Mental Health Support Team

The Rushden Academy have been selected to be a pilot school for the Mental Health Support Teams which is scheduled to start in September 2021.

We have a member of staff on the steering group and are working closely to help support develop the programme.

Contact us if you want to find out about the project.

INFORMATION FOR SCHOOL STAFF AND PARENT/CARERS OF HOST SCHOOLS

WHAT ARE THE MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT TEAMS?

Mental Health Support Teams (MHST) have been created to offer early intervention, low intensity, mental health support within schools for children and young people with mild to moderate mental health difficulties. The MHST will also support the Mental Health Lead in each education setting to introduce and develop their Whole School Approach. The MHST will also offer support and advice to education setting staff to identify the most appropriate services for their need and help liaise with other appropriate services.

The purpose of the MHST is to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people and is driven by the Green Paper ‘Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision’ (www.gov.uk)

In Northamptonshire, we have 2 MHST, each team will consist of 4 trainee Education Mental Health Practitioners, one CBT Therapist/supervisor, 1 Mental Health Practitioner/supervisor. There will also be a full time administrative post and a MHST Clinical and Team Lead. The MHST will sit within CAMHS services within Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

The areas selected for MHST to work within are; Central and East Northamptonshire.

To begin with, the EMHPs will be in training and therefore the MHST will start their work in a limited number of schools. Once the EMHPs are qualified, the MHST will support the full number of schools and educations settings within East and Central Northamptonshire.

Your school has signed up to be a host school, and soon, the MHST will be taking referrals via your Mental Health Lead in School, with whom you should discuss any concerns you may have about the emotional health of the children and young people you work with.

The MHST will be fully operational from September 2021.

Your School Mental Health Lead is: Paula Smith ()

MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT TEAMS (MHST)

East Northamptonshire

Trainee EMHPs Chris Capes, Jaymee Stanley, Lacey Bavister and Lucy Jeffrey

CBT Therapist/supervisor Liz French

Mental Health Practitioner/supervisor Nandini Vadera

CONTACT DETAILS

MHST Clinical and Team Lead: 

Mental Health Practitioner/supervisor 

WHAT ARE EDUCATION MENTAL HEALTH PRACTITIONERS?

Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) are part of the government’s MHST plans for schools to provide mental health early intervention support for children and young people. EMHPs are currently training at Northampton University and will be at University 2 days a week whilst working 3 days a week in schools to gain qualification and experience. This phase is the ‘trainee phase’. During this time, they will build up their experience through individual, group and whole school work with pupils, families and staff.

Your school has been identified as being part of the work with MHST in Northamptonshire and will be part of learning how this will work in practice.

SUMMARY OF THE TRAINEE EMHP ROLE

EMHPs have a clear criteria to support low level (low intensity) mental health needs such as low mood, anxiety and phobias through short term pieces of work (4-8 sessions). EMHPs will be able to provide assessments, evidence based individual and group pupil work, shared decision making with pupils, family parenting groups, onward signposting to other teams and services and whole school projects.

The interventions offered will be CBT informed and robust clinical supervision is offered to all practitioners within the MHST.

• Trainee EMHPs will receive weekly clinical supervision from a supervisor to be able to discuss their cases
• Informed consent will be required from children, young people and parent/carers
• As part of their training and supervision, trainee EMHPs will be required to video their sessions, the recording will be used for training and supervision requirements only and consent for this can be taken away at any point and will not affect the intervention offered the child, young person, or parent/carer
• All interventions will be recorded on SystmOne, which is our health electronic record system
• All MHST staff have enhanced DBS checks

TRAINEE EMHPS CAN SUPPORT WITH:

There are many things EMHPs can help with in your school, where needs are more complex, they may need to refer a young person onto another team or service that is better placed to help. 

The below table shows the types of presentations EMHPs can help with, things they may be able to help with (with discretion and under close supervision), and things they won’t be able to help with.

HOW TO REFER

Referrals will be made following the current pathway for emotional health and wellbeing needs for Children and Young People via the Referral Management Centre (RMC). The RMC provides a single point of access for professionals to make referrals into children and young people’s specialist community health services. The RMC aims to manage all referrals to ensure that children and young people are seen by the right person, with the right skills at the right time. (https://www.nhft.nhs.uk/camhs)

EMHPs will require a suitable space within school to complete sessions; an appropriate and confidential room. Currently, due to adhering to Covid-19 guidelines, all sessions will be video sessions conducted via Microsoft Teams. Consent from parent/carer and the child, young person will need to be gained and recorded.