Senior Mental Health Practitioner / Clinical Psychologist | Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust

The Mental Health Support Team in SEN schools are undergoing a major
expansion, with our services across Hertfordshire and West Essex. We are
seeking to appoint a motivated, committed, flexible and forward-thinking Band7 Senior Mental Health Practitioner, who is committed to supporting Childrenand Young People (CYP) with SEND.

The Mental Health Support Team offers early intervention mental health support, to childrenn and their families, within schools. The Sen's MHST is the only MHST within the country, to offer support specifically to SEN schools we are hosted by the PALMS service, and work within
Hertfordshire and West Essex. We currently work in 20 SEN schools with a plan to expand, offering tailored support to children with additional needs, learning disabilities, and Autistic Spectrum Disorder aged 5-18. We offer group work, individual interventions with child or
family, and support the school to develop their whole school approach to overall wellbeing.

This is a very exciting opportunity to be part of an expanding team and to participate in a fully funded qualification, at the university of Reading to become a fully qualified EMHP supervisor.

You will be working in a variety of school environments across Hertfordshire and West Essex, combined with being part of a "virtual team" to deliver our service. We operate from 7-7 Monday to Friday.

You will be working in a variety of school environments across Hertfordshire and West Essex, combined with being part of a "virtual team" to deliver our service. We operate from 7-7 Monday to Friday.

The post is permanent and will be full time; However, the trust is open to exploring part time and flexible working.

• A range of experience within the mental health field.


• Able to develop individual case formulations for all CYP integrating clinical assessment data with evidence based therapeutic models to plan interventions for CYP and collaboratively engage them in the process of therapy.


• Able to establish and maintain effective inter-agency and inter-team communication


• Able to provide continued efficient and effective management of the team, providing leadership and supervision to a multi-disciplinary staff group


• To provide specialist assessment, intervention, advice, and consultation on CYP's care to colleagues, professionals from other agencies and to other non-professional carers.


• Able to undertake risk assessment and risk management


• Able to plan and to lead workshops and therapeutic groups


• Able to maintain a high degree of professionalism when working in settings where there is a highly emotive atmosphere.


• Flexible in their approach and have resilience under pressure


• Able to work both in a team environment and autonomously, A full valid driving license and access to a car to use regularly for business purposes is essential (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010)., Disability Confident

About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.


• Regular appraisal, personal development planning and opportunities for continuing professional development.


• Opportunities to work closely with a multi-disciplinary team and learn from other evidence-based frameworks and approaches.


• Involvement in service development including undertaking clinical audits, project work and service forums.


• 27 days annual leave, 29 if you have worked for the NHS for 5 years and 33 if you have worked for the NHS for 10 years, in addition to 8 days bank holidays.


• Entitlement to the NHS pension scheme.