Norfolk & Suffolk Foundation NHS Trust
Job summary
Ambitious, creative, clinically skilled? Passionate about mental health services for children and young people?
This is an exciting opportunity to join Suffolk’s innovative Mental Health Support Team (MHST) as a Clinical Lead. MHSTs play a key role in delivering early intervention within education settings, ensuring children and young people access appropriate mental health support more quickly.
You will provide leadership, clinical expertise and operational support, working closely with the West Area Leadership Team, to deliver a high-quality service.
The team is currently transitioning to a new Neighbourhood Team model and preparing for further expansion from January 2027. Initially, you will support this transition before helping to implement and develop the new model.
Based in the West Area, covering West Suffolk, you will be part of a leadership team supporting three Neighbourhood Teams. Within the first year of the post, there will be a requirement to also support the East Area covering five Neighbourhood Teams in East Suffolk to support maternity leave cover and the wider expansion and development of the team.
Applications are welcomed from a range of professional backgrounds but must have a relevant professional therapy qualification or equivalent.
Interviews are anticipated to take place on 17th September.
Main duties of the job
You will be responsible for providing a high-quality early intervention service to children, young people (and their families) experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties. You will build relationships with and work across a range of education settings.
The role combines direct specialist clinical assessment, formulation and intervention with clinical leadership and delegated operational leadership with responsibility for clinical quality, caseload management, supervision structures, risk escalation, governance, outcome monitoring, service development and partnership working.
You will use your clinical skills and experience for direct delivery of evidence-based interventions, consultation to education settings and delivery of whole/school college approaches. You will utilise skills and knowledge of CBT and child and adolescent mental health practice and support service delivery and development through collaboration and coproduction.
You will clinically supervise and line manage Senior Clinicians (Band 7). You will work with the West MHST Area Leadership team to share responsibilities to support the team. Travel across Suffolk will be required.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Relevant professional qualification or equivalent e.g. Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, accredited CBT Therapist, qualification in Systemic Family Therapy, qualification in child and adolescent psychotherapy
- Appropriate and valid UK professional registration. This could be in psychology, systemic family therapy, psychotherapy, social work, nursing, occupational health
Desirable
- Leadership and/or Management training / qualification
Experience
Essential
- Line management and Leadership experience within services.
- Experience of working with a range of complex and challenging behaviours and exercising full clinical responsibility for psychological treatment, having responsibility for the management of a caseload
- Well-developed skills, knowledge and experience in developmental psychology, attachment, trauma theories and other common mental health difficulties
Desirable
- Experience of operational leadership of a service, including safer staffing, rostering and delegated budgets.
Skills
Essential
- Skills in consultation to professional and non – professional groups.
- Skills in training and supervision.
- Skills in creating and delivering presentations and training programmes.
Knowledge
Essential
- Knowledge and understanding of current local and national drivers for delivery of early intervention mental health services.
Closing Date: 6 September 2026
To apply for this job please visit apps.trac.jobs.