Qualified Therapeutic Practitioner

Qualified Therapeutic Practitioner – Band 5 Mental Health Support Team

Location: London

Salary: Competitive

The Role

The organisation’s MHST is part of a national, government-funded, pioneering programme transforming mental health and wellbeing provision for children and young people via early intervention. The service was launched in Southwark in January 2022 and currently works across 27 schools, with plans to expand over the academic year. The MHST is dynamic, flexible and diverse, representing the community which they serve.

They are currently seeking 2 qualified practitioners with training and experience in delivering therapies, i.e. Counselling/Art/Music/Dance/Drama/Play therapy to children and young people. The practitioners will be responsible for delivering 1:1 sessions and group work to young people in primary and secondary schools across Southwark. This role will involve the widening of the MHST offer to suit both the candidates’ skills and experience, and the needs of young people who require support with their mental wellbeing.

Successful candidates will also work alongside the Whole School Approach (WSA) Lead and wider team to support schools in implementing Southwark’s 10 WSA principles.

Main Objectives:

• Deliver evidence-based interventions for children and young people in education settings with mild to moderate mental health problems
• Supporting children and young people within education settings who present with more severe problems to access / be signposted to more specialist services
• Supporting and facilitating staff in education settings to identify, and where appropriate, manage issues related to mental health and wellbeing
• Developing a working practice of and engagement with issues of power, discrimination and diversity throughout the systems where the work is carried out
• Delivering and creating whole-school approach workshops, group work and staff training
• Managing own caseload, including risk management, safety planning and reporting safeguarding as per their and the educational settings safeguarding policies.
• Collect measures and assess feedback relating to therapeutic interventions, group work, workshops and staff training in order to continuously improve the service.

Skills and Qualifications

Applicants to this post must have successfully completed training as a therapeutic practitioner, have a strong commitment to the CYP-IAPT principles and a keen desire to work within the third sector, engaging with the local community in Southwark.

• Qualified as a therapist, e.g. music, art psychotherapy, play therapy, dance movement, drama therapy, or another relevant therapeutic modality
• Registration with a relevant body, e.g. BACP, HCPC, etc.
• Experience of delivering at least 150 supervised hours of one-to-one practice of any therapeutic modality with children or young people aged 5 – 18
• Demonstrable experience working with children, young people and their families
• Experience of working in a school setting
• Demonstrate a thorough knowledge of evidence -based therapeutic interventions for children and young people
• Experience of managing risk including maintaining accurate records and liaising with necessary third parties
• Experience of monitoring and recording outcome measures for children and young people’s emotional wellbeing
• Can fulfil criteria for full, enhanced and current satisfactory DBS disclosure for the role
• Ability to manage a potentially emotionally distressing caseload
• Working knowledge of Safeguarding, the ability to follow procedures, and develop and work within a culture of safe practice
• Ability to use MS Corporate Software applications, particularly MS Office, MS Word, MS Excel and MS Outlook Email

To Apply

If you are a suitable candidate and would like to work for this reputable organisation, please do not hesitate to apply.