Job summary
Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP)
Two permanent Band 5 post is available in Islington's School Wellbeing Service.
Islington's Schools Wellbeing Service is part of the national Mental Health Support Teams initiative, aiming to improve access to help and the general culture of emotional support within primary and secondary schools. The service is delivered as a partnership between Whittington Health and LB Islington.
We are recruiting proactive, creative and skilled colleagues to join our thriving team. The successful applicant will be passionate about mental health in schools, widening access to services and enjoy inter-agency working.
To apply, you should have completed a recognised postgraduate EMHP training course.
Please explain clearly in your supporting statement how you meet the essential and desirable criteria in the Person Specification (pages 5-6 of the JD/PS attachment).
Main duties of the job
Please see the Job Description and the Person Specification attachments for full details of this role.
The successful applicant will join one of our two locality teams in Islington's Schools Wellbeing Service. The teams deliver preventative and early intervention mental health work to all the borough's mainstream schools. This work includes workshops, assemblies, groups and individual interventions with children, young people, family members or school staff, as well as whole-school approaches to mental health.
The post holders will deliver groups, workshops and 1:1 brief therapeutic interventions with young people and/or their parents/carers. Other duties include liaison with school staff, contributing to whole-school approaches for mental health, screenings and assessments, observations, joint working, service development work (e.g. producing new workshops), clinical communication via notes, reports and letters, etc.
About us
Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trustbelieves that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please see the Job Description and the Person Specification attachments for full details of this role.
The role will include delivering a wide range of interventions, and mental health and wellbeing approaches to supporting young peoples mental health, delivered in a school setting.
In addition to providing comprehensive assessment and interventions for young people experiencing emotional and mental health difficulties this post is an opportunity to work with school staff and school cultures in developing school environments that better support emotional health and wellbeing.
We have two teams in Islington. Each team is led by joint team leads from CAMHS and Educational Psychology, with six EMHPs in each team, supervised by the team leads.
We are looking for two Band 5 clinicians one to join our North locality team and one to join our South locality team. The successful applicants will hold their own caseload and contribute to interventions such as group work and training.
We have been working closely with schools and local authority partners for well over a decade and have helped develop innovative whole school approaches in the borough including Islington Mental Health and Resiliency Framework (IMHARS) and Islington Trauma Informed Practices in Schools (ITIPS). As such we believe we are particularly well placed to develop a service that realises the ambitions laid out in the Green Paper.
The post will be working in primary and secondary schools and will be based in the community, whilst enjoying a close working relationship with our award-winning Community CAMHS provision and innovative Central Point of Access for Social, Emotional and Mental Health.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please see the Job Description and the Person Specification attachments for full details of this role.
The role will include delivering a wide range of interventions, and mental health and wellbeing approaches to supporting young peoples mental health, delivered in a school setting.
In addition to providing comprehensive assessment and interventions for young people experiencing emotional and mental health difficulties this post is an opportunity to work with school staff and school cultures in developing school environments that better support emotional health and wellbeing.
We have two teams in Islington. Each team is led by joint team leads from CAMHS and Educational Psychology, with six EMHPs in each team, supervised by the team leads.
We are looking for two Band 5 clinicians one to join our North locality team and one to join our South locality team. The successful applicants will hold their own caseload and contribute to interventions such as group work and training.
We have been working closely with schools and local authority partners for well over a decade and have helped develop innovative whole school approaches in the borough including Islington Mental Health and Resiliency Framework (IMHARS) and Islington Trauma Informed Practices in Schools (ITIPS). As such we believe we are particularly well placed to develop a service that realises the ambitions laid out in the Green Paper.
