Job responsibilities
The postholder
will add management capacity to the Calderdale Mental Health Support Team
(MHST) which is due to expand in early 2022. The main focus of the postholder
will be to support the Education Mental Health Practitioners who work in the
MHST to provide low intensity evidence-based interventions to children, young
people and parents/carers in education settings.
The role will
consist of 4 main areas of responsibility:
1.
line management and co-ordination of
Education Mental Health Practitioners (initially 12 staff)
2.
liaison with education settings and
partner agencies
3.
co-ordinate staff working across
multiple schools
4.
oversight and promotion of Silvercloud
digital CBT support for young people & parents/carers
Calderdale Mental Health Support Team (MHST): In 2020 Calderdale
CCG were successful in attracting funding to create one large Mental Health
Support Team as part of the governments green paper ambitions to transform children and young
peoples mental health support in England .
Calderdale MHST
began in September 2020 and is due to expand further in early 2022, with the
addition of 4 new trainee Education Mental Health Practitioners, plus
additional clinical/supervisory and admin staff (details of full team below). The
MHST has three core functions:
1. Delivering
evidence based interventions for mild to moderate mental health issues within
mainstream schools and college
2. Supporting
the senior mental health lead in each school or college to introduce or develop
their whole school or college approach
3. Giving
timely advice to school/college staff, and liaising with external specialist
services, to help children and young people get the right support and stay in
education
The MHST works
flexibly in and around named educational settings, working alongside school and
college staff to develop and provide preventive support to meet the needs of
their pupils and students experiencing low intensity mental health issues. The
service works in an integrated manner with existing providers and
professionals. Specific vulnerable groups are proactively identified and helped
through assessment, consultation, and support.
This is a new and
developing service which aims to ensure the voice of children, young people and
their families are heard alongside education colleagues.
Group
interventions and digital therapy (Silvercloud see below) also form part of
the MHST offer.
Further information about the MHST can be read
in the MHST
for Children & Young People - Manual , which includes
contributions from children & young people.
EMHP Role: The Education Mental Health Practitioner role was created in
co-production with children and young people with the aim of preventing and
treating low level mental health presentations in educational settings.
Under supervision
and with support the EMHPs will spend the first year in post training to
develop knowledge and practice skills in:
Delivering evidence-based intervention for children and young people, with mild
to moderate mental health problems, in an education setting.
Helping children and young people within these settings who
present with more severe problems to rapidly access more specialist service.
Supporting and facilitating staff in education settings to
identify, and where appropriate, manage issues related to mental health and
wellbeing.
Working with and within educational environments to provide better
access to specialist mental health services
To evidence development of those skills with associated knowledge acquisition
to record and evidence progression towards an academic award and demonstrable
practical ability.
Attendance at University will be 2 days per
week during the training year, and the rest of the EMHPs working week will be
spent in education settings practising the skills they learn on the course.
On successful
completion of the training year, qualified EMHPs work on a permanent and full
time basis in education settings.
Northpoint
currently employs 8 EMHPs who are due to complete their training in late 2021.
A further 4 trainee EMHPs will join the team in February 2022.
MHST Clinicians
& Supervisors: The MHST clinicians & supervisors
are experienced and qualified mental health practitioners who provide clinical support and supervision to
the EMHPs. These clinicians also provide evidence based support to more complex
cases, and help to support schools and college to develop their whole school
approach to mental health & wellbeing.
Silvercloud and
Digital Resources: Northpoint has been at the forefront
of piloting the innovative Silvercloud Supporting Anxious Children and Supporting Anxious Teens digital CBT
programmes which have been clinically designed to help young people and their
parents/carers to understand and manage anxiety.
The programmes
are evidence-based and can be accessed for free by parents/carers without any
waiting times. The postholder will play a key role in helping to make this
exciting new intervention accessible to young people & families in MHST
schools in Calderdale. See Video for more detail.
Typical Day: Although
the role will include a number of different and varied tasks, a typical
day/week may involve some of the following:
Individual line management meeting
with an EMHP to discuss client caseload, waiting lists, allocation of
referrals, challenges of school-based working, annual leave requests, training
plans, outcome measures, and celebration of successes and achievements
Travel to a secondary school to meet
the named school Senior Mental Health Lead to discuss the placement of a new
trainee EMHP
On-line meeting with key pastoral
staff from a cluster of primary schools to discuss promotion and access to the
Silvercloud digital CBT programme for parents/carers of anxious children
Attendance at the Open Minds
Partnership Providers in Schools meeting to share and hear updates on the
different wellbeing initiatives that are taking place across schools in
Calderdale.
Meeting with young people from the
Tough Times Reference Group to discuss their views on some new MHST
promotional material
Collating client feedback from young
people and parents/carers for the quarterly MHST monitoring report to help demonstrate
the positive impact of the service
Expected
duties:
Line
management of EMHPs (to include caseload management)
Maintain
clear links and regular communication with the MHST service manager
Work
closely with the MHST Clinicians & Supervisors (who supervise the EHMPS) to
ensure support to EMHPS meets their needs
Work
with MHST Senior Clinicians to ensure the process for co-ordinating and
allocating referrals on a day to basis is clear, consistent, and in line with
the remit of the service
Support
EMHPs to develop job plans which enable them to work across multiple sites in
line with demand, suitability of referrals, capacity, and client need.
Help
ensure that trainee EMHPs have the necessary supervision, guidance and
practical support to meet the intensive requirements of their training course
Link
with schools to help them to understand the benefits and requirements of the
MHST
Support
participating schools to meet the needs of trainee EMHPs during the training
year
Link
with the MHST Senior Clinicians, Service Manager & Clinical Lead to ensure
any concerns around young people which relate to risk, safeguarding and complexity
are clearly recorded and escalated in line with policy.
Support
the project to meet its KPIs (key performance indicators) and monitoring
targets
Ensure
familiarity with the latest data and monitoring information relating to MHST
Help
to ensure that case records, letters to families, and communications to
professionals are clear, consistent,
accessible, and written in line with Northpoint guidance.
Attend
multi-agency and MHST-related meetings where relevant
Strengthen
and maintain existing links with partner agencies, and develop new
relationships and referral pathways where relevant
Help
to ensure the Clare Road office is safe, tidy and operates safely
Support
any new initiatives and service developments
