Trainee Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP)

Off The Record Youth Counselling Croydon; City Of London; On-site; GBP 33,000; Full time

Job summary

A youth mental health charity in London seeks a Trainee Education Mental Health Practitioner to provide support to young people in schools. The role involves delivering compassionate mental health interventions and requires an undergraduate degree in a relevant field. Candidates must be ready to commence work in January 2026. The position offers a full-time salary of £32,199 and is based in various Croydon schools, with some evening work required.

Benefits

Professional training at Kings College London

Flexible working hours

27 days of annual leave plus bank holidays

Qualifications

• Relevant professional experience in Children and Young People (CYP) Mental Health or Education.
• Knowledge of the education system in England.
• Knowledge of mental health gained through academic study.

Responsibilities

• Provide mental health interventions for young people.
• Support delivery of the Whole School Approach.
• Maintain safeguarding awareness.

Skills

Engagement skills

Understanding young people

Compassionate communication

Teamwork

Education

Undergraduate degree in Psychology or related subject

Job description

Go back Off The Record Youth Counselling Croydon

Trainee Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP)

The closing date is 13 October 2025

We’re currently recruiting a full-time Trainee Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP) to work directly with young people in our Mental Health Support Team (MHST). For this post you need to have an undergraduate degree, second class or above, in a mental health or child development related subject OR any subject with further training or experience in a relevant field. We are also looking for people with an open and flexible attitude; excellent engagement skills and a passion for working with children and young people around mental health.

Responsibilities include offering a CBT-based self-guided mental health interventions to primary and secondary aged children and young people and their families including individual and group-based support; workshops; crisis support; mental health themed activities.

All posts are based on-site (office/school) and may require flexibility to work across different service areas and interventions. Some evening and/or weekend work may be necessary to meet the needs of young people.

This is a training position; post holder will undertake training at Kings College London alongside working in service for Off The Record. Applicants will need to be ready to start work in early/mid-January 2026 and posts cannot be offered to candidates unless they can guarantee this start date.

Shortlisted candidates will also need to submit an application form to KCL for a place on the Diploma in Education Mental Health Practice. Please see links.

Main duties of the job

1. To offer a range of flexible, compassionate and engaging mental health interventions for young people in schools including individual support, group work, counselling and psycho-educational work
2. To support the delivery of the Whole School Approach across the school cluster
3. To build relationships with schools through liaising with key staff and offering consultations and signposting to other borough wide services
4. To monitor the effectiveness of interventions offered through the routine use of outcome monitoring tools reviewed directly with young people
5. To maintain high levels of safeguarding awareness and to respond to risk and safeguarding issues as they arise whilst respecting the young person's autonomy wherever possible
6. To maintain accurate and up to date records of all work delivered
7. To ensure young people's voices are always central to service developments and contributing to young peoples participation and engagement activities in the charity
8. Undertaking direct promotion and publicity of the charity's services to young people, communities and professionals
9. To attend regular clinical and line management supervision and to attend other team/charity meetings as appropriate including occasional Saturday meetings/training days
10. To actively implement the charity's equalities and diversity & user engagement policies

About us

Off The Record is an award-winning young peoples mental health charity offering a range of support services for children and young people across the London Boroughs of Croydon, Sutton and Merton. The charity is currently celebrating its 30th anniversary with the aim of showing up for all young peoples mental health in South West London. South West London is a vibrant and diverse area and we’re keen to ensure our staff team reflects our local communities. Our mental health work has been recognised with a national GSK Impact Award.

We are an outward looking charity with a compelling reputation for delivering professional support services to young people in South West London coupled with the motivation to develop new and innovative responses to young peoples mental health needs.

At our core is a commitment to strong active engagement with young people and creating support that’s relevant, flexible and accessible. Young people need to be at the heart of all our service design and we’re committed to making sure young people are able to get help now when they first reach out for it, at the point of need rather than availability.

Job responsibilities

Trainee Education Mental Health Practitioner

Role Description

Job description

Job responsibilities

Trainee Education Mental Health Practitioner

Role Description

Responsible to: Senior Mental Health Practitioner

Salary: NHS Band 4 FTE (£32,199), inclusive of Outer London Weighting

Annual Leave: Prorata of 28 days per annum (plus bank holidays)

Hours: Full-time (35 hpw) Occasional evening work and attendance at Saturday meetings (currently 2 times p.a.) for which TOIL will be given

Location: Across schools within the borough of Croydon as well as office based in our Croydon, Merton or Sutton service premises or other in-borough community venues.

