Mental Health Support Team (MHST) Senior Practitioner

Job summary

Redbridge Mental Health Support Team (MHST) within the Local Authority Educational Psychology Service (EPS) are aiming to recruit talented and enthusiastic Senior Practitioners to enhance our current early intervention mental health offer to schools. What is an MHST?

MHSTs are a national initiative in response to the Governments plans to transform children and young peoples mental health provision.

MHSTs have three core functions: Delivering evidence-based interventions for children and young people with mild-moderate mental health difficulties. Supporting the senior mental health lead in the delivery of their whole school/college approach.

Giving timely advice to school and college staff and signposting to external specialist services Redbridge MHST: Our MHST sits within a well-established team of Educational Psychologists (EPs) who are committed to achieving positive outcomes for children and young people in diverse and often challenging situations.

Within the EPS our MHST works alongside Redbridge Educational Well-Being Team (REWT) a creative and well-regarded team providing universal whole school support to our schools.

We are a dynamic team with strong connections to our schools and local community who provide support across multiple levels in the borough ranging from individual intervention and whole school involvement to borough wide campaigns. Main duties of the job

The opportunity:

Are you a mental health professional with a passion for offering thoughtful and creative early intervention support within educational settings?

Our MHST has been growing since 2021 and are aiming to expand to more Redbridge schools and colleges, providing opportunity to form new relationships with educational settings, as well as maintaining our established relationships with schools.

We are seeking professionals with formal CBT training who have substantial clinical experience working with children, young people and their families. You will deliver intervention to support children; young people and their families experiencing mild to moderate mental health need and provide supervision within the wider team.

This role will complement the Education Mental Health Practitioners role within the team by offering assessments and intervention to those with more complex needs within the moderate range. This will consist of both individual and group work.

In addition, you will work with schools/colleges to support their whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing. You will have opportunity to join our local authority and health care partners across the borough to support change through project work and borough wide campaigns.

About us

Redbridge is an ambitious, diverse and exciting east-London borough. What we do is driven by changing our relationship with local people to support our vision. As a result,we'vedeveloped innovative ways to build our communities and transform our Council.

We're one of the fastest growing parts of the country and the third most diverse London borough. Our communities are attracted by a mixture of excellent schools, relatively affordable housing, high-quality open space and rapid transport connections into the heart of the City.

Successful applicants will benefit from: A dynamic, friendly, and supportive team who meet regularly to share practice and enable whole team development. Frequent and consistent supervision. An induction programme tailored to your needs, career development support and an outstanding, annual service CPD programme.

For further information please contact Dr Ann-Marie Cryan via email on MHST@redbridge.gov.uk

Job description

Job

responsibilities

Role Purpose The postholder will work as an autonomous responsible practitioner as their training affords to: - Deliver evidence-based interventions for children and young people in educational settings with mild to moderate mental health needs including anxiety, behaviour and low mood - Engage in whole school work which supports and facilitates staff in education settings to identify, and respond to issues related to mental health and wellbeing by building on existing good practice - Provide additional clinical support and supervision to Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) - Attend team meetings as required and contribute to the initiation, development and implementation of new responses to changing needs and demands upon the team - Contribute, where appropriate, to service development and multi-agency working with our partners - To lead on school initiatives and assist with the day-to-day management of the service.

This post will involve working within the Redbridge Educational Wellbeing Team (REWT) which is part of the Educational Psychology Service. This post will usually involve travelling to multiple locations all over Redbridge, mainly between school settings and other locations, such as Social Services.

We are offering a blend of in person and remote work. This is conducted using platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Key accountabilities - undertake therapeutic assessment and intervention:

To be able to assess needs and develop plans to support children and young people with mild to moderate mental health needs.

Undertake and record accurate assessments of risk and operate clear risk Deliver outcome focused, evidence-based interventions in educational settings for children and young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties in collaboration with families and schools.

Management processes in line with locally agreed procedures including the safeguarding protocols of the educational setting and Local Safeguarding Board guidance. To routinely measure clinical outcomes Support good practice in assessment and intervention across

the team

Lead group interventions alongside newly qualified and trainee EMHPs -Signpost children with more complex needs to a locally identified appropriate relevant service Contribute to whole school approaches to ensure young people are included with their mainstream setting:

To suggest and lead on the delivery of whole-school approaches/interventions to schools and colleges, e.g. via review of school needs, project work, workshops, groups and consultation.

