Mental Health Practitioner

Nhft; Kettering; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 48,000; Full time

Job summary

NHFT is seeking a Band 6 Mental Health Practitioner for an early intervention MHST service in Kettering. The fixed-term post covers maternity leave for a maternity leave period, working in a multidisciplinary team with a clinical caseload and supervision responsibilities.

You will work within schools to ensure earlier access to mental health support for children and young people, while providing supervision to junior colleagues and contributing to service development and governance.

Qualifications

• Qualified mental health professional with focus on children & young people.
• Experience delivering evidence-based interventions for children and families.
• Experience supervising junior staff and providing clinical leadership.

Responsibilities

• Hold a clinical caseload and provide supervision to junior staff.
• Deliver evidence-based interventions to children and young people and their families.
• Contribute to Whole School Approach and deputise for Band 7 Clinical Lead when needed.

Skills

Children & families

Caseload management

Clinical supervision

Early intervention

Teamwork

Education

Core mental health qualification for children & young people

Job description

Main area early intervention, children's mental health Grade Band 6 Contract Fixed term: 12 months (Until January 2028) Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Mon-Fri 9-5pm) Job ref 270-TH511-CH

Site Kettering Town Northamptonshire Salary £39,959 - £48,117 pa pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 19/11/2026 18:00

Job overview

Mental Health Support Team (MHST) Band 6 Mental Health Practitioner

We are an expanding service and already have established MHST teams. This post is for mayernity leave cover, fixed term contract in an existing team based in Kettering, Sudborough House

We are looking for Mental Health Practitioners. We would expect previous, significant experience at Band 5 or equivalent working within emotional/mental health and experience of working with children and young people and their families or relevant transferable skills.

We would require a core professional qualification relevant to mental health and children and young people e.g. nursing with specialism in mental health or learning disability nursing, children’s nursing, Occupational Therapy, Social Work or CWP/EMHP/PWP with accreditation with BABCP or BACP

Do you have a passion for Early Intervention?

Are you interested in working with children and young people at an early intervention stage to support their emotional/mental health and wellbeing?

Do you enjoy working within a team, sharing your knowledge of how to support children and young people with colleagues inside and outside of the NHS? Are you keen to develop your clinical skills and offer evidence-based interventions? Are you able to support and supervise junior colleagues? We have more senior roles within MHST, therefore can offer career progression too.

If the answer is yes,we welcome your application.

Main duties of the job

This role is to work as a senior member in an exciting service which has been set up during 2021 and is expanding across Northamptonshire; the Mental Health Support Team (MHST). MHST’s are working within schools, ensuring children and young people receive faster access to earlier mental health support. You will be one of the senior clinical members of the team adding to the number of teams in a growing early intervention mental health service. You will be expected to hold a clinical caseload, offer supervision to junior staff, be involved with the Whole School Approach and when necessary and appropriate deputise for the Band 7 Clinical Lead within your team.

In this role you will support and provide a high-quality service to children and young people (and their families) experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties. This will be done through the supervision of junior staff, providing consultations within schools and through direct delivery of evidence-based interventions to support the recovery of children and young people referred to the service. This work will be in accordance with clinical governance processes and professional standards.

Working for our organisation

NHFT is an integrated primary care and mental health Trust, providing physical, mental health and specialty services in both hospital settings and out in the community. Because we put the person at the centre of all we do, we focus on delivering care that is as easy to access as possible. This means many of our services can be provided at home, work or in schools.We also provide health services to various prisons and detention centres in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.

NHFT promotes a culture of learning to improve the care and safety of our patients and staff, which focuses on people who enable our Trust to be ‘outstanding’ by supporting opportunity, innovation, development and growth.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For further information on the advertised role, please refer to the job description located under the Supporting Documents heading. The full person specification can be accessed under the ‘About You’ Section of the document.

Person specification

qualifications and training

• Core professional qualification relevant to mental health and children and young people e.g. nursing with specialism in mental health or learning disability nursing, children’s nursing, Occupational Therapy, Social Work or CWP/EMHP/PWP with accreditation wth BABCP or BACP
• significant experience of children's MH or relevent transferable skills
• CPD
• evidence of clinical development
• Low intesnity supervision or other relevant supervision qualification

experience & Knowledge

• sfaeguarding of children
• risk assessment and safety planning
• understanding to use of ROMs
• ability to facilitate workshops/group work or transferable skills
• community working
• whole school approach experience
• additional therapeutic approach (other than CBT)

skills and abilities

• to undersatnd children and young people's additional needs
• multi-agrency working
• to enage with children, young people and families
• ability to formulate and care plan/interventions offered/excellent clinial decision making
• standard keyboard and IT skills
• ability to priotitise and manage own caseload
• ability to understand erly intrevention services in relation to national legislations and drivers
• ability to use S1
• ability to use MS Teams or other remote platforms

We are an equal opportunities employer, which aims to employ a workforce that reflects the diverse communities we serve. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons from all backgrounds.

All roles are subject to the home office immigration rules and therefore eligibility must meet certain requirements for any sponsorship to be considered. Please visit the government website for more information regarding eligibility,

At NHFT we support many of our colleagues to work flexibly and we will consider requests for flexible working from day one. For this role, we are open to discussing a range of options including flexible hours, agile/home working, compressed hours and part time hours. Please have a conversation with the recruiting manager about the flexibility you need and we will promise to explore what is possible with you.

Applicants who have a disability and meet the essential criteria for the job will be considered under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme. If you require a reasonable adjustment at any stage of the recruitment process please make the recruitment services team aware as soon as possible.

All posts that are engaged in a regulated activity will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and a DBS re-check on a three yearly basis whilst employed in such a role. Staff employed in these posts will therefore be asked to register with the DBS Automatic Update Service upon receipt of their DBS certificate and must update yearly , the annual fee will be reimbursed subject to Trust policy. For further information please visit: DBS Update Service: applicant guide - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Please note if a DBS is applicable for the position then a charge will be deducted from your first salary.

Please note that all new starters to the trustare subject to a probationary period.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.