Go back South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust
Trainee Educational Mental Health Practitioner.
The closing date is 22 October 2025
Our Future in Mind MHST(Mental Health Support Team) is a growing and developing service which providesearly intervention to improve the lives of children and young peopleexperiencing mild to moderate mental health problems.
We are looking to recruit 3 TraineeEducation Mental Health Practitioners (Trainee EMHP) to join our friendly andsupportive team starting in January 2026. Successful candidates will beemployed within Wakefield CAMHS, on a NHS Band 4 one-year training contract andon successful completion of the training will transfer to a NHS Band 5 EMHP permanentcontract. The role will be based within education settings in Wakefield and thefirst-year part time study will be at Sheffield University.
All applicants must hold alevel 6 qualification and have experience of working with children and youngpeople, an understanding of the educational system is desirable.
The interview processwill include a service interview, a university interview and submission of a CVand 600-word assignment.
At the time of advertising,this role does not meet the minimum requirements (salary threshold oroccupational requirements) set by UKVisas and Immigration to sponsor candidates to work in the UK. For this reason,unfortunately we are unable to sponsor anyone on a visa for this role at thismoment in time.
Main duties of the job
Responsibilitiesof the Trainee Education Mental Health Practitioner include:
CompletingSheffield Universitys one-year Postgraduate Diploma in Education Mental HealthPractitioner (EMHP).
Deliveringand recording accurate assessments including risk assessments.
Deliveringevidenced based interventions to children, young people, parents/carers throughindividual and group work.
Deliveringpsychoeducation sessions to children, young people, parents/carers throughassemblies, classroom, and parent sessions.
Ensuringchildren/young people play an active part in decision making about the supportthey need.
Providingadvice/consultation to education staff to support children/young people gettingthe right help at the right time.
Supportingeducation settings in developing and embedding whole school approaches tomental health through collaboration and coproduction with the school community.
Participating in the delivery of trainingprogrammes for education settings and community services.
All employees of the Trust are strongly encouraged to befully vaccinated against COVID-19 to protect patients.
We are aware that an increasing number of applicants areusing AI technology to generate responses on NHS Job application forms. Westrongly discourage this and will conduct a thorough screening process beforeselecting candidates to progress to the next stage. If you are using AI toenhance your application, please disclose this in your NHS Jobs applicationform.
About us
Weare a specialist NHS Foundation Trust that provides community, mental healthand learning disability services for the people of Barnsley, Calderdale,Kirklees and Wakefield. We also provide low and medium secure services and arethe lead for the west Yorkshire secure provider collaborative.
Our mission isto help people reach their potential and live well in their communities, we do thisby providing high-quality care in the right place at the right time. We employstaff in both clinical and non-clinical services who work hard to make adifference to the lives of service users, families and carers.
We encourageand welcome applications from all protected characteristic groups, we valuediversity and want our workforce to be reflective of our communities.
Beinga foundation Trust means were accountable to ourmembers, who can have a say in how were run. Around 14,300 local people(including staff) are members of our Trust.
Joinus and you will be one of over 4,500 staff committed to supporting and improvingthe mental, physical and social needs of the thousands of people we meet andhelp each year.
Weare committedto safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people andvulnerable adults and expects all colleagues and volunteers to share thiscommitment.
We do reserve to right to close vacancy before the advertised closing date if necessary, so please apply as soon as possible.
Job responsibilities
In line with the governments priorityto increase access and availability of mental health and wellbeing support forchildren and young people, the Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP) roleis an exciting opportunity to deliver evidence-based early interventions forchildren and young people, working across both educational settings andhealthcare sectors in England.
Successful candidates will be employedfull-time and based in Wakefield Mental Health Support Team, which will beresponsible for the delivery of mental health support across a range ofeducational settings in the region. For part of this role there will be arequirement to travel to Sheffield Trust for the teaching element of thetraining.
This post will be funded at NHS T&Cs2021 Band 4 scale, in pay band 4 bottom scale (gaining credits towards either adegree or diploma level qualification (depending on level of previous academicstudy), plus guaranteed employment on completion of training, with a startingsalary projected to be based on the NHS T&Cs 2021 Band 5 scale.
To enable this, all applicants mustdemonstrate in their application the ability to work at degree level or have anequivalent level of relevant experience, with a proven record of previouslearning or formal study in child development, wellbeing or mental health.Further to that experience of working with children and young people and anunderstanding of the educational system in England is highly desirable.
The training programme for this poststarts in February 2024, is 12 months in duration and will consist of academicand supervised practice learning across mental health services and educationalsettings, such as primary and secondary schools, and further educationcolleges.
