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Additional Information

Band 3 Agenda for Change £25878.00

South Cumbria Mental Health Support Teams

We have an exciting opportunity to offer a new role as an Assistant Education Mental Health Practitioner in our South Cumbria Brrow and South Lakes locality team.

This will involve working in schools in Barrow, Dalton, Millom, Ulverston, Kendal and surrounding areas.

In line with the government's priority to increase access and availability of mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people, opportunities have arisen for 1 Assistant Education Mental Health Practitioner in South Cumbria.

The postholders will be supporting the MHST'S provision of a high-quality service to students (and their families) experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties.

Candidates who are successful in gaining an interview will be asked to prepare a short, five minute presentation on how they will deliver workshops in schools with children and young people alongside other practitioners in the team.

South Cumbria MHSTs comprises of:

1 Children's Service Manager
1 Team Manager
1 Clinical Leads
5 Senior Practitioners
17 Education Mental Health Practitioners
1 Assistant EMHPS
1 Admin and assistants

The service bases are situated in Barrow and Kendal. The office bases for post holders will be agreed following interview.

The South Cumbria locality MHST currently work with 22 education settings which include 21 secondary schools, 2 higher education colleges, 3 special education schools and 1 pupil referral unit (PRU) across the community. However, with an additional 48 primary schools in September 2026.

Role Summary

The post holder will work alongside Educational Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) and Senior Practitioners who are trained in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) through direct delivery of evidence-based interventions to support the recovery of young people referred to the service. The post holder will deliver whole school approach sessions to children and young people. This work will be in accordance with clinical governance processes and professional standards.

You will be employed by Barnardo's as a Project Worker 1. In this role you will support and provide a high-quality service to children and young people (and their families) you will not be responsible for a caseload but will support delivery of evidenced based emotional wellbeing activities to children, young people and their families, as well as support education staff under supervision.

The role is to support the delivery of whole school approach with the team in schools, and work alongside trained practitioners in CBT who lead the therapeutic group interventions. This role will involve contributing to locating, preparing and utilising resources for whole school approach. This may involve facilitating school assemblies or small groups using whole school approach resources. You would also support with collecting experience and outcomes feedback for the team.

You will be well supported with appropriate supervision and CPD. You will then be well placed to apply for the trainee EMHP roles should this development be of interest.

Completing your application

Please find attached a Barnardo's Job Description and Person/Role Specification. Barnardo's use generic Job Descriptions and Person Specifications: when completing the application form please provide evidence to demonstrate how your skills, experience and qualifications meet the requirements of the Person Specification and in addition, the following skills and experience: -

Qualifications

Essential

BTEC higher diploma or Foundation degree in relevant areas (children and young people -CYP) or equivalent skills/knowledge and experience of a minimum 2 years

Experience

Essential

Experience working with CYP/Families
Delivery of mental health/wellbeing advice to support CYP and their families

Desirable

A minimum of two years' experience working with CYP/Families
Experience in delivering training/ groups.
Experience of working with an educational establishment or childcare setting/ or in children's mental health.
Experience in supporting service development.

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

Understanding of mental health and emotional wellbeing issues that impact children, young people and their families.

MHST Background

Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) are a national programme jointly delivered with the Department for Education, NHS England, and Health Education England. The programme has three core functions:

Delivering evidence-based interventions for children and young people with mild to moderate mental health needs
Supporting the senior mental health lead in each education setting to introduce or develop their whole school/college approach.
Giving timely advice to school and college staff, and liaising with external specialist services, to help children and young people to get the right support and stay in education.

MHST's support the promotion of wellbeing and good mental health with particular focus on early intervention. They work with existing social, emotional, mental health and wellbeing support within education settings, building relationships with each education setting and with children, young people, parent/carers and partner in the locally system to co-design and evaluate the support offer required.

The MHSTs provide direct therapeutic care to children and young people who show signs of mild to moderate mental health difficulties, alongside supporting education settings with their whole education approach.

Working for Barnardo's

Barnardo's has been providing services to some of the most vulnerable children across the UK for over 150 years. We work in partnership with children's social care and health partners enabling the delivery of integrated health and social care services in a number of areas. We recognise that to really transform children's life chances, they need sustained interventions that meet the diversity of their needs and that participation and co— production must a key component of any service. If you enjoy pushing the boundaries of what works; working closely with other agencies to innovate and create; have the clinical expertise to lead on this project and want to work with children and young people and their families to deliver services that truly meet their needs, then we would like to hear from you.

For further information, please contact:

Amy Armstrong, Children's Service Manager amy.armstrong@barnardos.org.uk

Mobile 07874 795 425

Interviews will be face to face and held at the Barrow base on 11^th September 2026

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible

Pay & Reward Framework

We appreciate our colleagues' dedication and their commitment to delivering excellence in the vital work we do, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values.  We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

We are committed to a rounded colleague experience with an approach to both pay and rewards that are fair, attractive, and progressive. This is in support of our strategic ambition to ensure Barnardo's is a place everyone can belong, grow and thrive.

The salary range advertised is in line with our pay principles, for consistency and fairness while recognising the skills and experience applicants bring to the role. Appointing salaries can be discussed further at appointment stage; we do seek to appoint within this range always exercising responsible stewardship.

Benefits

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.

Barnardo's require colleagues to be UK residents, based in the UK and to complete their roles from within the UK (with the exception of colleagues providing Barnardo's services in Jersey and colleagues who live in the Republic of Ireland providing services in Northern Ireland)

Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Buy Your Leave scheme
A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
Service related sick pay from day 1
Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
Cycle2work scheme
Interest free season ticket loans
Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
20% discount at Barnardo's stores
Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

About Barnardo's

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

Our basis and values