Educational Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP)

NHS; London; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 44,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading NHS organization seeks an Educational Mental Health Practitioner to support children's mental health in educational settings. The role involves delivering interventions, conducting assessments, and working collaboratively with schools to enhance wellbeing. Candidates should possess a relevant postgraduate diploma and professional registration.

Qualifications

• Successful completion of the HEE commissioned 1yr post graduate diploma.
• Professional registration with the BPS or BABCP as an EMHP.
• Evidence of Continuous Professional Development in Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Responsibilities

• Deliver low level Guided Self-Help to Young People and Families.
• Conduct mental health assessments and screenings of children and young people.
• Provide emotional wellbeing interventions using Guided Self-Help strategies.

Skills

Therapeutic interventions

Communication

Cultural sensitivity

Education

Education Mental Health Practitioner post graduate diploma

Professional registration with BPS or BABCP

Job description

Go back South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Educational Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP)

The closing date is 28 May 2025

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.

About us

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.

Job 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

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.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

£35,964 to £43,780 a yearper annum incl. of inner HCAs