Delivery of the programme will beprovided through a combination of taught days at Sheffield, independentself-guided study days and experience gained in education wellbeing andmainstream mental health services.
During training, the post-holder willwork under close supervision to gainexperience across healthcare and educational settings to enable them to gainthe level of competence required to deliver high-quality, evidence-based earlyinterventions for children and young people experiencing mild to moderatemental health problems.
Job Purpose:
For the duration of the training year,EMHPs will attend both Higher Education Institution (HEI) in addition toworking in services (and educational settings linked to that service) for theremaining days each week.
On successful completion of training,trainee EMHPs will be equipped with the necessary skills, knowledge andcapabilities to work as a qualified EMHP within the Mental Health Support Team.
Under supervision develop knowledge and practice skills in:-
Delivering evidence-based interventions forchildren and young people, with mild to moderatemental health problems, in education settings.
Helping children and young people within thesesettings who present with more severe problems to rapidly access morespecialist services.
Supporting and facilitating staff in educationsettings to identify, and where appropriate, manage issues related to mentalhealth and wellbeing.
Working with and within educationalenvironments to afford better access to specialist mental health services.
To evidence development of those skills withassociated knowledge acquisition to record and evidence progression towards anacademic award and demonstrable practical ability.
Key Responsibilities:
Clinical
Be educationally supervised, supported andassessed whilst delivering outcome focused, evidence-based interventions ineducational settings for children and young people experiencing mild tomoderate mental health difficulties.
Developing skills in supporting children andyoung people experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties, theirparents/carers, families and educators in the self-management of presentingdifficulties.
Developing and practicing evidence-based skillsunder supervisory support of working in partnership with children, youngpeople, their families and educators in the development of plans for thespecific intervention and agreeing outcomes.
Developing and learning the skills required inorder to enable children and young people in education, and where appropriateparents/carers to collaborate and determine an aagreed plan of care.
Show evidence in a variety of forms that assessment and intervention is provided froman inclusive values base, which recognizes and respects diversity.
Discuss with supervisors and agree to acceptappropriate referrals for children and young people in educational settings,according to agreed local and nationalreferral routes, processes and procedures.
Under supervision, undertake accurateassessments of risk to self and others.
Learn, understand, rationalize and adhere tothe protocols within the educational service to which the post holder isattached.
Engage along with more senior staff in thesignposting of referrals for children and young people with more complex needsto the relevant service.
Engage in robust managerial and clinicalsupervision, identifying the scope of practice of the individual postholderwithin the role, and working safely within that scope.
Gain and practice a range of interventionsrelated to provision of information and support for evidence basedpsychological treatments.
Practice, evidence, reflect on and demonstratean ability to manage ones own caseload in conjunction with the requirements ofthe team.
Attend multi-disciplinary and multi-agencymeetings relating to referrals or children and young people in treatment, whereappropriate, both for personal educational benefit in discussion withsupervisors, or to provide direct assistance.
Keep coherent records of all training andclinical activity in line with both health and education service protocols anduse these records and outcome data to inform decision making.
Complete all requirements relating to datacollection.
Show evidence of working within a collaborativeapproach, involving a range of relevant others when indicated. Specifically,work in collaboration with teachers and other educational staff, parents,children, young people and the wider community to enhance and broaden access tomental health services.
Contribute to the development of individual orgroup clinical materials or training materials and go on to develop furthersuch materials as falls within own degree of competence.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* Diploma level qualification or equivalent experience.
* Proven academic record or previous learning or formal study in Child Development. Well-being or Mental Health.
* Good solid basic literacy and numeracy qualifications at a minimum of level 2.
* Teaching or education related qualification
Experience
* Previous experience of working with children and young people and their families in either Health or Education settings.
* Experience of working with children and young people who have social, emotional and / or behavioural difficulties.
* Experience of working with children and young people in either a healthcare or education setting.
* Experience of multiagency working
Skills and Competancies
* Excellent oral and written communication skills.
* Ability to study as a self-motivated learner who can monitor their won progress towards learning objectives.
* Skilled at engaging and building relationships with children, young people and their families.
* Ability to work collaboratively with young people, parents, colleagues and partner agencies.
Knowledge
* Knowledge of the educational system in England.
* Knowledge of children and young people gained through academic study in child academic study in child development, child wellbeing or mental health.
* Knowledge of safeguarding issues and legal framework.
* Knowledge of capacity and consent issues with young people.
* Knowledge of the whole school approach to mental health
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust
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