Senior Educational Mental Health Practitioner

Riverside Healthcare Ltd; Huddersfield; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 48,000; Full time

Job summary

South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust is seeking an experienced Mental Health Practitioner to join the Kirklees MHST. The role focuses on assessing and supporting children and young people with mental health needs, providing evidence-based interventions and supervision to EMHPs within an educational setting.

Based in Huddersfield, the post involves coordinating with schools and partners, managing caseloads, and ensuring high-quality care plans.

Qualifications

• Post-qualification experience with children, young people and carers in mental health or community settings.
• Experience in assessment, risk management and evidence-based practice.

Responsibilities

• Manage a defined caseload of CYP with mental health needs.
• Provide clinical supervision to trainee/EMHPs.
• Work across education providers and engage in joint work initiatives.
• Maintain accurate records and risk assessments.

Skills

Evidence-based practice

Autonomy

Team collaboration

IT skills

Education

Registered Wellbeing Practitioner (PWP/CWP/EMHP)

Registered mental health practitioner (NMC/HCPC)

Registered social worker

KSA equivalent accreditation

Job description

Job Summary

Are you an experienced Mental Health Practitioner looking for an exciting opportunity to make a difference in the lives of young people within the Kirklees area? Would you like to be part of a diverse and innovative service who offer mental health support in an educational setting?

All employees of the Trust are strongly encouraged to have their up-to-date flu vaccination to protect staff and patients.

About Us

We are a specialist NHS Foundation Trust that provides community, mental health and learning disability services for the people of Barnsley, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield. We also provide low and medium secure services and are the lead for the west Yorkshire secure provider collaborative.

Our mission is to help people reach their potential and live well in their communities, we do this by providing high-quality care in the right place at the right time. We employ staff in both clinical and non‑clinical services who work hard to make a difference to the lives of service users, families and carers.

We encourage and welcome applications from all protected characteristic groups, we value diversity and want our workforce to be reflective of our communities.

Being a foundation Trust means were accountable to our members, who can have a say in how were run. Around 14,300 local people (including staff) are members of our Trust.

Join us and you will be one of over 4,500 staff committed to supporting and improving the mental, physical and social needs of the thousands of people we meet and help each year.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all colleagues and volunteers to share this commitment.

We do reserve to right to close vacancy before the advertised closing date if necessary, so please apply as soon as possible.

Details

Date posted: 06 October 2026

• Pay scheme: Agenda for change
• Band: Band 6
• Salary: £39,959 to £48,117 a year
• Contract: Permanent
• Working pattern: Full-time, Flexible working
• Reference number: C9378-CK2566

Job locations:

• Folly Hall Mills
• St Thomas Road
• Huddersfield
• Kirklees
• HD1 3LT
• United Kingdom

Job Description

Job responsibilities:

The post holder will work as part of the Kirklees Mental Health Support Team (MHST) to manage a defined case‑load with a focus on providing comprehensive assessment, consultation and evidence-based interventions, for children and young people (CYP) with mental health difficulties and their parents/carers.

This post will involve supporting Educational Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) with developing their clinical practice, psychological formulation and school engagement.

The post holder will be expected to provide Case Management and Clinical Skills Supervision to a number of trainee/EMHPs within the service.

The post holder will be able to work flexibly across a range of education providers, be a keen contributer to joint working initiatives and adaptive to change in a ever‑growing service.

Complete AI disclaimer:

We are aware that an increasing number of applicants are using AI technology to generate responses on NHS Job application forms. Over reliance on AI-generated content in application forms is strongly discouraged and we will conduct a thorough screening process before selecting candidates to progress to the next stage. If you are using AI to enhance your application, please disclose this in your NHS Jobs application form.

Key Result Areas

Work in partnership to deliver a range of evidence-based mental health interventions with children and young people (CYP) as well as some parent‑led interventions.

Facilitate evidence-based group interventions with CYP and/or parents.

Offer specialist mental health‑based consultation, advice and guidance with professionals.

Be responsible and ensure the effective co‑ordination of clinical care provided including consideration to safeguarding and clinical risk issues where indicated.

Support clinical staff to identify children and young people with emerging mental health needs as well as psychological formulation.

Promote overall access to Kirklees MHST where appropriate.

Establish therapeutic relationships with children, young people and their families and implement evidence based therapeutic interventions.

