Educational Mental Health/Child Wellbeing Practitioner

Job overview

The SEND MHST (Mental Health Support Team) are seeking to appoint a motivated, committed, flexible and forward thinking Qualified EMHP (Educational Mental Health Practitioner) or CWP (Child Wellbeing Practitioner) to work in our MHST team, who is committed to supporting Children and Young People (CYP) and their families across Hertfordshire.

The Mental Health Support Team works specifically with SEND children and families across Hertfordshire and West Essex schools, delivering early intervention mental health support and supporting schools to develop their whole school approach to emotional wellbeing.

This is a really exciting opportunity to take your EMHP or CWP training and build the MHST offering to children, families and schools who can have a great need for mental health support, whilst working very creatively with the training to meet the children’s additional needs and support the schools.

*Proposed interview date: 4th March 2026*

Main duties of the job

You will be working in a variety of school environments across Hertfordshire and West Essex, combined with being part of a “virtual team” to deliver our service. We operate from 7am-7pm Monday to Friday.

The ideal candidate will match these criteria: •    Must have some SEND experience •    Creative and flexible in their approach •    Have a good understanding of children with additional needs and learning styles, and how to adapt practice to support children and their families •    Able to work and build relationships with a wide variety of professionals, schools, and families •    Be able to deliver evidence-based interventions for children and young people in education settings •    Have a good understanding of risk assessing and seek support from supervisor to manage risk •    Be willing and able to participate fully in supervision •    Have resilience under pressure •    Able to work both in a team environment and autonomously •    Able to maintain a high degree of professionalism when working in settings where there is a highly emotive atmosphere

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post holder must hold a Educational Mental Health Practitioner or Child Wellbeing Practitioner qualification.

• Delivering evidence-based intervention for children and young people in an education setting with mild to moderate mental health and SEND additional needs. •    Helping children and young people within these settings who present with more severe problems to rapidly access more specialist services •    Supporting and facilitating staff in education settings to identify and where appropriate manage issues related to mental health and wellbeing •    Working with and within education environments to afford better access to specialist mental health services •    To support schools in developing strategies/ activities to promote emotional well-being and positive mental health. •    To work with families following the parent as therapist method to support emotional wellbeing within the home •    To support the school to develop their overall whole school approach to emotional wellbeing •    And to use the acquired skills, knowledge, and abilities to deliver a service based within education settings that builds on and reinforces but does not replace those initiatives that already exist within these environments.

A full valid driving license and access to a car to use regularly for business purposes is essential (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010).

For further details / informal visits contact:

Sarah Garvey  - MHST Operational Lead, Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust on 01727 732031 or email: [email protected]

We are committed to supporting flexible working options for staff, wherever possible, and welcome discussions on flexible working patterns to support our staff to maintain a healthy work life balance.