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 Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) provide an exciting opportunity to deliver evidence-based early interventions for children and young people, working across both educational settings and healthcare sectors in England.

Barnet Council’s Family Services has three Mental Health Support Teams, which are a key and permanent part of prevention and early intervention support in schools within Barnet’s Integrated Clinical Services (BICS) for children and young people’s mental health.

BICS, including the MHSTs, is housed within the local authority. The successful applicant will be part of teams based primarily in schools in the east and south of the London Borough of Barnet.

They will clinically supervise and line manage two Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) and one Senior Wellbeing Practitioner, who all play a key role as originally proposed in Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision: a Green Paper. The successful applicant will be part of a whole-school approach to emotional and mental wellbeing for children and young people.

MHSTs are overseen by a Clinical Manager and supported by a full-time Administrator, Assistant Psychologist, Youth Engagement Officer, and an Operations Manager.

Successful candidates will receive supervisor training leading to a postgraduate certificate from King’s College London as part of their first year in post (training days are mandatory and occur on regular working days/hours).

To be successful, all applicants must demonstrate in their application the ability to work at postgraduate level and have an equivalent level of relevant experience, with a proven record of previous learning or formal study in child development, wellbeing or mental health. It is also essential that applicants have relative experience of working with children and young people, and an understanding of the educational system in England is highly desirable.  

The training programme start for this post is tbc, is 12 months in duration and will consist of days at university and related coursework. 

Supervisors will support EMHP trainees deliver the following (and therefore must be experienced and comfortable in the below themselves):

• Working with children, young people and their parents/carers to support self-management including development of plans for specific interventions and agreeing outcomes;
• Caseload management, gaining the necessary skills to practice a range of interventions such as guided self-help;
• Preparing and presenting caseload information to supervisors;
• Working with colleagues to provide better access to specialist mental health services and supporting referrals where required;
• Supporting colleagues in education to identify and manage issues related to mental health and wellbeing.

The post holder will have a flexible and collaborative approach and support the development of preventative and early help strategies in schools. The post holder will have excellent communication and engagement skills and ensure that professionals, parents and children are engaged in learning and development of innovative interventions in their schools. They will carry a small clinical caseload of their own; assessing, planning, delivering and evaluating patient-centred care ensuring that they practice within their sphere of competence and knowledge.

Barnet is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Barnet operates stringent safer recruitment procedures.

If shortlisted you will be required to bring photographic ID to your interview to prove your identity.

You will also need to make an application to KCL for the supervisor training; information on this will follow at a later date.