Trainee Children\'s Wellbeing Practitioner

Employer Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust Employer type NHS Site Starfish House, Bowling Road, Sandridge Gate, Peace Children\’s Centre Town Stevenage, Ware, St Albans, Watford Salary £27,485 – £30,162 per annum pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 13/10/2025 23:59 Interview date 27/10/2025

Trainee Children\’s Wellbeing Practitioner

NHS AfC: Band 4

Job overview

The Children\’s Wellbeing Practitioner (CWP) Service at Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust (HCT) has an exciting opportunity to train a new cohort of 5 trainee Children\’s Wellbeing Practitioners (CWPs), who will cover a variety of areas in Hertfordshire.

Post holders will undertake training with University College London (UCL) alongside working in the HCT CWP service . You will be taught to deliver evidence based guided self-help interventions for children and young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties. The post holder will use their newly developed skills to support children and young people who are referred into the service. You will receive intensive supervision to support your professional development.

Alongside this job application all applicants need to submit a university application form to UCL for a place on the Postgraduate Diploma in Child and Young Persons Psychological Wellbeing Practice. You cannot be considered for this job without an accompanying university application. Application details are in the attached CWP Recruitment Pack.

Applicants will need to be ready to start work from 5th January 2026.

Interview dates: week beginning 27th October 2025

*** Please note, depending on the volume of applicants, this advert may close early therefore we advise you complete your application early. Once the advert closes we cannot consider other applications ***

Main duties of the job

You will study at University College London/Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, with tutors that are renowned for their great work with children and families in the area of emotional wellbeing and mental health. The Children’s Wellbeing Practitioner (CWP) Postgraduate Diploma will begin in January 2026 and the course lasts 1 year. As part of your training you will use the theory that you learn to deliver low intensity mental health interventions to adolescents and the parents of children presenting with mild anxiety, low mood and behaviours that challenge.

In service, you will initially shadow intervention and assessment sessions; shadow and take part in triage discussions and partake in clinical skills development and supervision. You will then be expected to complete initial assessments and deliver interventions for anxiety, low mood and behaviours that challenge with the support of your supervisor. Additionally you will attend weekly supervision and training sessions; engage in service development activities and deliver workshops and groups with qualified members of staff.

We expect all our staff to work in an inclusive manner and make reasonable adjustments as required. Our aim is to ensure the service is accessible to all who would benefit from our support and therefore we welcome applications from those from a diverse range of backgrounds.

Working for our organisation

A big thank you for considering joining us at Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust. You’ll find it a great place to work with many benefits offered to you as a member of our staff. The Children\’s Wellbeing Practitioner Service is a small service comprised of CWPs, a Senior Wellbeing Practitioner, a CWP Supervisor and the Service Lead. The team is a warm, friendly, inclusive team that strives to improve the experience of service users and staff.

We put our patients, their families and carers at the centre of our vision – Outstanding Services and Healthier Communities.

Our staff are proud to be Innovative, Caring and Agile in their work to help achieve the Trust vision

We welcome diversity in our workforce and are interested in applicants from all backgrounds and ages.

We don’t want you to miss out so we’d like you to know that if we have a high level of interest in this role, the vacancy may close prior to the advertised closing date, so please make your application as soon as possible – Apply now

You’ve made a great decision to apply to join to HCT – we’re looking forward to taking the next steps of the journey with you.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, Children’s Wellbeing Practitioner Service are recruiting 5 trainee Children’s Wellbeing Practitioners (CWPs) to improve access to early intervention mental health support for children and young people living in Hertfordshire. The training forms part of the service transformation initiative delivered by NHS England as part of the Children and Young Peoples Mental Health Psychological Trainings (CYP PT). Formerly known as CYP IAPT.

These posts are salaried at NHS Agenda for Change Band 4 and fully funded for a one year Children\’s Wellbeing Practitioner Postgraduate Diploma through University College London. Further intensive supervision and on the job training will be provided by an experienced supervisor.

During training, the post-holders will work under close supervision to gain experience across healthcare and community settings to enable them to gain the level of competence required to deliver high-quality, evidence-based early interventions for children and young people experiencing
mild to moderate mental health problems. You will also be taught how to deliver interventions in the community, for example, service user participation activities, training and group interventions.

You will be expected to attend university whilst applying the skills you learn in a practical setting in service. Please be aware the university timetable has not been confirmed yet however based on previous years trainees were on average at university 3 days a week in the first term, 2 days a week in the second term and 1 day a week in the final term. You are expected to attend all university teaching days unless there are extenuating circumstances. Non university days are spent in service developing your clinical skills.

Whilst in service you will be expected to initially shadow colleagues, then provide assessments and interventions to service users. You will provide interventions in 1-1 and group settings. You will also be expected to co-facilitate workshops and work on service development tasks and projects.

