Job vacancy: Education Mental Health Practitioner - Training Opportunity, NELFT NHS Foundation Trust, Basildon

Job summary

Main area: Education & Mental Health
Grade: NHS AfC: Band 4
Contract: Fixed term: 18 months (18 month FTC, once EMHP course sucessfully complete a full time substantive EMHP post at Band 5 will be given.)
Hours: 37.5 hours per week (This is a full time only role, 100% university attendence is required to complete the course.)
Job ref: 395-EC229-25

Employer: NELFT NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type: NHS
Site: Phoenix House
Town: Basildon
Salary: £28,860 - £31,671 5% HCAS
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 25/08/2025 23:59
Interview date: 14/09/2025

Education Mental Health Practitioner - Training Opportunity

NHS AfC: Band 4

Joining #TeamNELFT means you’ll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We’re CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for three consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

This role combines academic learning with practical experience to prepare you for delivering mental health support in educational settings. Key responsibilities include:

Delivering low-intensity interventions under supervision.
Engaging in academic study and applying learning to clinical practice.
Collaborating with multidisciplinary teams and educational staff.
Conducting assessments and managing clinical documentation.
Participating in service development and quality improvement.
Promoting inclusive and equitable care practices.

Upon successful completion of the training programme, you will qualify as a Band 5 Educational Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP). In this role, you will work more autonomously, delivering high-quality, brief, outcome-focused, evidence-based interventions to children and young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties. You will be expected to:

Conduct initial assessments and deliver a range of early interventions.
Promote emotional wellbeing in schools and communities.
Escalate cases beyond scope through supervision and referral pathways.
Initiate referrals to specialist services when needed.
Act as a legally and professionally accountable practitioner, guided by your professional code of conduct.
Participate in multi-disciplinary meetings and contribute to service development.
Mentor students and support training initiatives.
Maintain accurate records and contribute to clinical audits and governance.

The qualified role places greater emphasis on independent clinical decision-making, leadership within the team, and active involvement in shaping service delivery. You will also be expected to support whole school approaches (WSA) and work closely with education settings to enhance mental health awareness and provision.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Second-class Bachelor's degree from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard is required (in any academic subject)

Desirable criteria

Psychology or Health Related Degree

Experience

Essential criteria

Worked in or with UK School systems
Worked with children, young people or families

Desirable criteria

Teaching / Healthcare experience
Mental Health experience

Knowledge

Essential criteria

Authentic supporting statement outlining passion for working in early intervention and mental health care with reference to MHST or EMHP

Skills

Essential criteria

Full UK driving license and access to a vehicle for work use

Benefits

We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:

A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our efforts to support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a ‘Top 10 Family Friendly Employer’ from the Working Families Charity.
Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.

Supporting our Armed Forces

We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community make to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Gold Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme. We have supportive policies, guaranteed interview schemes for veterans. reservists and military spouses and give additional leave to our Reservists so that they can attend their annual camp.

Equal opportunities employer

We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic.

We are a Disability Confident employer and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with disabilities. If you require this application in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape please contact the recruitment team on 0300 300 1530 or email [email protected].

Correspondence with us

You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post.

As part of our recruitment process, we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same.

Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) - Gold

Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion

Applicant requirements

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Application numbers

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, we encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible to ensure consideration.

If you require any additional support during the application process please contact [email protected]. We are happy to make reasonable adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment journey.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name: Zoe Houchin
Job title: Operational Manager, South West Essex MHST
Email address: [email protected]

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Job summary

Employer heading

Education Mental Health Practitioner - Training Opportunity

NHS AfC: Band 4

Job overview

Main duties of the job

Working for our organisation

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Experience

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Knowledge

Essential criteria

Skills

Essential criteria

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

Application numbers

Documents to download

Further details / informal visits contact

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