Senior Education Mental Health Practitioner - East Suffolk

NHS; Ipswich; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent healthcare organization is seeking a Senior Education Mental Health Practitioner to work within a supportive team in Ipswich. The role focuses on providing mental health services to children and young people through early intervention. Candidates from various backgrounds such as nursing, social work, or occupational therapy are encouraged to apply, provided they have relevant qualifications and experience. This is a full-time position with a strong emphasis on supervision and professional development.

Qualifications

• Experience of screening, assessing and treatment prescribing.
• Experience of delivering training and developing others.

Responsibilities

• Support and provide high-quality service to children experiencing mental health difficulties.
• Supervise Education Mental Health Practitioners and Trainee EMHPs.
• Implement whole school/college approaches to mental health.

Skills

Outcome measurement for clinical and audit purposes

Education

Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner qualification

Relevant degree (e.g., Psychology)

Accreditation with BABCP or equivalent

Job description

Passionate about the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people? National conversation increasingly focuses on young people's mental health, now is the time to be at the forefront of the development of these services. We are excited to be recruiting a Senior Education Mental Health Practitioner to work in an innovative service in Suffolk: the Mental Health Support Team (MHST). MHSTs are based within education settings, ensuring children and young people receive faster access to earlier mental health support. You will be one of the key senior clinicians in this service.

The vacancy is in our East Suffolk MHST, based in Ipswich.

This role is suitable for a range of professional backgrounds and we encourage applicants from nursing, social work, occupational therapy, psychotherapy, experienced (two years post-qualified) EMHPs and CWPs. This list is not exhaustive: If you have the relevant qualifications, experience and skills in children and adolescent mental health we encourage you to have a conversation with us and consider applying.

Main duties of the job

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, through early intervention and offering the right support at the right time. You will work across a range of education settings.

You will be responsible for supervision of Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) and potentially for Trainee EMHPs which will include supporting them through their training and beyond. You will offer assessment and direct delivery of evidence-based interventions to support children and young people referred to the service. You will need to utilise skills and knowledge of CBT and child and adolescent mental health practice. You will also implement whole school/college approaches to mental health through collaboration and coproduction with the school/college community.

About us

Here at NSFT we pride ourselves on being a welcoming, talented, friendly and supportive team who like nothing better than sharing experiences and learning from each other. In addition to ongoing training and development opportunities, we are committed to providing an environment in which you can thrive.

Why work for us? We have challenges as a Trust, but we have ambitious aspirations, are pushing ahead with exciting transformation work and we need dedicated individuals to support us on our journey. We have strong, established professional networks coupled with an exceptional leadership team who will ensure you are truly cared for and cared about.

Why Norfolk and Suffolk? The people here are warm and welcoming, you'll never be far from the beautiful coastline or Broads National Park. We're an hour and a half away from London and have an international airport in Norwich too. Our villages, towns and cities are packed full of history, independent cafes, shops and theatres. We have excellent shopping, eating out, top ranking schooling and affordable house prices too.

Job responsibilities

A job in the Suffolk MHSTs will inevitably be challenging and demanding at times, but it will also be immensely rewarding and provide you with great opportunities to make a genuine difference to the lives of others. You will join a team that has developed a caring, creative and hard-working environment; your ideas about how this new service continues to develop and grow will be highly valued.

There is a big emphasis within the team around CPD and we will ensure that you continue to access training and supervision to develop your own practice and further your career ambitions.

We would welcome any informal conversations about these roles. Please do contact us for more information.

The vacancy is 35 hours per week substantive post

Please note we also have another advert for a 6 month FTC - 37.5 hour per week post in the same team.

Interviews are anticipated to take place in mid January 2026

For further details regarding the role, please see attached job description and person specification.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner qualification
• A relevant degree, e.g. Psychology with either a Post Graduate Cert/Dip in Mental Health or Equivalent
• Accreditation with BABCP or equivalent professional body

Experience

• Experience of screening, assessing and treatment prescribing
• Experience of delivering training and developing other's

Skills

• Ability to use outcome measures for both clinical and audit purposes

Knowledge

• Models of assessment, screening and risk assessment and risk management

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.