As part of your role you will attend weekly clinical skills and case management supervision with your allocated supervisor. You will also access group supervision, safeguarding supervision and line management meetings. As part of your training, you will be expected to video record your sessions where consent has been obtained. You will then be expected to review and reflect on some of these recordings independently and in supervision sessions as well as at university for your development. In addition, role play and giving and receiving constructive feedback are key parts of the training year.

When you start working with us you will be expected to complete a HCT Trust induction and mandatory training which may be online or in person.

To be successful in this role you will need:

• The ability to work cohesively within a team
• Motivation to learn and and to be challenged
• The ability to use feedback constructively and adapt accordingly
• Good self-reflection and self-awareness skills
• Great organisational skills
• Strong time management skills (splitting time between university and in service work and planning ahead)
• Experience of working within a mental health setting and/or school pastoral care
• Experience of working with children and understanding how to talk to them
• Experience of working with and liaising with parents/carers
• Ability to liaise with internal and external professionals
• Commitment to using data and relevant measures to assess clinical outcomes
• Ability to use computer software like Word, Excel and Powerpoint
• Willingness to have your practice supervised and to present in front of others
• Willingness to work under close supervision

For more information on what this job entails please see the job description.

This role would suit applicants who are passionate about early intervention mental health support; improving the mental health of children and young people and those who are keen to progress their career in working therapeutically with children and families.

We currently have 5 vacancies which will based across Hertfordshire. Each successfully recruited trainee will be based in one of the 4 quadrants of Hertfordshire and will be expected to cover the entire quadrant. The vacancies will be based in:

Ware (East) covering East Hertfordshire e.g., Ware, Hertford, Broxbourne, Bishops Stortford and surrounding areas.

St Albans (West) covering West Hertfordshire including St. Albans, Hemel Hempstead, Harpenden, Berkhamsted and surrounding areas.

Watford (South) covering South Hertfordshire including Watford, Borehamwood and surrounding areas.

Stevenage (North) covering North Hertfordshire including Stevenage, Hitchin, Letchworth, Baldock and some parts of Royston and surrounding areas.

The bases are either clinic or office spaces but your clinical work will be in a variety of settings including schools, community spaces, NHS clinics and virtually online. Please consider which area of Hertfordshire you would like to be based in if successful and note this preference. Although bases are within one quadrant of Hertfordshire, please be aware that travelling across the county will be expected for training and meeting purposes; this will especially be the case in the first term. Please note this job involves regular driving and travelling for appointments and university therefore you need to be confident driving for appointments and taking public transport to access university.

Successful applicants will need to have a full UK driving license, have access to a car and you will need car insurance for business use from the start date of this role (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010).

Please read the Job Description and Person Specification before applying for the role.

Please note that an application to University College London for the Children\’s Wellbeing Practitioner Post Graduate Diploma needs to be made alongside your application to the HCT CWP Service. Please see in the attached documents the UCL application guidance and course brochure for more information. Please use the following link to apply for the course:

We cannot make an offer of a job without a successful completed university application.

Word versions of documents are available if needed to allow for any adaptations to be made i.e. font, colour, background, convert to Read Aloud.

Person specification

Qualifications & Training

• Undergraduate degree, upper second class or above in Psychology or related subject (e.g., Education, Childhood development, Social Work etc), OR any subject with further training or experience in a relevant field (e.g., Teaching/TA; Learning Support; HCA; Youth Work; Counselling etc)
• Or relevant professional experience in CYP Mental Health/Education/Mentorship (to be considered on a case-by-case basis)
• Other relevant undergraduate or postgraduate degree

Experience & Knowledge

• Evidence and experience of working with children and young people
• Experience of working in child and young people mental health or related services e.g., school pastoral support
• Experience working in schools as a teacher, mentor, learning support assistant etc
• Experience of working with diverse populations e.g., ethnic minorities, neurodiverse CYP, those with additional needs and those from LGBTQIA+ communities
• Worked in a service where agreed targets in place to demonstrate outcomes

Skills and Abilities

• Ability to study as a self-motivated learner and implement training with appropriate support
• Demonstrates high standards in written and verbal communication
• Demonstrates ability to work well with other professionals/ colleagues
• Ability to personally manage a sensitive, traumatic and potentially emotionally distressing caseload.
• Ability and willingness to self-reflect, use feedback and adapt accordingly.
• Ability to manage own caseload and organise time across studies and in service practice
• Proficient in a second language
• Experience of assessing mental health risk
• Demonstrate ability to present mental health psychoeducation to non-mental health audiences

Other

• Hold a full, valid, UK driving licence and have access to a car to use for business purposes (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010)
• Eligible to live and work in the UK
• Evidence of a commitment to accessibility, inclusion, and diversity
• Full, enhanced and current satisfactory DBS disclosure for the role. Please note if you do not have a current DBS, you will need to apply for one as part of the recruitment process if an offer is made.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

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