Croydon 72 Queens Road, Croydon CR0 2PR

Merton Vestry Hall, 336 London Rd, Mitcham CR4 3UD

Sutton 172 Croydon Road, Beddington CR0 4PG

Croydon 678 London Road, CR7 7HU

Job Summary: In line with the government's priority to increase access and availability of mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people, the Trainee Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP) role is an exciting opportunity to deliver evidence-based early interventions for children and young people, working across both educational settings and healthcare sectors in England.

DUTIES:

This is a training position; the post holder will undertake training at Kings College London alongside working in service for Off The Record. They will be taught to deliver evidence-based guided self-help interventions for children and young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties. The postholder will use their newly developed skills to support children and young people who are referred into the service and trainees will receive supervision to support their professional development.

Applicants will need to be ready to start work in early/mid-January 2026 and posts cannot be offered to candidates unless they can guarantee this start date.

Shortlisted candidates will also need to submit an application form to KCL for a place on the Diploma in Education Mental Health Practice. The application form details are attached/linked below and will need to be completed at the same time as your application for a post.

1. To offer a range of flexible, compassionate and engaging mental health interventions for young people in schools including individual support, group work, counselling and psycho-educational work
2. To support the delivery of the Whole School Approach across the school cluster
3. To build relationships with schools through liaising with key staff and offering consultations and signposting to other borough wide services
4. To monitor the effectiveness of interventions offered through the routine use of outcome monitoring tools reviewed directly with young people
5. Working with other staff across Off The Record to identify new areas for development, creativity and innovation within our existing services, researching unmet need and developing new responses
6. To maintain high levels of safeguarding awareness and to respond to risk and safeguarding issues as they arise whilst respecting the young person's autonomy wherever possible
7. To maintain accurate and up to date records of all work delivered on relevant data systems and to contribute to the monitoring and evaluation of our services
8. To ensure young people’s voices are always central to service developments and contributing to young people’s participation and engagement activities in the charity
9. Undertaking direct promotion and publicity of the charity’s services to young people, communities and professionals
10. To attend regular clinical and line management supervision and to attend other team/charity meetings as appropriate including occasional Saturday meetings/training days
11. To actively implement the charity’s equalities and diversity & user engagement policies
12. Any other tasks, not listed here, but deemed necessary and in the interest of the charity

Training and Supervision

13. Attend and fulfil all the requirements of the training element of the post including practical, academic and practice-based assessments and assignments to successfully complete the PG Diploma as part of becoming a fully qualified EMHP

14. As well as attendance at the University for training, fulfil private study requirements to enhance learning and prepare assignments for examination, for at least one day a week.

15. Apply learning from the training program directly to practice through the course. Receive practice tutoring from educational and clinical providers in relation to course work to meet the required standards.

16. Prepare and present case load information to supervisors within the service on an agreed and scheduled basis, in order to ensure safe practice and the governance obligations of the trainee, supervisor and service are delivered.

17. Prepare and present case load information to supervisors within the service on an agreed and scheduled basis, in order to ensure safe practice and the governance obligations of the trainee, supervisor and service are delivered.

18. Engage in and respond to personal development supervision to improve competences and practice

Person Specification

Experience

• Experience and Knowledge
• Relevant professional experience in CYP Mental Health, Education or Mentorship
• Knowledge of the education system in England
• Knowledge of children and young people gained through academic study in child development, child wellbeing or mental health
• Awareness of safeguarding responsibilities and the issues related to delivering services to young people under 16
• A working understanding of the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion and a commitment to providing an inclusive, culturally sensitive service, including LGBTQ and neuro-diverse young people and those with disabilities

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree, upper second class or above, in Psychology OR related subject e.g., Psychology, Education, Childhood development, Social Work etc, OR any subject with further training or experience in a relevant field e.g., Teaching or TA, Learning Support, HCA, Youth Work, Counselling etc

Skills and attitudes

• Very strong ability to actively engage with a wide range of young people and an understanding of the issues young people face in their lives.
• Excellent core engagement and interpersonal skills and an ability to work consistently with high levels of empathy, warmth and unconditional positive regard.
• Commitment to working collaboratively with young people as full partners in any approach and to supporting user engagement in Off the Record
• Ability to maintain accurate records and statistics including database entry
• Ability to maintain professional boundaries whilst responding to complex ethical dilemmas
• Ability to work as part of a team and to attend and contribute to team and agency meetings

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.

Employer name

Off The Record Youth Counselling Croydon