The Opportunity
Salary: NJC Grade 9 £33,945 to £36,648 per annum
Contract Type: Fixed Term/Secondment until December 2025. You will need to be able to start with us in January due to the course starting 20 January.
Working Pattern: 37 hours per week, full time, Monday to Friday 09:00-17:00
Location: County Hall Chichester, County Hall North Horsham, or Crawley Library (plus Crawley Weighting Allowance of £561 per annum)
Please note: Internal candidates wishing to apply for this role will be considered for a secondment position. Please discuss and agree this with your manager before applying for this position.
Closing date: 10 November 2024
Interview date: 21 or 22 November 2024
Do you have experience of working with children's mental health?
Are you looking to train as a Mental Health Practitioner?
Are you passionate about supporting Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)?
We have two exciting opportunities to join our Thought-Full Mental Health Support Team in schools as Trainee Mental Health Practitioners for SEND (further details of the training and university are below).
You will be expected to work as part of an integrated mental health team which requires creativity, flexibility, and adaptability, and above all a passion for working with Children and Young People in educational settings.
You will work closely with other members of the team including Educational Psychologists to support schools to develop their whole school approach, which includes offering training to schools.
We are looking for someone who has knowledge of Autism and/or Learning Disabilities, who understands the unique challenges for Autistic/LD children, young people, and their families, and who can advocate for them.
To succeed at this role, you will need to:
- Demonstrate a good level of understanding/experience in offering cognitive behavioural informed assessment, formulation, and intervention.
- Demonstrate the ability to study as a self-motivated learner.
- Be open and aware of others.
- Have a great passion and enthusiasm for CBT-informed, evidence-based early interventions for mental health problems, especially for those with SEND.
- Have time management skills, organisational skills, and be able to communicate in English with members of the public.
- Work collaboratively with children, young people, and their families to provide the best outcomes for them.
For more information on the Key Skills, Qualifications and/or Experience required, please refer to the Job Description attached. Please refer to the key skills in your cover letter.
Training and Qualification information
Our Trainee Mental Health Practitioner positions training starts in January 2025. This is split with 2.5 days a week for academic work (teaching and personal study), and 2.5 days based at the service seeing clients related to training assignments.
You will attend UCL (London's Global University) and work towards a UCL Postgraduate Diploma in Mental Health Practitioner.
Whilst on assignment you will work within a multidisciplinary team, being responsible for supporting development and embedding services in educational settings.
You will either need a minimum second-class bachelor's degree (or equivalent in a relevant subject), OR if you do not hold the academic criteria but you have relevant professional experience, we would love to hear from you.
Please note: you will be trained in how to adapt interventions, but you will need a good level of experience in offering CBT informed assessments and interventions as this is not taught.
You need to be ready to start with us in January as the course begins on 20 January 2024.
About Us
Working as part of Education & Skills, Thought-Full, The Mental Health Support Teams (MHST) are an exciting new initiative and an important strand of the Government's 2017 Green Paper 'Transforming Children and Young People's Mental Health Provision'.
We fulfil 3 core functions:
- Supporting the senior mental health lead in each education setting to introduce or develop their whole school approach.
- Delivering evidence-based interventions in schools for mild to moderate mental health issues.
- Giving timely advice to school and college staff, and liaising with external specialist services, to help children and young people to get the right support and stay in education.
The Trainee Mental Health Practitioner is a new professional role which delivers CBT-informed, evidence-based early interventions for children and young people and parents / carers in educational settings in England, such as schools and colleges.
Benefits
As an employer we recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance, and are rewarded for the work they do.
For a full list this can be found at our Rewards and Benefits page.
Upon joining us you will have access to a range of benefits including the following:
Further Information
The reference number for this role is CAFHE05425.
For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact the Thought-full Service at thought- or Jonny Welch, MHST Team Leader, at
To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and Cover Letter.
In your cover letter please outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults.
This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check, five years referencing and an occupational health check.
Equity, inclusion, and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.
We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.
