Qualified Educational Mental Health/Child Wellbeing Practitioner

NHS; St Albans; On-site; GBP 31,000 - 38,000; Full time

Job summary

A national health service in St Albans is looking for a Qualified Educational Mental Health Practitioner to provide support to children and young people with mental health needs. The role requires collaboration with schools and families, delivering evidence-based interventions. Candidates should have relevant qualifications and experience with SEND children. This position offers a competitive salary and opportunities for professional development.

Benefits

27 days holiday plus bank holidays

NHS pension scheme

Employee Assistance Programme

NHS Discounts

Responsibilities

• Deliver evidence-based interventions for children in educational settings.
• Support schools in developing strategies for emotional wellbeing.
• Work collaboratively within diverse educational environments.

Skills

SEND experience

Ability to build relationships

Flexibility

Resilience under pressure

Understanding of anxiety and depression

Education

Educational Mental Health Practitioner qualification

Child Wellbeing Practitioner qualification

Teaching qualification

Job description

Qualified Educational Mental Health/Child Wellbeing Practitioner

The SEND MHST (Mental Health Support Team) are seeking to appoint a motivated, committed, flexible and forward thinking Qualified EMHP (Educational Mental Health Practitioner) or CWP (Child wellbeing practitioner) to work in our MHST team, who is committed to supporting Children and Young People (CYP) and their families across Hertfordshire.

The Mental Health Support Team works specifically with SEND children and families across Hertfordshire and West Essex schools, delivering early intervention mental health support and supporting schools to develop their whole school approach to emotional wellbeing.

This is an exciting opportunity to take your EMHP or CWP training and build the MHST offering to children, families and schools who can have a great need for mental health support, while working creatively with the training to meet the children's additional needs and support the schools.

*Proposed interview date: 10th October 2025*

Main duties of the job

You will be working in a variety of school environments across Hertfordshire and West Essex, combined with being part of a "virtual team" to deliver our service. We operate from 7-7 Monday to Friday.

The ideal candidate will match these criteria:

• Must have some SEND experience
• Creative and flexible in their approach
• Have a good understanding of children with additional needs learning styles, and how to adapt practice to support children and their families
• Able to work and build relationships with a wide variety of professionals, schools, and families
• Be able to deliver evidence-based interventions for children and young people in education settings
• Have a good understanding of risk assessing and seek support from supervisor to manage risk
• Be willing and able to participate fully in supervision
• Flexible in their approach and have resilience under pressure
• Able to work both in a team environment and autonomously
• Able to maintain a high degree of professionalism when working in settings where there is a highly emotive atmosphere

About us

We can offer you:

• Regular clinical and professional supervision
• Regular appraisal, personal development planning and opportunities for continuing professional development. This includes specific support with regards to fulfilling the MHST role such as co-facilitating workshops.
• Regular opportunities to meet as a team
• Regular CPD and Peer Reflection
• Opportunities to work closely with a multi-disciplinary team including learning from other evidence-based frameworks and approaches
• Involvement in service development
• Opportunities to provide line management and clinical supervision to other members of the MHST team
• 27 days holiday rising to 33 days (depending on NHS Trust service) plus bank holidays (pro rata where applicable)
• One of the UK's best pension schemes
• Special Leave for family and personal reasons
• NHS Car Lease Scheme (for substantive staff)
• Eye Care Vouchers
• Employee Assistance Programme
• NHS Discounts

Job responsibilities

The post holder must hold a Educational Mental Health Practitioner or Child Wellbeing Practitioner qualification.

Delivering evidence-based interventions for children and young people in an education setting with mild to moderate mental health and SEND additional needs. 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 support schools in developing strategies/activities to promote emotional well-being and positive mental health. To work with families following the parent as therapist method to support emotional wellbeing within the home. To support the school to develop their overall whole school approach to emotional wellbeing. 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 that already exist within these environments.

A full valid driving license and access to a car to use regularly for business purposes is essential (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010).

For further details / informal visits contact: Sarah Garvey - MHST Operational Lead, Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust on 01727 732031 or email: [e-mail]

We are committed to supporting flexible working options for staff, wherever possible, and welcome discussions on flexible working patterns to support our staff to maintain a healthy work life balance.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Successful completion of the HEE commissioned 1yr 'Education Mental Health Practitioner' course. Or CWP course
• Experience in relevant mental health/learning disability setting
• A relevant teaching qualification
• Further training in relevant areas of Autism, Learning disabilities and Mental health

Experience and Knowledge

• Experience of working with children and young people, their families, and others.
• Experience of working with children with learning disability and or Autism and/or mental health
• Experience of safeguarding, assessing risk and communicating concerns
• Experience of working and liaising with a wide variety of agencies and stakeholders
• Experience of working with children who cannot communicate verbally
• Experience of adapting resources to support additional SEN needs
• Experience in using an electronic clinical records and data collection system.
• Experience of working with children and their families in a healthcare and education setting
• Knowledge of evidence-based practice
• Experience of working with anxiety disorders, affective (mood) disorders
• Experience of educating others to work with additional needs

Skills & Abilities

• Demonstrates an understanding of anxiety, depression, and challenging behavior and how it may present in universal services
• Demonstrate an understanding of the impact Autism and/or learning disability can have on a family environment
• Demonstrates understanding of the need to use evidence based psychological models and how it relates to this post
• Knowledge of educational environments
• Knowledge of safeguarding issues
• Ability to work within educational settings to increase mental health awareness within the staff group
• Ability to conduct mental health assessments of children and young people
• Knowledge of Mental Capacity Act
• Knowledge of the functional operation of PALMS and specialist CAMHS teams

Personal Qualities

• An interest in and commitment to working with children who have a learning disability and/or Autism and/or mental health difficulties
• Ability to work with children and young people whose behavior is personally challenging
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to recognize the emotional consequences of working with children with distressing and life changing disorders and seek support if needed
• Ability to deliver interventions to groups (Young people and parent groups)
• Ability to manage own caseload and demonstrate good time management and prioritization skills.

Other

• Have full access to a car with business insurance (unless you have a disability as defined by the equality act 2010)
• Able to travel independently across Hertfordshire and West Essex
• Ability and willingness to work outside of office hours when required for the role

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.

£31,049 to £37,796 a year per annum pro rata