Parent and Carer Practitioner - Mental Health Support Teams

Job description

Job responsibilities

Purpose of the Role:

The role of the Parent and Carer Practitioner (PCP) is to support Senior Mental Health Leads (SMHL) in educational establishments to develop and implement Whole School Approaches (WSA) to engaging and working with parents and carers, with the aim of improving mental health and emotional wellbeing outcomes for children and young people.

In addition, this role will support the Mental Health Support Teams (MHST) to develop and deliver a mental health and emotional wellbeing support programme for parents andcarers, in partnership with educational establishments. Through delivering parent/carer groups,developing resources and providing training and support to school staff on embedding whole-school approaches to engaging parents and carers.

The Mental Health Support Team (MHST) works with young people aged from 7 - 17 years who have mild to moderate mental health needs. The service is part of a national programme that started in 2019, in response to the Transforming Children and Young Peoples Mental Health Provision green paper (2018). There are five teams covering 69 educational establishments across East Sussex, which include Primary, Secondary, Post 16, Alternative Provision and Special schools.

This is a diverse team which is part of the Education Division, in Childrens Services and is made up of Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs), Childrens Wellbeing Practitioners (CWP's), Senior Mental Health Practitioners (SMHPs), Clinical Psychologists (CP), SEND Specialist Practitioners, Parent and Carer Practitioners, Managers for Clinical Practice and Whole School approach and an admin team, overseen by a Senior Manager.

The Parent and Carer Practitioner is able to make a difference to parents and carers, and children and young people by offering early intervention and working with schools on the Whole School Approach (WSA) to mental health and emotional wellbeing (MHEW), which aims to foster health school environments to prevent mental health problems where possible.

1. Take a lead in coordinating and delivering group intervention programmes for parents/carers of children with low to moderate mental health needs.

2. Support the work of the MHST WSA Manager in raising awareness of parenting issues and strategies of working with parents/carers within the community and relevant agencies across East Sussex.

3. Deliver parent/carer intervention programmes flexibly in education establishments,working with Senior Mental Health Leads (SMHLs) in schools and other statutory and voluntary organisations.

4. Working collaboratively with MHST schools to identify need and successfully publicise and recruit to activities, identifying gaps and opportunities in delivering and organising relevant activity.

5. Keep accurate records and monitor families progress, both prior to and following intervention, responding to concerns that may be raised by parents/carers and seek appropriate solutions.

6. Establish links between the MHST, schools and existing parent/carer support groups/networks across East Sussex.

7. Support Educational Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) to develop skills and knowledge of working with parents/carers.

8. Provide brief one to one support for parents/carers of children and young people accessing the MHST service.

9. Work collaboratively with SMHLs in educational establishments by developing acheivable whole school approach plans and support implentations through providing training and advice to key school staff on whole-school approaches to engaging parents/carers.

10. Apply sensitive approaches when handling issues pertaining to confidentiality, information sharing, the rights of families and the responsibilities of parents and professionals.

11. Link closely with other members of Childrens Services and partner agencies, where relevant, and ensure that parents and carers or their children and young people are identified as requiring additional support are referred on accordingly.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

• Ability to engage with parents/carers and other professionals.
• Facilitation skills, the ability to develop and deliver training and workshops.
• Marketing skills, the ability to promote workshops and training and successfully recruit participants.
• Assess individual parent/carer needs and monitor progress.
• Maintenance of good productive working relationships with colleagues within the Team and other services.
• Management of workload and meeting of targets and deadlines.
• Able to communicate clearly and confidently, orally and in writing, and to give constructive feedback.
• The ability to assess parents / carers and manage risk in the community by utilising supervision and support from colleagues.
• Significant experience in working with vulnerable families.
• Experience of direct work with parents and carers.
• Experience of working collaboratively and in partnership with a diverse range of teams services and agencies.
• Ability to act on own initiative as a lone worker and adhere to ESCC lone worker policy.
• Understanding of issues affecting the parents and carers.
• Knowledge of the issues faced by families who are experiencing low to moderate mental health issues.
• Knowledge of child development and family systems.
• Knowledge of statutory tools, powers and interventions.
• Accredited training in or willingness to train To deliver evidence based parenting programmes.
• Experience of successfully working with vulnerable families understanding of their needs.
• Experience of delivering training or facilitating workshops.
• Experience of conducting assessments of families.
• The ability to embrace new ways of working and to contribute to the development of a service

Desirable

• Knowledge of agencies which are available to support young people and their families.
• Experience of delivering parenting programmes.
• Experience of delivering school-based training.

Qualifications

Essential

• A recognised Level 3 qualification in any discipline
• Willingness to take on additional training to gain the skills necessary to work with a demanding client group.

Desirable

• A recognised Level 4 (or above) qualification, e.g. Working with Families, social work, community development, training or other relevant.

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

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).

Employer details

Employer name

East Sussex County Council

Address

County Hall

St Anne’s Crescent

Lewes

BN7 1UE

Employer's website

https://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)