Whole School Approach (WSA) Practitioner

NHS; Gloucester; On-site; GBP 26,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

An exciting opportunity at a leading NHS Trust for a Whole School Approach Practitioner to promote mental health in schools. The role involves working with children, parents, and staff to enhance mental wellbeing through training and support. The ideal candidate will have experience in safeguarding and delivering training, and will contribute to a supportive school environment across Gloucestershire.

Benefits

Lease Car Scheme

Salary Sacrifice Car Scheme

Qualifications

• Minimum NVQ3 or equivalent required.
• Experience in safeguarding children and working with young people.

Responsibilities

• Support the Whole School Approach for mental health in schools.
• Deliver training and create resources on mental health.

Skills

Safeguarding

Training Delivery

Mental Health Awareness

Education

NVQ3

HNC/NND equivalent

Job description

Go back Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

Whole School Approach (WSA) Practitioner

The closing date is 20 May 2025

An exciting opportunity has arisen in Young Minds Matter, which is Gloucestershire's Mental Health Support Team (MHST), for the recruitment of a Whole School Approach Practitioner (WSAP). A Whole School Approach looks to embed the 8 principles of promoting children and young people's mental health and wellbeing in schools.

Supported by the Whole School Approach Co-ordinator, the post holder will work with the whole school community including teaching professionals, children, parents, volunteers, and support staff. We aim to break down stigma around mental health, and support children and young people to increase their knowledge and skills to better understand and manage their emotions.

Applicants will need to feel confident in delivering assemblies, class-based workshops, and small groups in primary and secondary settings, countywide. In addition, the role involves presenting to parents within schools and providing staff training on a range of wellbeing topics. You may also be attending and representing YMM at school and community events.

In line with the Green Paper (2017) and the development of MHSTs, the WSAP will develop their knowledge and understanding of low-intensity CBT (LICBT). This underpins the MHST approach and the WSA role within this. This role may be particularly interesting to those looking to apply for a trainee Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP) role in the future.

Main duties of the job

• Helping to support the development and delivery of training packages to school staff, parents, and young people alongside other MHST colleagues.
• To provide support to the whole school approach co Ordinator and other professionals with advice regarding Whole School Approach and Mental Health and wellbeing.

Please note this is a full-time, term-time only post based across Gloucestershire. As part of this role there will be a requirement to travel across the localities.

A valid UK driving licence plus the use of own transport for business purposes is essential. For qualifying staff, the Trust has a Lease Car Scheme in place and also offers a popular Salary Sacrifice Car Scheme with our partner Tusker.

About us

We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people's homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:

• 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
• 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
• 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust's priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.

This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.

Job responsibilities

• To support the Whole School Approach offer around Mental health and wellbeing across MHST schools in Gloucestershire.
• To participate regularly in the agreed systems for supervision.
• To participate annually in the agreed system of appraisal.
• Responsible for the security of equipment used by the service such as a projector and laptop for schools presentations.
• Responsible for monitoring levels of resource materials and notifying the manager before they become depleted.
• Creating and disseminating resources around Mental Health and Wellbeing.
• To make accurate observations and recordings, using Rio (electronic patient recording system).
• Regularly required to collect and collate participant feedback in response to presentations and conduct audits with regards to the outcomes.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Minimum requirement: NVQ3, HNC/NND equivalent or working towards, plus short courses or relevant experience to diploma level

Experience

• Experience of safeguarding children
• Experience of working with children and Young People
• Experience of delivering training

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

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

£26,530 to £29,114 a yearPer annum (pro rata)