The post will be working in primary and secondary schools and will be based in the community, whilst enjoying a close working relationship with our award-winning Community CAMHS provision and innovative Central Point of Access for Social, Emotional and Mental Health.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Successful completion of the HEE commissioned 1year 'Education Mental Health Practitioner' (EMHP) or 'Children and Young Person Wellbeing Practitioner' (CWP) course
Desirable
- Further relevant degree qualification
- Teaching qualification
- Youth Mental Health First Aid trained
Skills/Competencies
Essential
- Ability to carry out 1:1 therapeutic mental health interventions with children
- Ability to carry out 1:1 therapeutic mental health interventions with families
- Ability to conduct group parenting programmes
- Ability to work within educational settings to increase mental health awareness within the staff group
- Ability to conduct mental health assessments of 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
Desirable
- Ability to teach others about mental health issues
- Ability to conduct other group therapeutic interventions with children and their families
Knowledge
Essential
- Knowledge of educational environments
- Knowledge of safeguarding issues
- Knowledge of capacity and consent issues including Gillick competence
Desirable
- Knowledge of the functional operation of specialist CAMHS teams
Previous Experience
Essential
- Experience of working with children and young people, their families and others
- Experience of working and liaising with a wide variety of agencies and stakeholders
Desirable
- Experience of working with children and their families in a healthcare setting
- Experience of working with children and their families in an education setting
Specialist Experience
Essential
- Experience of working with children and young people who have social, emotional and/or behavioural difficulties
- Experience of working with anxiety disorders
- Experience of working with affective (mood) disorders
- Experience of the delivery of specific therapeutic interventions to children, young people or their families (e.g. CBT, solution focused brief therapy)
Desirable
- Experience of monitoring and recording outcome measures for children's emotional wellbeing
- Experience of navigating complex social systems and environments, who may have conflicting priorities or agendas
- Experience of working with looked after children
- Experience of working with other vulnerable groups
Specific Attributes
Essential
- Full, enhanced and current satisfactory DBS disclosure for the role
- Ability to personally manage a sensitive, traumatic and potentially emotionally distressing caseload
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
Desirable
- Proven commitment to continuous professional development
Personal Qualities
Essential
- Self-motivated
- Able to travel to meet the requirements of the post
- Team player
- Excellent time management and organisational skills
- Able to meet the physical requirements of the role after reasonable adjustments have been made for any illness or disability
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Successful completion of the HEE commissioned 1year 'Education Mental Health Practitioner' (EMHP) or 'Children and Young Person Wellbeing Practitioner' (CWP) course
Desirable
- Further relevant degree qualification
- Teaching qualification
- Youth Mental Health First Aid trained
Skills/Competencies
Essential
- Ability to carry out 1:1 therapeutic mental health interventions with children
- Ability to carry out 1:1 therapeutic mental health interventions with families
- Ability to conduct group parenting programmes
- Ability to work within educational settings to increase mental health awareness within the staff group
- Ability to conduct mental health assessments of 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
Desirable
- Ability to teach others about mental health issues
- Ability to conduct other group therapeutic interventions with children and their families
Knowledge
Essential
- Knowledge of educational environments
- Knowledge of safeguarding issues
- Knowledge of capacity and consent issues including Gillick competence
Desirable
- Knowledge of the functional operation of specialist CAMHS teams
Previous Experience
Essential
- Experience of working with children and young people, their families and others
- Experience of working and liaising with a wide variety of agencies and stakeholders
Desirable
- Experience of working with children and their families in a healthcare setting
- Experience of working with children and their families in an education setting
Specialist Experience
Essential
- Experience of working with children and young people who have social, emotional and/or behavioural difficulties
- Experience of working with anxiety disorders
- Experience of working with affective (mood) disorders
- Experience of the delivery of specific therapeutic interventions to children, young people or their families (e.g. CBT, solution focused brief therapy)
Desirable
- Experience of monitoring and recording outcome measures for children's emotional wellbeing
- Experience of navigating complex social systems and environments, who may have conflicting priorities or agendas
- Experience of working with looked after children
- Experience of working with other vulnerable groups
Specific Attributes
Essential
- Full, enhanced and current satisfactory DBS disclosure for the role
- Ability to personally manage a sensitive, traumatic and potentially emotionally distressing caseload
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
Desirable
- Proven commitment to continuous professional development
Personal Qualities
Essential
- Self-motivated
- Able to travel to meet the requirements of the post
- Team player
- Excellent time management and organisational skills
- Able to meet the physical requirements of the role after reasonable adjustments have been made for any illness or disability
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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
Additional information
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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
