Mental Health Practitioner in Blackpool

Barnardo's are recruiting staff, so if you are ready for a new challenge and are passionate about working with children and young people to support their emotional wellbeing, you might be just who we are looking for.

The MyTime to Thrive service supports children and young people across Lancashire & South Cumbria aged 5-18 years to grow up with healthy minds, feel confident and resilient and fulfil their potential. As part of the THRIVE Getting Help model, Barnardo's provides therapeutic one-to-one, group work and counselling support in the community.

We are looking for people who are passionate about:

• Children's and Young people's emotional health and wellbeing
• Improving outcomes for children and young people

We have two positions available:

• South Cumbria Mental Health Practitioner:

The Role:

• Working hours: 37
• Working days: Monday - Friday
• Office base: Kendal, Stricklandgate House
• Working in a variety of school and community venues
• The ability to travel across the South Cumbria locality is essential

You will offer brief interventions via 1:1 wellbeing sessions and therapeutic group work covering emotional literacy and emotional regulation. There will be an emphasis on:

• Providing a blended approach of digital and face-to-face sessions
• Maintaining active engagement on all safeguarding matters
• Ensuring accurate recording for reporting purposes

• North Lancashire Mental Health Practitioner:

The Role:

• Working hours: 37
• Working days: Monday - Friday
• Office base: Blackpool Business First, Amy Johnson Way
• Working in a variety of school and community venues
• The ability to travel across the North Lancashire locality is essential

You will offer brief interventions via 1:1 wellbeing sessions and therapeutic group work covering emotional literacy and emotional regulation. There will be an emphasis on:

• Providing a blended approach of digital and face-to-face sessions
• Maintaining active engagement on all safeguarding matters
• Ensuring accurate recording for reporting purposes

Successful candidates must:

• Be experienced in delivering direct emotional support to children and young people on a one-to-one basis and in a group setting.
• Have a caring and approachable manner that supports children and young people to establish safe and trusting relationships.
• Have an awareness of emotional challenges and how these impact the lives of children and young people.
• Have a knowledge of child and adolescent development and the role of the family in supporting children and young people's emotional well-being.
• Have comprehensive understanding of children's safeguarding.
• Need to be adaptable and deliver support via multiple methods; face-to-face, telephone or video call.
• Have case management experience and a clear understanding of the requirement for professional and accurate case notes.

It would be beneficial to have access to a car due to the regular travel required in this role.

Additional Information:

You must demonstrate in your application that you currently use the skills outlined above, and in the Job Description/Person Specifications, or have used them previously in employment, education, training, volunteering etc. This should be done with an understanding of the context of the service described.

Interview Dates for locality are as follows:

• Kendal position - 15th September
• North Lancashire position - 16th September

Although this contract has a permanent status, please be aware that this post is subject to funding currently to March 2029 and therefore should this funding not be extended further, you may be subject to a redundancy consultation or a TUPE arrangement.

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 know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, 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.

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band; this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours. More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.

Benefits Workplace Offer:

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.

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 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.

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.