MHST Band 8a Locality Clinical Lead Full Time NEW

Come and join our friendly, supportive team making a difference to the lives of children and young people.

NELFT is the largest providers of Mental Health Support Teams (MHST’s) in England. Our Southend, Essex and Thurrock services cover 144 schools. The service is developing and expanding with an aim to cover all secondary schools in locality by September 2025. The MHST’s deliver evidence-based individual and group interventions in educational settings for children experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties aged 5 to 18 years old. The teams also have a strong focus on whole school approaches to improve mental health outcomes for children and young people.

The South East Essex Mental Health Support Team (MHST) covers a large geographical area incorporating the districts of Southend, Castlepoint, Rochford and Canvey Island. We are an early intervention and prevention evidence-based service and as a team we are supportive and passionate in what we deliver. We are a friendly team of professionals who come from multidisciplinary backgrounds. We recognise the need for a healthy work life balance, and we will consider flexible working applications in line with the trust policies and process. We encourage Continual Professional Development (CPD) and are keen to support our staff to grow and progress.

We are a welcoming, compassionate and considerate team, that work incredibly hard to support one another to improve the mental health of our community.

Our localities cover large areas so you will need access to a vehicle and have the ability to travel efficiently across the county.

We are looking for an experienced Mental Health Practitioner with a UK Professional Registration to join our MHST. MHST’s are a new service designed to support Children and Young People (CYP) with mild to moderate mental health and emotional difficulties within education settings; ensuring they receive faster access to early intervention mental health support. In this post, you will be a senior clinical team member, holding a clinical caseload, supervising junior staff and trainee EMHPs. You will work alongside partner agencies to develop and co-produce training materials and support the delivery of whole school approach models for mental health.

The successful applicant would have completed the Supervisors Course a fundamental requirement for the post.

Main duties of the job

The Locality Clinical Lead Should

• Have a current and in date professional registration with a regulatory body (e.g. ACP, UKCP, HCPC, BABCP)
• Have substantial experience (more than 2 years, post qualification) working therapeutically with children and families with mental health needs.
• In depth knowledge and experience of evidence-based practice with children and families (including CBT).
• Experience of providing and receiving supervision (including CBT-informed practice).
• Clinical experience and in-depth understanding of effective use of routine outcome measures.
• Enthusiasm for and knowledge of early intervention and prevention including low intensity support for emotional wellbeing and mental health difficulties in an education context.
• Knowledge of evidence-based interventions for low mood, selfharm, anxiety and common behaviour difficulties in young children in education settings.
• Knowledge and understanding of whole school approaches to emotional wellbeing and mental health.
• Experience of providing consultation in education settings.
• Experience of service development and multi-disciplinary and multi-agency working.
• Hold evidence of ongoing continuing professional development in a relevant subject.

Starting with NELFT

NELFT place a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers and attend a number of drop-in sessions focusing on engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Goodmayes, Essex.

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period. Internal applicants are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or currently a bank member of staff).

Certificates of Sponsorship

Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points based system.

Use of AI

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.

Working for Us

Joining #TeamNELFT means you’ll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We’re CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London and Essex. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award-winning equality and diversity initiatives, along with staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest significantly in your development because when you feel valued and supported, we can deliver the highest quality care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been recognised in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for five consecutive years, and hold a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Through our staff networks and training opportunities, we strive to foster a just and compassionate culture at NELFT.