School Engagement Team Wellbeing Coach in South East London

Location: London Borough of Southwark and their hub in Peckham

Salary: £28,000 per annum

Contract: Fixed Term until December 31st 2025

Hours: 37.5 hour per week

The organisation's early intervention service for the mental wellbeing of children and young people across Southwark launched its School Engagement Team in 2021. Since then, the team has worked with primary, secondary and specialist schools across Southwark, delivering interventions around various topics relating to mental health.

The Role

They are looking for those with experience working with young people or in the mental health sector, e.g. youth practitioners, mental health support workers and therapists/counsellors in training, to join their School Engagement Team and help them continue to deliver mental health support across schools in Southwark.

The School Engagement Team focus on three key areas:

• Awareness raising: running class workshops and assemblies for students to signpost them to the hub and other services available to them in Southwark, as well as educate them on topics relating to mental health. Wellbeing workshops and training sessions are also delivered to school staff and parents/carers.
• Exclusions: delivering targeted 1-2-1 sessions for children and young people identified as being at risk of school refusal or exclusion.
• Transitions: running class workshops in schools to prepare CYP for change and transitions. Facilitating targeted workshops with small groups of children identified as needing additional support as they start year 7 and prepare to leave secondary school.

Key Responsibilities

• Plan and deliver universal assemblies and workshops at schools across Southwark.
• Plan and deliver training for appropriate school staff in response to mental health concern trends that are emerging amongst pupils.
• Plan and deliver wellbeing sessions and educational workshops for parents and carers.
• Work closely with schools to help them identify young people at risk of exclusions and provide support for them and their families.
• Facilitate group workshops for students struggling with the transition to secondary school/out of secondary school.
• Provide signposting and referrals to appropriate services for children and young people if their needs are beyond the remit or scope of support provided by the organisation.
• Manage a caseload of children/young people deemed as at risk of emotionally based school avoidance or exclusion, and deliver 1-2-1 support sessions in school.
• Support and empower children, young people and their families to make informed choices about their wellbeing.
• Use a mentoring/coaching approach to engage with CYP that may be hard to reach, such as those with emotionally based school avoidance or at risk of exclusion.
• Engage with CYP with additional needs, including emotional/social needs in PRUs and children with ASD/ADHD in specialist schools.
• Develop and maintain a thorough ‘local knowledge' of the borough and its services and facilities, particularly in relation to mental health issues.
• Where appropriate, work closely with the families and carers of children and young people to help them support their child/young person to manage their mental wellbeing.
• Raise the profile of the service amongst students, appropriate school staff and other professionals from across Southwark through school-based work that will generate referrals to The Hub.
• Run pop-up events across the borough and work in collaboration with children, young people, families and community stakeholders to increase service accessibility.
• Collect feedback from service users to provide real-time information on service performance that will be used to inform, and where necessary, improve service delivery.

Skills and Qualifications

• Experience of working with children, young people and their parents or carers.
• Experience of working within the field of mental health.
• Experience of planning and delivering activities to young people.
• An ability to work in education settings and with multi-agency partners.
• Knowledge and understanding of the barriers and challenges facing children and young people seeking support for their mental wellbeing.
• Ability to form close and effective relationships with children, young people and their families from a diverse range of backgrounds.
• Ability to facilitate and deliver workshops to large groups of people.
• Knowledge and understanding of the importance of risk management and safety planning.
• Working knowledge of Safeguarding, the ability to follow procedure and development of a culture of safe practice procedures.
• Ability to follow policies and procedures in relation to Data Protection and Security, of personal and sensitive data.
• Ability to use MS Corporate Software applications, particularly MS Office, MS Word, MS Excel and MS Outlook Email.
• Ability to keep accurate records including service user development logs and use data recorded for evaluation and monitoring.
• Commitment to Groundwork London's Equity, Diversity and inclusion in practice in the workplace and across communities.
• Ability to work flexibly to meet the remote and travel requirements of the role.

To Apply

If you feel you are a suitable candidate and would like to work for this reputable organisation, please do not hesitate to apply. Appointment to this role is subject to an Enhanced DBS through the Disclosure and Barring service.