MHST Senior Clinician and Supervisor

NELFT NHS Foundation Trust; Colchester; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in England is seeking a Senior Mental Health Practitioner to support children and young people in educational settings. With a strong focus on early intervention, the role involves managing caseloads, collaborating with schools, and providing clinical supervision. Ideal candidates are registered professionals with experience in evidence-based practices, committed to improving mental health services for young people. The organisation promotes a supportive and inclusive working environment, offering flexible working arrangements.

Benefits

Flexible working options

Health and wellbeing support

Professional development opportunities

Qualifications

• Registered with UK professional body for mental health professionals.
• Experience in delivering evidence-based psychological interventions.
• Ability to travel efficiently throughout the area.

Responsibilities

• Manage a caseload of children with mental health difficulties.
• Work in partnership with schools and families.
• Provide clinical supervision to junior staff.

Skills

Delivery of workshops

Clinical supervision

Research and development

Education

Registered Clinical Psychologist or equivalent

Job description

Overview

This job is brought to you by Jobs/Redefined, the UK's leading over-50s age inclusive jobs board. Joining TeamNELFT means you'll be part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We are CQC rated Good, aiming for Outstanding, with sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, featured in Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for three consecutive years, and hold a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. We also support staff networks and training opportunities to embed a just and compassionate culture.

Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video.

Job overview

Join the Leading Provider of MHSTs in England. At NELFT, we are proud to be the largest provider of Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) in England. Our services across Southend, Essex, and Thurrock currently support 144 schools, covering 48% of all primary and secondary schools in the region.

Our MHSTs deliver evidence-based individual and group interventions within educational settings, supporting children and young people aged 4 to 18 who are experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties. We champion whole-school approaches to promote positive mental health across entire school communities.

Main duties of the job

We are looking for a dedicated and experienced Mental Health Practitioner with current UK professional registration to join our expanding Mental Health Support Team (MHST).

This is a fantastic opportunity to take on a senior clinical role, supporting children and young people across educational settings while helping shape the future of mental health care in schools.

As a Senior Mental Health Practitioner, you will:

• Hold a caseload of children and young people (CYP) with mild to moderate mental health difficulties, completing assessments, risk assessments and creating collaborative care plans.
• Work in partnership with schools, families, and partner agencies to co-produce training materials and deliver whole-school interventions.
• Be enrolled on the EMHP Supervisors Course (if not already completed) - fully funded as part of the MHST programme.
• Support the Locality Clinical Lead with formulation, treatment planning, and management strategies.
• Provide caseload management and clinical supervision to junior and trainee staff.
• Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team within your locality and across other MHSTs in Essex.
• Demonstrate the ability to work both autonomously and collaboratively within a team.

This is a rewarding role where you'll be part of a passionate, multidisciplinary team committed to early intervention and prevention in children's mental health. You'll have the opportunity to lead, mentor, and innovate, while making a meaningful impact in the lives of young people.

Working for our organisation

Starting with NELFT: NELFT place great importance on proper welcome and induction for new starters. All new starters join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks, including mandatory training, systems training and equipment allocation. New starters will also have opportunities to meet the executive team, senior managers and attend drop-in sessions focusing on engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes.

Probationary Period: This post will be subject to a probationary period. Internal applicants are exempt unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or currently a bank member of staff.

Certificates of Sponsorship: Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points-based system.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities: The Senior Clinician and Supervisor would work closely with the MHST Clinical Lead, the MHST Operational Manager, and other clinical colleagues/partner agencies. The role is predominantly supervisory; however, the post holder will deliver clinical interventions, both targeted and under the Whole School Approach, to maintain professional registrations and continue to develop. The post holder will need to remain current in evidence-based interventions and have a good working knowledge of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. Supervisors are also key to service development in progressing and adapting interventions to ensure we are an inclusive service and contributing to research and development of the MHSTs nationally. Please see person specification and job description for full details and responsibilities required for this role.

Use of AI

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Registered/ Accredited Clinical/Counselling Psychologist, Family Therapist, Drama Therapist, Art Psychotherapist, CBT Therapist, Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist, IPT-a therapist or Qualified and registered RMN/RGN, Health Visitor and completed further training/experience at minimum PgDip level in delivering evidence-based psychological interventions.

Desirable criteria

• Completed or currently undertaking CYP PT PgCert in supervision of EMHPs/CWPs.

Skills

Essential criteria

• Experience of and ability to deliver workshops to professionals, young people, and/or parents/carers.

Other

Essential criteria

• To be able to travel efficiently throughout the area.

Benefits

We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:

• A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
• A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our efforts to support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a Top 10 Family Friendly Employer by Working Families.
• Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
• Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.

Supporting our Armed Forces

We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community make to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Gold Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme. We have supportive policies, guaranteed interview schemes for veterans, reservists and military spouses and give additional leave to our Reservists so that they can attend their annual camp.

Equal opportunities employer

We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic. We are a Disability Confident employer and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with disabilities. If you require this application in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape please contact the recruitment team on 0300 300 1530 or email [e-mail].

Correspondence with us

You are advised to regularly check your emails (including junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post. As part of our recruitment process, we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same.

Documents to download

• MHST Senior Clinician and Supervisor Job Description (PDF, 468.9KB)
• Candidate Recruitment Pack (PDF, 671.2KB)