To work closely with Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSAs) and Senior Mental Health Leads (SMHLs) in Redbridge schools, modelling and setting up interventions Share knowledge and good practice This may involve conducting research and attending training provided by the borough and external providers To develop a broad range of relationships with both internal and external colleagues and partner agencies, including the voluntary sector, services users, parents and carers Engage in supervision and training: Continuing to seek and engage in continuing professional development opportunities.

Actively engage in regular supervision sessions. Prepare and present case load information to supervisors within the service on an agreed and scheduled basis to ensure safe practice and the governance obligations of the practitioner, supervisor and service are delivered.

Respond to and implement supervision suggestions by supervisors in practice. Engage in and respond to personal development supervision to improve competences and practice. To disseminate research and service evaluation findings in appropriate formats through agreed channels.

To provide mentoring, support and supervision to trainee and newly qualified EMHPs Participate in and provide knowledge and advice within consultation and multi-disciplinary meetings: Organising, attending and chairing meetings. Working with classroom teachers, teaching assistants, parents and other professionals involved with the child.

Working with other key professionals such as Social Workers or Educational Psychologists Maintain effective records and produce clear reports of interventions and inform interventions: Taking minutes, setting agendas and circulating material.

Keeping clear, professional and coherent records of all activity in line with service protocols and use these records and outcome data to inform decision making.Complete all requirements relating to data collection.

To work within a multi professional team and attend relevant meetings: Presenting research, being part of a peer support team, attending team meetings, reading groups, reading and commenting on research papers. Completing training, provide training to colleagues both in EPS and other Redbridge teams (e.g.

Social Care and Health) Attend multi-disciplinary and multi-agency meetings relating to referrals or children and young people in treatment Contribute to MHST strategic planning meetings To participate in and contribute to the Teams professional development, support and performance management programmes as a senior practitioner in accordance with the Development Plan and Redbridge borough

requirements:

Responsible for keeping up with changes in psychological theory and practise and be part of considering organisational changes to meet demands.

Contribute to MHST strategic planning meetings Provide training and CPD to trainee and newly qualified EMHPs To take on managerial tasks as required To contribute to the initiation, development and implementation of new responses to changing needs and demands upon

the team:

Initiate and develop new projects within the whole school approach Develop individual or group clinical materials or training materials under direction of the wider team. Attending school meetings Providing support to schools and families Consulting with the school EP and EWMH DSL

Person Specification

Customer service Essential Resilient and adaptable with the ability to organise work within an environment of conflicting priorities whilst managing time and prioritising work to meet agreed deadlines.

Excellent negotiation and problem-solving skills High level of enthusiasm and motivation Experience Essential Substantial clinical experience working with children and young people (CYP) with emotional wellbeing and mental health difficulties. Experience working with children or young people (0-25) in an educational setting.

Evidence of comprehensive understanding of educational systems and practice in England. Experience in providing a range of evidence-based interventions for children and young people experiencing, mild to moderate anxiety, low mood and behavioural difficulties.

Demonstrates an understanding of and ability to identify common mental health concerns experienced by children and young people. Experience of working with young people with additional and complex needs (e.g. ASC, ADHD, learning needs, eating disorders).

Ability to provide training and mentoring to others. Knowledge of child and adolescent development and the role of the family in supporting children and young peoples emotional well-being. Demonstrate ability and motivation to continue learning and evidence of learning and development since finishing initial training.

Commitment to collaborative working with other professionals and parents. Belief in involving children and young people in decisions regarding their education and clear commitment to supporting the development of children and young people.

Ability to personally manage a sensitive, traumatic and potentially emotionally distressing caseload and demonstrate appropriate coping mechanisms. Ability to learn quickly and adapt to change. Understanding of inclusive practices which promote person centred approaches.

Experience of participating in multi-disciplinary meetings. Able to describe and discuss different ways of problem solving in educational settings.

To give examples of working with diverse groups of people Awareness of safeguarding practices when working with children and young people Ability to make an assessment of risk and to record and communicate it appropriately. Ability take appropriate action to mitigate or manage risk

Qualifications

Essential A CYP-MH professional such as a qualified EMHP, CWP or