Plan and organise interventions ensuring that reviews are held within the required time frames.

Ensure that all members of the multi‑disciplinary team, their colleagues, service users and appropriate others are informed/updated of changes involving current care plans, progress, mental state, and psychosocial factors in line with best practice.

Liaise with and advise CYP and families, local authority and other statutory bodies and third sector agencies including childrens safeguarding as necessary.

Communicate sensitive information to carers and relatives.

Use a range of inclusive communication styles and channels as appropriate to the task.

Attend multi‑disciplinary meetings relating to referrals or patients in treatment, where appropriate.

Care plan and manage own caseload.

Maintain accurate written records on the electronic record system of the Trust.

Undertake mental health assessments, with an agreed plan of action and/or care and low moderate intervention.

Set and monitor Goal Based Outcomes with CYP/parents.

Undertake complex risk assessments and develop a formulation of risk which will lead to the development of risk management plans which have taken into consideration a range of possible options.

Undertake and continuously re‑evaluate complex bio‑psycho‑social assessments and develop a working formulation which will lead to the development of personalised care packages in line with evidence based and routine outcome measures.

Person Specification

Personal Attributes:

• Able to work autonomously and as part of a team.
• Commitment to multi‑agency approach.
• Ability to work and make decisions under pressure.
• Calm, confident, innovative, creative and assertive.
• Clarity of decision making.
• Willingness to be flexible and adaptable in accordance with changing service priorities.
• Commitment to challenging discrimination and improving accessibility of services.
• Ability to cope calmly in a crisis.
• To demonstrate good self‑care and encourage the same in team members.
• A current driving licence and access to a car during the working day is essential (reasonable adjustments will be considered for any applicants who are unable to drive due to a disability).

Training:

• Experience delivering training to a diverse audience (or group work).

Special Knowledge & Skills:

• A good understanding of evidence-based, low intensity interventions for mild to moderate mental health difficulties.
• An understanding of mental health and wellbeing support within community settings.
• Understanding of safeguarding responsibilities and the importance of multi‑agency work for children and families in the community.
• Understanding of CYP‑IAPT principles including the use of evidence-based therapies and Routine Outcome Measures.
• Excellent communication skills including the ability to engage with children/young people of all ages experiencing a wide range of mental health presentations.
• Ability to communicate with a wide range of professionals from various settings.
• Ability to work effectively with partner services & external partners to promote and adapt change processes.
• Good verbal and communication skills.
• Ability to manage own caseload.
• Good negotiation skills, and problem‑solving skills.
• Customer service orientation.
• Effective record keeping and report writing skills to include care planning and risk assessments.
• IT skills.
• Have good team working skills. Be able to work across disciplines with an ability to predict and manage inter‑disciplinary tensions and foster good working practices.

Experience:

• Substantial post‑qualification experience, some of which must be working with children, young people and their carers in a mental health or community setting.
• Experience of working in Primary Care/ MHST Services / or CAMHS.
• Experience of managing a case‑load of children and young people with a range of moderate mental health needs.
• Experience in assessment and risk management and ability to implement evidence-based practice.
• Experience of delivering evidence-based psychological therapy e.g. CBT.
• Experience of working with parents (or with adults).
• Experience of working in or in conjunction with an educational setting.
• Experience of providing clinical supervision.
• Proven ability to work with other agencies and disciplines and in partnership with other organisations.
• Experience working within Early Intervention and Prevention Services.
• Experience of service delivery via digital platform.

Qualifications:

• Registered Wellbeing Practitioner (Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWP),Childrens Wellbeing Practitioners (CWP) & Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHP).
• or
• Registered mental health practitioner (NMC, HCPC)
• or
• Registered social worker
• or
• KSA equivalent accreditation (www.babcp.com/Accreditation/Provisional-Accreditation/Knowledge-Skills-and-Attitudes).

Physical Attributes:

• Ability to undertake the duties and demands of the post. A satisfactory sickness record over the previous 2 years (subject to the need to act with fairness and equality of opportunity, particularly where the sickness is related to a disability and/or pregnancy).

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer Details

Employer name: South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust

Address: Folly Hall Mills, St Thomas Road, Huddersfield, Kirklees, HD1 3LT, United Kingdom

Employer's website: https://www.southwestyorkshire.nhs.uk (Opens in a new tab)