Senior Practitioner - Team Leader

A role with Kooth is an exciting chance to join the pioneers of digital mental health and wellbeing.

Kooth is an organisation that uses technology as a way to remove any barriers that could prevent someone accessing the help that they need. Through Kooth, users can go online and access effective therapies and wellbeing strategies to manage their mental health in a safe and anonymous way. This fills a vital gap in current mental health provision.

A job with us at Kooth offers you the chance to be part of a caring community that is at the forefront of digital mental health and wellbeing.

We have helped over 2 million young people and adults through our online support platforms, Kooth, for children and young people, and Qwell, for adults. We are currently working with over 100 Local Authorities, CCGs, mental health trusts, businesses and charities across the UK to ensure it’s easy and safe for all generations to access the best emotional and mental health services as and when they need.

What you'll do

Our Senior Practitioners facilitate the support and operational management of our Online Counsellor and Emotional Wellbeing Practitioner team who deliver at the heart of our CYP service.

You will be responsible for staff line management and first line safeguarding escalation within our online service for children and young people.

This is a really exciting role for an experienced manager who knows how to get the best out of their team, develop others, and continually improve performance alongside maintaining a close connection to front line CYP service.

This includes:

• Managing a team 10 to 12 practitioners who are working online with young people experiencing complex mental health difficulties in particular risk taking behaviours

• Providing line management for practitioners working online to ensure performance is maintained and continuously improved

• Responsibility for the delivery against operational KPI’s

• Referring practitioners to clinical support and supervision when clinical support is required

• Proactively liaising with online service managers 

• Supporting the implementation of organisational processes, changes and improvements

• Assisting in the delivery of the online service on a daily basis by dealing quickly and efficiently with any issues that arise

• Participating in the continuous development of an accessible and appropriate online service

• To be part of a team responding to safeguarding issues and ensure compliance with legal requirements and internal/external policies, working with the Online Manager and Clinical team to regularly review Kooth’s Safeguarding policy and procedures

• Ensuring processes and systems are followed for the assessment of young people referred to the Kooth service, enabling the delivery team to determine suitability and clinical appropriateness for structured counselling

• Supporting with identification and filtering of clinical and safeguarding concerns as presented within the online environment in partnership with the clinical team

• Maintaining links within Kooth as appropriate to the role and actively participating at the occasional external meeting

The types of people we would love to hear from are:

Willing to work alongside each other

• Supportive, welcoming and open. Able to communicate effectively and support the working team online.

Flexible

• No day or person is the same. What is important is you put young people in control and can be there for them to provide immediate support when they need it the most.

Compassionate

• You educate yourself to understand the challenges faced by your team on a day to day basis in order to provide the best means of support and guidance possible.

Committed

• You are committed to the wellbeing and development of your team You can remain positive, resilient and proactively work to get the best out of your team.

Safe

• You want to promote a safe space for your team and you are serious about safeguarding.

Requirements

Person Specification

• A relevant professional qualification at Diploma level or above

• A minimum of 3 years’ experience of working with children and young people 

• Experience of line management whilst retaining, motivating and developing staff

• Experience of working with or managing practitioners who deal with young people who experience complex mental health difficulties including suicidal feelings and engaging in risk-taking behaviours

• An understanding of the initial and on-going assessment of the mental health needs of young people taking into account their developmental needs.

• Experience of liaising with and referring to other agencies both statutory and voluntary especially with regards to Safeguarding procedures.

• Able to thrive in a period of development whilst encouraging people, process and strategic change.

The above position is subject to a successful DBS check as part of recruitment procedures & the successful candidate must have a good broadband connection installed in their home/place of work

Benefits

In return we offer a unique opportunity to work at the forefront of innovative counselling services within a highly supportive and highly experienced peer group, where you will have the opportunity to transform mental health services.

Alongside a competitive salary starting from £29.5k we offer a generous annual leave package of 28 days and great benefits including pension, subsidised AXA health insurance, wellness days and more. In addition you will benefit from a proactive commitment to continued learning through extensive training and development programs.

The Kooth online team are remote based and this position will be largely home based with occasional travel to our offices in London and Manchester. This a full time role (35 hours) worked on a rota basis including some evenings and weekend work in line with the needs of our service.