner as their training affords and within the scope of their job description, to engage in;o Delivering evidence-based intervention for children and young people in education setting with mild to moderate mental health problemso Helping children and young people within these settings who present with more severe problems to rapidly access more specialist serviceso Supporting and facilitating staff in education settings to identify and where appropriate manage issues related to mental health and wellbeingo Working with and within education environments to afford better access to specialist mental health services and 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 thatalready exist within these environments.

The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.

About us

We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people's homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:

• 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
• 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
• 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust's priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%

This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.

Job responsibilities

• Assess and deliver outcome focused, evidence-based interventions in educational settings for children and young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties, working at all times in collaboration with and giving respect to the education function of the setting in which the post-holder is deployed.
• Work in partnership to support children and young people experiencing mild tomoderate mental health difficulties and their parents/carers, families and educators in the self-management of presenting difficulties.
• Work in effective, evidence-based partnership with children, young people, their families and their educators in the development of plans for the intervention and agreed outcomes.
• Support and empower children, young people, their parents/carers and families and their educators to make informed choices about the interventions being offered.
• Support the Participation and Engagement of children, young people, theirparents/carers and families and their educators. Actively increasing autonomy and the ability for children and young people to make positive changes for themselves and future service-users.
• Operate at all times from an inclusive values base, which recognises and respects diversity.
• Accept referrals within educational settings according to agreed local and national and local protocols.
• Undertake and record accurate assessments of risk and operate clear risk management processes in line with locally agreed procedures including the safeguarding protocols of the educational setting and Local Safeguarding Board guidance

We provide a Multi-professional preceptorship programme that is aligned to the National Preceptorship Framework for Nursing and have been awarded the Interim quality mark from NHS England. Our programme is provided to all Newly Qualified; Nurses, Nursing Associates, Internationally Educated Practitioners, Allied Health Professionals and Return to Practice Practitioners. In addition to the programme we also offer all preceptees the opportunity of enrolling and completing the level 7 (Masters) 15 credit validated module Preceptorship for Healthcare (AP7026).

Newly qualified Social Workers are offered the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment programme (ASYE) which is similar to a preceptorship programme.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Successful completion of the HEE commissioned 1yr 'Education Mental Health Practitioner' course or the equivalent 'Children's Wellbeing Practitioner' course or 'Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner' course
• Postgraduate Diploma/Graduate Diploma Psychological Therapies Practice (Low Intensity CBT for Children, Young People & Families)
• Teaching qualification
• Youth Mental Health First Aid trained

Experience

• Experience of working with children and young people, their families and others
• Experience of working and liaising with a wide variety of agencies and stakeholders
• Experience of working with children and their families in a healthcare setting
• Experience of working with children and their families in an education setting

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust