Trainee Education Mental Health Practitioner - Buckinghamshire

Job overview

Are you looking for an exciting chance to support young people in education?

The Bucks Children and Young People's Mental Health service are looking for people to join their team as a Trainee Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP).

In line with the government’s priority to increase access and availability of mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people, the new Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP) role is an exciting opportunity to deliver evidence-based early interventions for children and young people, working across both educational settings and healthcare sectors in England. Successful candidates would join an established MHST service as we expand.

This is a training position which will involve studying at the University of Reading, undertaking training to come a qualified EMHP.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will work under supervision and with support, to develop knowledge and practice skills.

• Delivering evidence-based intervention for children and young people in education setting with mild to moderate mental health problems.
• 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 evidence development of those skills with associated knowledge acquisition to record and evidence progression towards an academic award and demonstrable practical ability

Successful candidates will be employed on a full-time basis by Oxford Health and based within schools in Buckinghamshire . There will be a requirement to travel to the University of Reading for teaching purposes.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Mental Health Support Teams (MHST) are part of an exciting new project funded by NHS England, Health Education England, with the aim of improving the mental health and wellbeing of children, young people and families, and schools in the community. This opportunity allows you to join an innovative new service during an exciting time whilst working alongside an enthusiastic, compassionate and inspiring team!

The role offers an exciting opportunity to continue to innovate and deliver high quality evidence-based care and whole system interventions, with great ongoing CPD opportunities.

All applicants must demonstrate in their application the ability to work at degree level or have an equivalent level of relevant experience. Experience of working with children and young people and an understanding of the educational system in England is highly desirable. The training programme for this post starts in September 2026,  is 12 months in duration and will consist of academic and supervised practice learning across mental health services and educational settings. During training, the post-holder will work under supervision to enable them to gain the level of competence required to deliver high-quality, evidence-based early interventions for children and young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health problems.

Successful candidates will be offered a full-time educational programme specifically for the role in partnership with The University of Reading. This post will be funded at NHS Agenda for Change (AfC) Band 4 level, gaining credits towards either a graduate or postgraduate level qualification (depending on level of previous academic study), on successful completion of training, candidates will be offered a permanent EMHP position with a starting salary projected to be based on the NHS AfC Band 5 scale.

We hope that the advert has given you a clear understanding of the skills we are seeking and the opportunity at hand. You will need to use the “supporting statement” element of your application form to demonstrate your suitability for this role and you should refer to the job description, person specification and the guidance notes attached to this role to help you tailor your application.

The essential and desirable criteria will be used to shortlist for interview, and you should ensure that you refer to these within your application to increase your chances of being selected for interview.

We are aware that some candidates may choose to use AI tools to support their application. We kindly remind applicants that submissions should remain an honest and accurate representation of their experience and must take care to ensure the use of AI tools does not generate an application that does not accurately reflect their knowledge, skills and values.