Trainee Children's Wellbeing Practitioner

Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust (HCT) has an exciting opportunity to recruit and train another cohort of 6 Children’s Wellbeing Practitioners (CWPs) who will be based in the HCT Children's Wellbeing Practitioner Service.

This is a training position and the post holders will undertake training with University College London (UCL) alongside working in service. They will be taught to deliver evidence based guided self-help interventions for children and young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties. They will also be taught how to deliver interventions in the community, for example, participation activities, training and group delivery. The post holder will use their newly developed skills to support children and young people who are referred into the service and trainees will receive supervision to support their professional development, as well as be expected to actively engage local communities.

**Interview dates**: Mid/Late September. Dates To Be Confirmed

You will study at University College London/Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, with tutors that are renowned for their great work with children and families in the area of emotional and mental health. The Postgraduate Diploma in Child and Young Persons Psychological Wellbeing Practice will begin in January 2024 for 1 year. As part of your training you will use the theory that you learn to deliver low level mental health interventions to adolescents and the parents of children presenting with mild anxiety, low mood and behavioural difficulties.

In service you will be expected to complete assessments and deliver interventions for anxiety, low mood and behavioural difficulties with the support of your supervisor. Additionally, you will shadow intervention and assessment sessions; shadow and take part in triage discussions; attend regular supervision and training sessions; engage in service development activities and deliver workshops with qualified members of staff.

A big thank you for considering joining us at Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust. You’ll find it a great place to work with many benefits offered to you as a member of our staff.

We put our patients, their families and carers at the centre of our vision - Outstanding Services and Healthier Communities.

Our staff are proud to be Innovative, Caring and Agile in their work to help achieve the Trust vision

We welcome diversity in our workforce and are interested in applicants from all backgrounds and ages.

We are seeking to recruit 6 graduate level practitioners to provide guided self-help therapy and parenting interventions. These posts are salaried at NHS Agenda for Change Band 4 and fully funded for a one year post graduate diploma in Child Wellbeing Practice through University College London. Further intensive supervision and on the job training will be provided by an experienced supervisor within each team.

During training, the post-holders will work under close supervision to gain experience across healthcare and community settings to enable them to gain the level of competence required to deliver high-quality, evidence-based early interventions for children and young people experiencing
mild to moderate mental health problems.

As part of your role you will attend weekly clinical supervision. You will also access group supervision, safeguarding supervision and caseload management meetings. When you start working with us you will be expected to complete a HCT Trust induction and mandatory training which may be online or in person.

**To be successful in this role you will need**:

- Strong communication skills
- The ability to work cohesively within a team
- Motivation to learn and and to be challenged
- The ability to use feedback and adapt accordingly
- Good organisation skills
- Experience of working within a mental health setting and/or school pastoral care
- Experience of working with children and understanding how to talk to them
- Commitment to using data and relevant measures to assess clinical outcomes

For more information on what this job entails please see the job description.

This role would suit applicants who are passionate about early intervention mental health support; improving the mental health of children and young people and those who are keen to progress their career in working therapeutically with children and families.

We currently have 6 vacancies which will based across Hertfordshire. The vacancies will be based in Ware (East), St Albans (West), Watford (South) and Hitchin (North) however travelling across the county will be expected for training and meeting purposes. It is possible some of the locations may change but it will be within the same regions/quadrants of the county.

Successful applicants will need to have a full UK driving licence, have access to a car and you will need car insurance for business use.

Word versions of documents are available if needed to allow for any adaptations to be made i.e.