Be part of something that truly changes lives for children and young people across Southampton. As a qualified Education Mental Health Practitioner or Children's Wellbeing Practitioner working as part of our innovative Mental Health in Schools Team (MHST), you will play a vital role in delivering early intervention mental health support directly within schools and colleges. This is a proud opportunity to work at the frontline of community-based care, helping young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties.
In this role you will combine clinical expertise with creativity and compassion, working in partnership with education settings to ensure mental health support is accessible, timely, and impactful. You will help empower children and young people to understand their emotions, build resilience, and develop practical coping strategies that support their wellbeing and educational outcomes.
You will join a supportive, forward-thinking service that values collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement. You will contribute to a whole-school approach to wellbeing, supporting staff and families to better understand and respond to mental health needs, and ensuring young people receive the right support at the right time.
This is more than a clinical role-it is an opportunity to shape the future of early intervention mental health services and make a lasting difference in the lives of young people, their families, and the wider community.
In this rewarding and varied role, you will deliver high-quality, evidence-based interventions to children and young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties, using low-intensity CBT approaches such as guided self-help. You will hold and manage a clinical caseload, undertake assessments, and work collaboratively with young people and families to develop personalised, goal-focused care plans.
You will work closely with families and education staff to support positive outcomes, offering advice, psychoeducation, and practical strategies that can be embedded at home and at school. You will build strong relationships with education settings and provide consultation, training, and support.
You will use routine outcome measures to monitor progress and inform clinical decision-making, ensuring interventions are effective and responsive to individual needs. Where more complex needs arise, you will help facilitate timely access to specialist services via referral pathways.
The role requires excellent communication and organisational skills, as well as the ability to work autonomously. You will engage in regular clinical supervision and continuous professional development.
We are looking for a qualified EMHP or CWP who is motivated, compassionate, and committed to delivering inclusive, person-centred care. You should have experience working with children and young people and demonstrate understanding of safeguarding, the education system, and collaborative working.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provides joined-up mental and physical healthcare for around two million people across our communities. With over 13,000 staff working in the community and local hospitals, we deliver care at every stage of life, helping people live their best and healthiest lives.
Our mental health services include community-based support and early intervention in psychosis (EIP) for both adults and young people, alongside a network of specialist inpatient wards covering forensic, learning disability, eating disorder and older person's care.
We deliver extensive physical health services too, from urgent community response teams helping frail and older patients remain safely at home, to hospitals at home teams providing acute-level care in familiar surroundings. Our neurological services offer rehabilitation and treatment for conditions including Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, Motor Neurone Disease, Head Injury, Cerebral Palsy and Stroke. Across Hampshire, our community hospitals provide inpatient rehabilitation as a step down from acute care, and our dedicated teams also staff Treetops Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Portsmouth, offering expert, compassionate support.
Everything we do is underpinned by our CARE values of compassion, accountability, respect and excellence
Further information about the Trust and this role can be found on the Job Description and Person Specification document attached. It is important to us that we ensure our recruitment processes are accessible and inclusive to everyone - if as a potential candidate you are concerned a person specification may prevent or restrict your application for employment as a result of unintentional barriers on the grounds of your sex, race, age, sexual orientation, religion/belief or disability please initially contact the Trust's Recruitment team - detailed in the advert. The Trust will seek to resolve this issue wherever possible.
We are happy to talk Flexible Working - all requests for flexible working options can be discussed as part of the interview process.
- EMHP Qualification or CWP qualification.
- BABCP Accreditation or clear plan around working towards this following recent qualification.
- Good solid basic literacy and numeracy qualifications at a minimum of level 2
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.
