Job Description

We are looking for highly motivated individuals to join our team as Trainee Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioners. Three posts are available, across our Secondary Care Psychological Therapies Service and our Lambeth Living Well Centres. This is an exciting brand-new role created by NHS England and Improvement to support the transformation of adult community mental health services. Your training will be fully funded by the NHS. In return, we ask that you commit to staying with us for at least two years after you qualify if you apply to continue to work with us as a qualified clinician.



This role will contribute to ensuring adults with severe mental health problems have greater access to psychologically informed interventions.

Please note:

The trainee mental health wellbeing practitioner posts are training positions. Successful candidates will be expected to study at university (we expect University College London) and may need to travel to campus, and will need to travel between Southwark station area, Brixton and Streatham and the team catchment areas across the borough of Lambeth for their clinical work.



We are committed to developing a team that is fully representative of the communities that we serve.



As a Trainee Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner, you will be expected to work under supervision as part of a dynamic mental health team delivering psychologically informed interventions and supporting adults to receive the right care. You will need to have flexibility and adaptability and a passion for working with adults with severe mental health problems.



During the one-year postgraduate certificate training, you will, under supervision, develop knowledge and practice skills to employ wellbeing-focused psychologically informed interventions for serious mental health problems for adults individually and in groups, as well as support their families and carers, in line with the education providers expectations.



The second largest inner London Borough with an official population of around 350,000. The local population has needs related to a high level of social deprivation such as unemployment, poor social housing and child poverty. There are also pockets of greater affluence. There are high levels of morbidity, and levels and complexity of mental health problems are above the national average



Lambeth CCG and Lambeth Council want people of Lambeth to have a fully integrated and coordinated mental health system which focuses on people's strengths and supports their whole health and wellbeing. They have commissioned SLAM NHS as part of the Lambeth Living Well Network (LWN) Alliance to lead, co-ordinate and, in large part, deliver support and services for those experiencing mental health issues in Lambeth.

The Trust:

The South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust is part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) and committed to innovation, effective interventions and improved service user outcomes. It provides mental health services to the people of Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham and Croydon, and some more specialist services to people from across the UK.

The Trainee Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner will:

attend all elements of the training programme of study and progress successfully through assessments of competence and attainment



work in an adult community mental health service when not completing the programme of study



develop and practice psychologically-informed interventions under supervision, working directly with adults in the community



support collaborative care planning, alongside other members of the multi-disciplinary team



work closely alongside a team of mental health professionals to deliver a set of brief wellbeing-focused psychologically informed interventions - not therapy - for example:



Behavioural Activation and Graded Exposure using the "GOALS" programme



Problem-solving



Improving sleep



Recognising and managing emotions



Guided self-help for bulimia and binge-eating



Confidence building



Support with medicines management



The Trainee Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner will be required to :



Demonstrate the ability to work at degree level



Have experience of work interacting with the public, working as part of a team, analysing complex information and communicating effectively



Demonstrate the ability to establish and maintain empathic, supportive relationships with people in significant distress, their families and carers



This is a training role within adult community mental health services. The post-holder will be enrolled in a graduate certificate or postgraduate certificate training delivering the national curriculum for Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioners. Once successfully enrolled, the post-holder will attend all elements of the programme of study and progress successfully through assessments of competence and attainment. Until enrolment, and in the remaining part of the week during training, they will work as a trainee in the service, under close supervision and regular course assessment of practice competence. They will work within the limits of their experience and assessed competence for their stage of training:



To work alongside service users, families, carers and multi-disciplinary team members to co-ordinate care, supporting collaborative decision-making about care and treatment.



To deliver a set of wellbeing-focused psychologically-informed interventions, aligned to cognitive-behavioural principles, based on the best evidence available, that address problems often experienced by people with severe mental health problems.



To work within the limits of level of training and experience as a developing practitioner, taking on clinical practice appropriate to assessed levels of competence and stage of training. The post-holder will work as a trainee under close case management supervision from a suitably qualified professional to provide high quality collaborative care planning as a member of the multi-disciplinary team, with a level of autonomy matched to level of demonstrated competence and stage of training. The post-holder will work under close clinical skills supervision from an HCPC registered clinical / counselling psychologist, BABCP accredited cognitive behavioural therapist or Senior MHWP to provide specified psychologically-informed wellbeing-focused interventions, with a level of autonomy matched to level of demonstrated competence and stage of training.