Mental Health Practitioner jobs in United Kingdom

Keeping Families Together – Sessional Youth Engagement Practitioner
We are recruiting passionate and committed practitioners to join our newly established Keeping Families Together team within Bury Children's Social Care and Family Help service. Keeping Families Together is a short-term (6 to 12 weeks) intensive support initiative for children, young people and families facing multiple and complex issues. We are looking for individuals who will strive to deliver positive outcomes for children, young people and families.

The Youth Engagement Practitioners will play a pivotal role in supporting and engaging with children and young people who are experiencing difficulties at home. They will build meaningful relationships to understand challenges and aspirations, engage young people in positive activities, provide guidance and mentorship, and help develop skills to achieve goals. Practitioners will be allocated a small number of children/young people and work under the guidance of the lead family practitioner. They may facilitate small group activities and will collaborate closely with family practitioners, including joint home visits when needed.

The team will support families with children/young people identified as:

• likely to require accommodation/looking after by the local authority unless intensive support is provided
• living with connected carers in fragile arrangements that could lead to local authority care without intensive support
• requiring intensive support during a plan of reunification
• in acute distress with a risk of family breakdown without immediate support

The team will work with children and young people aged 8 to 18, along with their families, providing time-limited intervention. They will use trauma-informed approaches to rebuild relationships and support children and young people to remain safely with their families while promoting long-term sustainable change. The practice model emphasizes building relationships within families and engaging with wider support networks to develop plans that reduce the need for professional intervention.

As a Sessional Youth Engagement Practitioner, you will have the flexibility to work shifts when needed. Hours are evenings from 4pm to 8pm or Saturdays 9am to 5pm on a rota basis or as availability allows.

The service is borough-wide and based at 3 Knowsley Place / Elizabethan Suite in Bury. Normal hours of work are 18.5 hours per week, typically around the usual business week. You may be required to work on a rota basis depending on service requirements.

The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. Appointment may be subject to a satisfactory DBS disclosure. Safer recruitment requires applicants to provide full employment history and reasons for any gaps. Successful candidates will be asked to provide references for the past ten years; character references will not be accepted. As a Corporate Parent, ensure work and services consider care-experienced young people, promote their life chances, empower them to influence policies and decisions, and champion their rights.

• We provide opportunities to work with agility where appropriate for the post and service requirements.
• Committed to equality and diversity, recognising and valuing all people for their skills, abilities and experiences.
• We guarantee an interview for certain groups if essential criteria are met (disabled people, looked after children/care leavers, armed forces personnel and carers of adults or disabled children).

If this opportunity interests you, please email Andy Morris, Project Officer, at a.morris@bury.gov.uk with the role applied for and your contact telephone number. He will arrange an informal discussion with the responsible head of service, Jen Rust.

Please note applicant shortlisting will take place w/c 18 November and interviews w/c 2 December (dates TBC).