The Opportunity
Salary: NJC Grade 8 £30,296 to £33,024 per annum.
Contract Type: Permanent
Working Pattern: 37 hours per week, full time, Monday to Friday
Location: You can work in one of the following Districts: Arun (Bognor) or Chichester.
Please note:
- Please do not wait until the closing date to apply, as applications are reviewed on a regular basis.
- Due to the nature of this role, you will need to work flexibly to travel to various schools in order to carry out assessments.
Do you have a post Graduate Certificate or Diploma in Children's Wellbeing Practice (CWP)?
Do you enjoy solution-focussed work, using evidence-based interventions?
Do you have a passion for supporting the best outcomes for children?
If you have a genuine interest in working with children and young people who experience mental health problems, find out more about becoming a Children's Wellbeing Practitioner.
The Thought-Full Mental Health Support Team are looking for an innovative and enthusiastic person with low-intensity CBT training and experience. Working within education settings, and sometimes in the community, you will undertake mental health assessments and deliver a wide range of evidence informed interventions based on the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) model.
You will work directly with children and young people of primary and secondary school age to support, plan, and implement mental health support work. Key to this role is promoting the development and delivery of the Whole School Approach to children's and young people's emotional wellbeing and mental health.
We are looking for someone who can work with integrity, openness, and confidence. You will need a passion for using your knowledge of education settings and mental health interventions to bring the two together.
For more information on the key responsibilities, skills, and qualifications and/or experience required for this role, please refer to the Job Description attached.
About us
The Educational Psychology Service (EPS) supports the delivery of the Local Authority's wellbeing strategy and Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) strategy across educational settings, children, young people, and families throughout West Sussex. The EPS directly oversees the Portage Service and the Thought-Full, Mental Health Support Team (MHST) in schools.
Mental Health Support Teams in Schools (MHSTs) are an exciting new initiative and an important strand of the Government's 2017 Green Paper 'Transforming Children and Young People's Mental Health Provision'. The MHST service in West Sussex is called Thought-Full: Helping you think it through.
Thought-Full exist to support schools with all aspects of Mental Health and Wellbeing. We do that through three core functions:
- We deliver evidence-based interventions in schools for mild to moderate mental health issues.
- We support Senior mental health leads in each education setting to introduce or develop their whole school or college approach.
- We also provide advice to school and college staff, liaise with external specialist services, to help children and young people to get the right support and stay in education.
For more information, please visit our Education, Children and Families page on our West Sussex County Council (WSCC) website.
Benefits
For a full list this can be found at our Rewards and Benefits page.
Further Information
The reference number for this role is CAFHE05050.
For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact Fran Ruocco (Team Manager) at
To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and Cover Letter.
In your cover letter please outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults.
This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check, 5 years referencing and an occupational health check.
Equity, inclusion, and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.
We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.