Educational Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP)

Job overview

The MHSTs are a new service designed to help meet the mental health needs of children and young people in education settings. They are made up of senior clinicians, CAMHS Practitioners and Educational Mental Health Practitioners (EMHP)'s, who are also known in  the SLaM Trust as Education Wellbeing Practitioners (EWPs). The MHST is based across education settings as an additional resource within a whole-system approach to promote resilience and wellbeing, to support earlier intervention, enable appropriate signposting and deliver evidence-based support, care and interventions. The MHSTs will partner with  education settings to design a bespoke offer, based on each school’s individual needs, and works with the mental health and wellbeing services that are already in place, such as counselling, educational psychology, school nurses, pastoral care, educational welfare officers, VCSEs, the local authority, including children’s social care, and NHS Children and Young People Mental Health Services (CYPMHS) and this work is supported and delivered by the EWP role. The Post holder will be based in a small MHST Hub working with a cluster of schools and experienced MHST colleagues, to plan and deliver direct intervention to children and parents, as well as class groups, assemblies , welcome events, coffee mornings and access events.

Main duties of the job

There is a requirement to work with schools remotely and face to face in delivering low level Guided Self-Help to Young People and Families. This will be across various educational settings within the  Lewisham school clusters, remote working from home and Lewisham CAMHS.

EWPs play a key role as members of the Mental Health Support Team, who will have the responsibility for delivering schools' whole school approach to mental health and emotional wellbeing for children and young people.

Ensure Confidentiality of information is always maintained in accordance with Trust policies and code of ethics and professional conduct.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The MHST are a friendly and supportive team who have developed a close partnership with Lewisham schools in providing low intensity interventions, creating workshops and groups and adapting services to meet the needs of schools, young people and families in Lewisham in line with CYP-IAPT principles.

The successful candidate will be employed by the MHST deliver emotional wellbeing interventions using Guided Self-Help strategies. You will be equipped with the necessary skills, knowledge and capabilities to work as a qualified EMHP, as an autonomous and responsible practitioner within your scope of practice, alongside education and health colleagues.

You will be confident in providing Guided Self-Help to young people and families in anxiety, low mood and challenging behaviours. You will be flexible and creative in responding to the needs of the school populations, with excellent support from your team and supervision. You will also be able to adapt to working remotely and prioritising access to services and resources.