Trainee/Qualified Education Mental Health Practitioner West Suffolk: Sponsorship Available

Norfolk & Suffolk Foundation NHS Trust

Job summary

Passionate about the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people? Suffolk Mental Health Support Team (MHST) is based within education settings, ensuring children and young people receive faster access to earlier mental health support. We are excited to be recruiting Trainee Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHP) as part of our expanding service.

As a Trainee EMHP you will work under supervision as part of a dynamic mental health team in a creative environment. You will need to be adaptable and have a passion for working with children and young people in education settings. During the training year, post-holders will, under supervision, develop knowledge and practice skills to employ a range of evidence-based interventions for common mental health problems via direct individual and group support for children, young people and their parents, as well as whole school/college approaches, in line with the university expectations.

Vacancies are in our West Suffolk MHST: based in Bury St Edmunds and the Forest Heath Area (Mildenhall, Brandon and Newmarket). We have additional vacancies within our East team, please see the job advert for more details.

Main duties of the job

Trainee EMHPs will:

  • Work alongside a team of mental health professionals delivering a wide range of evidence-informed interventions, under supervision
  • Develop and practice evidence-based skills under supervision to work directly with children, young people and families.
  • Develop and practice evidence-based skills under supervision to carry out holistic and child-centered mental health assessments, including risk assessments.

Trainee EMHPs are required to:

  •  Demonstrate the ability to work at degree level, with a proven record of previous learning or formal study in child development, wellbeing or mental health
  • Attend the EMHP training course, 100% attendance at teaching is expected.

Trainee EMHPs will have experience of:

  • Working with children, young people and their families
  • Working and liaising with a wide variety of agencies and stakeholders
  • Working with children and young people who have social, emotional and/or mental health difficulties

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

  • It is desirable that the applicant will have previous experience of working with children and young people

Desirable

  • Experience of working with children and young people who have social, emotional and/or behavioural difficulties

Qualifications

Essential

  • Ability to study at degree level
  • Good solid basic literacy and numeracy qualifications at a minimum of level 2

Skills

Essential

  • Ability to study as a self-motivated learner who can formulate their own progress towards learning objectives and negotiate pathways to achievement with supervisory teams

Desirable

  • Ability to carry out 1:1 therapeutic mental health interventions with families

Knowledge

Essential

  • Knowledge of children and young people gained through academic study in child development, child wellbeing or mental health

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Closing Date: 27 September 2026

To apply for this job please visit apps.trac.jobs.