Mental Health Support Team (MHST) Senior Practitioner

Joining #TeamNELFT means you’ll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We’re CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for three consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video

Job overview

Band 6 - Mental Health Practitioner (Mental Health Support Teams)

Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) support children, young people and their families that have links to identified school settings. Each designated MHST will work in collaboration with schools and other agencies who cover a population of up to 7,000 children and young people. Trailblazer sites were established in Kent in 2019, with the service aim to cover 50% of the schools across Kent and Medway by 2026. It is expected that this will increase early access to services and offer greater preventative provision.

We also work with our schools to support their development of a Whole School Approach (WSA) to emotional wellbeing and mental heath as well as their development of curriculum content to ensure pupils are taught about mental health in the classroom.

The post-holder will be expected to work closely with schools to support children and young people (CYP), their families and staff to foster a whole school approach to mental well-being.

Please see our Website for examples and explanations of our work.

Kent and Medway Mental Health Support Teams | NELFT NHS Foundation Trust

Main duties of the job

As part of their role the post holders will be responsible for delivering interventions within schools and colleges and hold an individual caseload. The post-holder will ideally have clinical experience working with Children & Young People experiencing emotional wellbeing and mental health difficulties and be expected to deliver CBT interventions for anxiety, low mood, and behavioural problems individually and in groups.

Previous clinical experience will be considered alongside the expectations stated and in support we provide informal training and wider CPD opportunities as well a robust supervision programme to support development of low intensity CBT skills, intervention adaptation and WSA delivery.

An additional part of this role includes supervisory responsibility of junior colleagues and if not previously completed there is an opportunity to enrol on a supervisor’s course (at one of our affiliated universities) which is already funded and established by the service.Supervisory training will enhance your skills to support EMHP and CWP junior colleagues to undertake their clinical roles. Within your role you will be offered additional supervision which will support your professional development.

The post-holder will be a graduate qualified health care professional (Qualification examples: Nurse, CWP, EMHP, Social Worker, IAPT CBT Therapist or OT)

Working for our organisation

Starting with NELFT

NELFT place a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers and attend a number of drop in sessions focusing in engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

Probationary Period
This post will be subject to a probationary period. Internal applicants are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or currently a bank member of staff).

Flexible Working

We will consider part-time hours (30 hours plus) and flexible working pattern applications will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to promote a healthy work life balance.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for further details on this vacancy.

Skills needed for the post:

Good knowledge and ability to apply CBT interventions. Confident in working alongside both Children/Young people and Education settings. Willingness to learn and develop both clinical and supervisor skills. Awareness of the importance of safeguarding and the role of a Mental Health professional in this. Enthusiasm about reducing stigma and promoting understanding of mental health issues.

If you are an overseas qualified nurse and wanting to start your journey to becoming a UK based registered nurse with the NMC, you can check whether you are eligible to be supported through our Capital Nurse consortium. Please visit; . Whilst NELFT is happy to welcome overseas nurses we are unable to consider your application directly. You should submit your interest and apply through the Capital Nurse London group.

Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for some job roles, and this will be identified through filtering questions at the start of any job application on the Trac recruitment system.

Use of AI

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.

Person specification

Qualification

Essential criteria

•Successful completion of a graduate training ( nursing, social work, occupational therapy), EMHP/CWP qualification with18 months experience or equivalent substantial CAMHS/EWMHS clinical experience

Desirable criteria

•To be eligible for registration as a full member of the appropriate professional body ( HCPC, NMC) where appropriate To have completed formal CBT training ( CYP-IAPT)

Experience

Essential criteria

Experience delivering CBT interventions to CYP and their families

Desirable criteria

Experience of working with schools to support CYP emotional well-being needs Experience running therapy groups and/or training events Experience of supervising staff

Knowledge

Essential criteria

Knowledge of the education system

Desirable criteria

Knowledge of legislation in relation to children and adolescents and safeguarding procedures and policies.

Skills

Essential criteria

Skill in the ability to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside EWMHS

Desirable criteria

knowledge of the Electronic Patient Systems (RIO/ system one)

Benefits

We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:

A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff. A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our effortsto support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a ‘Top 10 Family Friendly Employer’ from the Working Families Charity. Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors. Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.