Senior Educational Psychologists - Mental Health Support Team

at  Reading Borough Council

Job description

ABOUT US

Brighter Futures for Children is a not-for-profit company, owned by, but independent of, Reading Borough Council. Although we are independent, we are very much part of the Reading Family. Our people enjoy all of benefits as other Council employees including membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme and continuous service.
We work closely with partners in the local community and key organisations including Reading Borough Council, policy, public health and voluntary groups. We are responsible for the delivery of children’s social care, early help & prevention, education services (including SEND). This also includes fostering and adoption, the Youth Offending Service and traded services with schools.
Our main aim is to protect and enhance the lives of the children of Reading. We help families find long-term solutions to ensure children lead happy, healthy and successful lives.
Reading/BFfC is proud to be one of the first trailblazer sites for the Mental Health Support Teams (MHST), delivering evidence-based interventions aimed at improving the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people by either working directly with them or with their parents/carers. Due to the success of our first team, we have recently expanded our service in Reading with a second MHST and a third team will launch in September 2025. One position is being advertised for a Senior EP to cover maternity leave, and the other position is for a Senior EP to manage the newly expanded third MHST in Reading.

The Senior Educational Psychologist will:

• Lead the Reading/BFfC Mental Health Support Team and provide appraisal, supervision and day-to-day management.
• Contribute to the improvement of the MHST, by taking account of its performance against agreed targets, standards, service level agreements and national statistics.
• Help schools shape their development plans to cover target setting for improvements in pupil mental health and emotional wellbeing.
• Manage and co-ordinate the allocation of work for Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) and other members of the team.
• Contribute to whole school screening of emotional and mental health needs, and planning around individual, group and whole school approaches.
• Coordinate the delivery of emotional/mental health support across the geographical area covered by the MHST.
• Contribute to relevant training of Head Teachers, Teachers, SENCOs, Governors, etc. on relevant legislation, procedures and other relevant issues, organising and leading presentations and workshops as appropriate

The Senior Educational Psychologist must have:

• Post-graduate qualification in Educational Psychology, either Masters or Doctorate.
• Registration, or eligibility for registration, with the Health & Care Professionals Council (HCPC)
• Experience of working as an Educational Psychologist with a local authority.
• Experience of working in a range of educational settings across the age range.
• Experience of working with children and young people with SEMH needs and a commitment and passion to improving the mental health of children and young people.
• Knowledge, experience and/or qualifications in delivering cognitive behavioural therapy-based approaches

SEPs play a key role as members of the Mental Health Support Teams (MHST). The role of the SEP in the MHST is to take a lead responsibility for line management and supervision of the team, to liaise with schools in regard to improving the quality of education and standards of attainment of pupils with social emotional and mental health difficulties (SEMH) and to contribute to the development of the MHST.
The MHST delivers services to children, young people, their families and school staff via a combination of face-to-face visits to schools and also remotely via telephone and video calls.

The Senior Educational Psychologist will:

• Lead the Reading/BFfC Mental Health Support Team and provide appraisal, supervision and day-to-day management.
• Contribute to the improvement of the MHST, by taking account of its performance against agreed targets, standards, service level agreements and national statistics.
• Help schools shape their development plans to cover target setting for improvements in pupil mental health and emotional wellbeing.
• Manage and co-ordinate the allocation of work for Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) and other members of the team.
• Contribute to whole school screening of emotional and mental health needs, and planning around individual, group and whole school approaches.
• Coordinate the delivery of emotional/mental health support across the geographical area covered by the MHST.
• Contribute to relevant training of Head Teachers, Teachers, SENCOs, Governors, etc. on relevant legislation, procedures and other relevant issues, organising and leading presentations and workshops as appropriate.

The Senior Educational Psychologist must have:

• Post-graduate qualification in Educational Psychology, either Masters or Doctorate.
• Registration, or eligibility for registration, with the Health & Care Professionals Council (HCPC)
• Experience of working as an Educational Psychologist with a local authority.
• Experience of working in a range of educational settings across the age range.
• Experience of working with children and young people with SEMH needs and a commitment and passion to improving the mental health of children and young people.
• Knowledge, experience and/or qualifications in delivering cognitive behavioural therapy-based approaches.