School Mental Health Practitioner - Newhaven

Job Introduction

School Mental Health Practitioner

Salary: APT&C PO1 to PO2 – Scale Point 27-32£41,133 - £45,750 (Full Time Equivalent)

Contract type Fixed Term – One year in the first instance

Working Hours: Part time and flexible hours are welcome

JOB SUMMARY

Newhaven School is seeking to appoint an outstanding School Mental Health Practitioner who is committed to making a difference to the lives of young people in non-mainstream education.

The School Mental Health Practitioner (SMHP) will be focused primarily on providing evidence based psychological health services to young people across the sites of Newhaven School. This includes offering 1:1 therapies, group work, interventions and assessments. In addition to 1:1 work, the SMHP will also facilitate parent support groups and ensure mental health promotion across the whole school community. Close liaison for safeguarding and care planning purposes with external organisations such as CAMHS, Social Care, Youth Offending Services, Speech and Language services and Educational Psychology Services is essential to this role.

We are ideally looking for applicants who are clinicians who have worked with young people who present a complexity of needs including developmental trauma, neurodevelopmental conditions and SEN would be welcomed.

Applications from those qualified as either Education Mental Health Practitioners or Children’s Wellbeing Practitioners are welcome. We would also very much welcome applicants who are qualified as Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners and have had additional training and experience in working with children and young people. Other mental health professionals who are registered with the BACP, BABCP, UKCP or HCPC and are trained to deliver evidence-based mental health interventions to young people are also very welcome to apply.

This role is ideally suited to a practitioner who is able to work autonomously and independently whilst ensuring attendance to regular supervision that will be provided externally to support their work.

This is a full-time position although part-time/job-share requests can be considered. The Practitioner will be allocated time on different sites, all of which are based in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The successful applicant will need to be willing and able to travel to each site depending on the needs of the school.

ABOUT NEWHAVEN SCHOOL

At Newhaven we provide education for a wide range of pupils for whom mainstream does not meet their needs in the borough of Greenwich. Our vision is that we work hard to be a caring, trauma informed community where young people are kept safe, supported as individuals, taught the skills they need and challenged to become successful adults with dreams to realise.

Our focus on using a trauma-informed approach makes Newhaven School an exceptionally supportive environment in which young people can overcome barriers to learning. Newhaven was awarded “Trauma Informed School” status, in recognition of how we support children and teenagers who suffer with trauma or mental health problems.

We do this by building trust with our pupils by listening to and understanding their needs. This is supported by our trauma, neurodivergence and equity informed practice. A key feature of our work is that we try and build the social communication and emotional regulation skills in our young people, so they have the ability to restore situations when they go wrong through building strong and enduring relationships. All of this together means that they can achieve well at school and go on to ambitious destinations when they leave.

Newhaven meets a wide range of needs through a number of different provisions. The vast majority of learners have a history of poor attendance coupled with feelings of failure and rejection within education and social settings. In our Gardens site we have the PRU which caters for young people who have been excluded from mainstream schools or come on managed moves. We also work with them in our assessment centre to support with working out the best way forward for them educationally. There is also NEST, our provision for young people with severe and enduring mental health difficulties and King’s Park Campus which is an 11-19 school for pupils with a diagnosis of Autism and severe & enduring mental health needs. Alongside these we have a Hospital Team with a teaching base at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and an Outreach team that supports learning of pupils in their homes. Across all of our provisions we work hard to ensure that we provide a safe and very supportive environment, which is able to give an inclusive yet personalised education to suit the needs of the learner.

We are equally as proud of our academic success as of our supporting and nurturing environment, which enables our young people to develop self-respect, tolerance, personal values and beliefs. We aim above all to provide our pupils with a route to becoming successful, engaged adults who are able to participate in the fullness that life has to offer.

The senior management team at Newhaven are looking to appoint conscientious and enthusiastic staff of who believe in creating a fairer world, are up for a challenge and are willing to try out new ideas. We take pride in being a really friendly, supportive and innovative workplace and we are committed to offering colleagues the opportunity to develop long lasting careers with us.

We look forward to receiving your application and the successful candidate will join the team of staff at our school who are determined to give our pupils the best opportunities possible to become successful, responsible citizens with bright futures.

The candidate pack provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role. The person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, knowledge and experience required.

Closing date: 12th April 2026

Shortlisting: 14th April 2026

Interviews: 17th April 2026

Start date: ASAP

For further details about Newhaven School together with application details please visit: www.newhavenschool.co.uk (Please note CVs are not acceptable).

If you would like to view the school to get a better idea of us you can arrange a visit by emailing recruitment@newhaven.greenwich.sch.uk.

Newhaven is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of young people and expects all staff to share this commitment. All appointments will be subject to a satisfactory Enhanced with Barred List check through the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) plus additional pre-employment checks. Newhaven is committed to the journey of decolonising our school by becoming deeply reflective about our systems, processes and decisions, by sharing our lived experiences in a genuine way that means we have a much better understanding of each other and by developing our staff so that all have equity of opportunity.