Trainee Mental Health Wellbeing Practitioner

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., 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., o attend all elements of the training programme of study and progress successfully through assessments of competence and attainment
o work in an adult community mental health service when not completing the programme of study
o develop and practice psychologically-informed interventions under supervision, working directly with adults in the community
o support collaborative care planning, alongside other members of the multi-disciplinary team
o work closely alongside a team of mental health professionals to deliver a set of brief wellbeing-focused psychologically informed interventions - not therapy - for example:
o Behavioural Activation and Graded Exposure using the "GOALS" programme
o Problem-solving
o Improving sleep
o Recognising and managing emotions
o Guided self-help for bulimia and binge-eating
o Confidence building
o Support with medicines management
The Trainee Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner will be required to:
o Demonstrate the ability to work at degree level
o Have experience of work interacting with the public, working as part of a team, analysing complex information and communicating effectively
o 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:
o To work alongside service users, families, carers and multi-disciplinary team members to co-ordinate care, supporting collaborative decision-making about care and treatment.
o 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.
The Trust is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect and dignity and in promoting equality and human rights. We aim to put this commitment into practice by:
+ Embedding our commitment to tackling inequality, eliminating discrimination and harassment; promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good relations in our everyday practice
+ Ensuring that all our services and all staff understand and support our commitment
+ We believe that people who use our services, their carers and our staff, should be treated with compassion, respect and dignity
Please note:
+ That all applications for this post will need to be made online
+ That you read and understand the Job Description and Personal Specification attached to the role. Your Statement in Support should reflect the requirements specified as your application will be judged against these criteria
+ That the closing date listed is a guide only and that the vacancy may close earlier should sufficient number of applicants have been received. We advise that you submit your application as early as possible
+ That once you have submitted your application you agree to your application being transferred to a 3rd party e-recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs
+ That should you not have heard from us within three weeks from the closing date your application has not successful
+ That priority consideration for applications may be given to at-risk NHS employees
+ That should you be successful and appointed, you authorise South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to confirm your previous NHS service via an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process
+ That we are a smoke-free Trust
SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion , Stonewall is the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans (LGBT) rights charity in Europe'

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.

Band 4
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.
We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good'.
We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone's potential as change makers.
The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.
Our Values
We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I'm going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you'll be part of something special.
As a Trust we are happy to talk flexible working.