Job summaryAmbitious, creative, clinically skilled? Passionate about mental health services for children and young people?This is an exciting opportunity to join Suffolk's innovative Mental Health Support Team (MHST) as a Senior Clinician. MHSTs play a key role in delivering early intervention within education settings, ensuring children and young people access appropriate mental health support more quickly.
You will provide clinical expertise and operational support, working closely with the East Area Leadership Team, to deliver a high-quality service.
The team is currently transitioning to a new Neighbourhood Team model and preparing for further expansion from January 2027. Initially, you will support this transition before helping to implement and develop the new model.
Based in the East Area, covering East Suffolk (excluding Lowestoft and Waveney), you will be part of a leadership team supporting five Neighbourhood Teams.
Applications are welcomed from a range of professional backgrounds, including nursing, social work, occupational therapy and psychology.
Interviews are anticipated to take place on the 23rd September.
Main duties of the jobYou will be responsible for providing a high-quality early intervention service to children, young people (and their families) experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties. You will build relationships with and work across a range of education settings.
The role combines direct clinical assessment, formulation and intervention with day-to-day clinical leadership, oversight, outcome monitoring, audit and service improvement.
You will use your clinical skills and experience for direct delivery of evidence-based interventions, consultation to education settings and delivery of whole/school college approaches. You will utilise skills and knowledge of CBT and child and adolescent mental health practice and support service delivery through collaboration and coproduction.
You will clinically supervise and line manage Senior Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) and line manage EMHPs. You will work with the MHST East Area Leadership team to share responsibilities to support the team. Travel across the East Suffolk Area will be required.
About usAt Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, inclusion is at the heart of how we work. We are committed to creating a fair, transparent and accessible recruitment process where every candidate has the opportunity to succeed.
We actively encourage applications from people from all backgrounds, particularly those currently underrepresented in our workforce, including those from the global majority. We recognise that not everyone has equal access to opportunities and are working to address this.
We are committed to providing reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process and ensuring all candidates receive a positive and equitable experience.
Here at NSFT we pride ourselves on being a welcoming, talented, friendly and supportive team who like nothing better than sharing experiences and learning from each other. In addition to ongoing training and development opportunities, we are committed to providing an environment in which you can thrive.
Why work for us? We have challenges as a Trust, but we have ambitious aspirations, are pushing ahead with exciting transformation work and we need dedicated individuals to support us on our journey. We have strong, established professional networks coupled with an exceptional leadership team who will ensure you are truly cared for and cared about.
DetailsDate posted: 10 August 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 7
Salary: £49,387 to £56,515 a year
pa/pro rata
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 246-WSU8193821
Job locations: Mariner House, 43 Handford Road, Ipswich, IP1 2GA, United Kingdom
Job descriptionJob responsibilitiesA job in the Suffolk MHSTs will inevitably be challenging and demanding at times, but it will also be immensely rewarding and provide you with great opportunities to make a genuine difference to the lives of others. You will join a service that has developed a caring, creative and hard-working environment; your ideas about how this service continues to develop and grow will be highly valued.
This is an exciting time of MHST expansion as we move to covering 100% of education settings, including independent and specialist schools. In Suffolk, NSFT are developing and transforming our other early intervention mental health services and working closely with our partners in the Local Authority and the Voluntary Sector. Changes across services are driven by the needs of local communities, with the aim of embedding mental health services within the community and truly bringing the expertise to where it is needed.
We would welcome any informal conversations about these roles. Please do contact us for more information.
For further details regarding the role, please see the attached job description and person.Person SpecificationQualificationsEssential- Mental Health Nurse, Occupational Therapist, Social Worker or Degree Level Qualification or studied at equivalent level
- Fully registered with the appropriate professional or regulatory body (e.g. HCPC, NMC) or equivalent.
Desirable- Higher degree or post-graduate certificate in area of clinical / therapeutic practice
ExperienceEssential- Able to demonstrate experience at a senior clinical level including staff management and clinical supervision experience.
- Experience with mental health risk assessment/formulation and ongoing management of mental health needs
Desirable- Ability to deliver other therapeutic approaches e.g. DBT, EMDR, IPT, systemic therapy
SkillsEssential- Competent assessment, formulation and intervention skills, relevant to profession
KnowledgeEssential- Build on / develop further specialist knowledge of health promotion and recovery
Disclosure and Barring Service CheckThis post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Certificate of SponsorshipApplications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK RegistrationApplicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications.Applicants must have current UK professional registration. 
