Job Purpose

Haute Valle School is committed to providing an outstanding system of student support and the Positive Mental Health and Wellbeing Manager will be responsible for developing a strategic plan and to lead on the school’s approach to mental health and wellbeing. They will also forge effective links with CAMHS and other mental health services. The postholder will work closely with a member of the Senior Leadership Team and will attend regular meetings, as required.

The Line Manager for this post is the Deputy Headteacher.

For more information, please contact Gail Godden on G.Godden@hv.sch.je

Job Overview

Haute Vallee School is seeking to appoint a dynamic and enthusiastic individual to this relatively new role within the School.

Applicants will demonstrate an ability to focus on the support and wellbeing of our students at all times and covering all aspects of their lives. The successful candidate will be resilient with an ability to represent the needs of students when working collaboratively with various outside agencies, they will be the voice of the student at all times. 

The postholder must be able to demonstrate excellent interpersonal skills when dealing with students, staff, parents and external agencies.  The successful applicant will be well organised, flexible, friendly and be able to work to deadlines, often at short notice and under a degree of pressure.  This is a very rewarding role as a result of the positive impact this person will have on our students and their lives in and outside of school.

If you would like more information please contact Mr Rob Allsopp, Deputy Head Teacher, either be email, at r.allsopp@hv.sch.je or at the telephone, 01534 736524.

Principal Accountabilities

Supporting students

1. Develop, implement and lead a referral system and graduated response package that identifies and supports individual students who are disengaged from education due to wellbeing or mental health issues and, in consultation with internal and external agencies, provide individual support packages to assist students to re-engage with their learning.
2. Work closely with HOY, SENDCo, DSL, Education Welfare Officer, School Counsellor and wider school community to audit current schemes of learning and lead in developing new initiatives and ways of working to meet the mental health and wellbeing needs of students.
3. Working with the Senior Leadership Team, challenge students to behave with fairness, respect and care towards others in the community.
4. Chair weekly Student Support Team meetings to review caseloads, identify training needs and conduct ‘lessons learned sessions’.
5. Act as a point of support for students and parents following/at a crisis or period of disengagement.  This will include work on/creating packages of support for students who are returning from a period of absence relating to mental health or wellbeing.
6. Develop and facilitate effective and relevant group interventions to make best use of peer support and maximise the promotion of positive emotional wellbeing.
7. Employ a high level of expertise in assessment and risk management to ensure that students can access appropriate support packages by taking on a liaison, signposting and linking role.
8. Provide high quality support for students in relation to provision and dissemination of best practice guidelines for mental health and wellbeing.
9. Work to remove barriers to access and to support and reach out and connect with those unable or unwilling to engage with support.
10. Using feedback and data, including student voice and self-disclosure, contribute significantly to identifying those groups most at risk of being affected by wellbeing issues and, wherever possible, address any gaps in provision proactively.  Record, analyse and utilise data to assess the impact of specific initiatives and report back appropriately.
11. Liaise closely with all staff in relation to identifying triggers to wellbeing to work preventatively to support students at times of pressure and normalise and embed this support.
12. Enhance the range of support available to students to build their resilience to make the most of their time in school and contribute as fully as possible.
13. Organise and effectively communicate support sessions for parents.
14. Produce termly communications to parents.

Staff Wellbeing

1. To draft and launch a Haute Vallee Staff Wellbeing Strategy and Action Plan.
2. To establish and maintain a staff association and create a yearly calendar of staff wellbeing initiatives including half termly events for staff to opt into.
3. To lead, manage and coordinate promotional campaigns to increase staff awareness and engagement with a range of available resources, ultimately leading to healthier lifestyles amongst staff.
4. To run/co-ordinate sessions as might be required within school on topics such as nutrition, posture, exercise and other topics that may be requested by staff.
5. To be a role model for health and wellbeing in the workplace, encouraging positive lifestyle choices and being a source of information for staff to access.
6. To build and maintain strong working relationships with the network of Health and Wellbeing specialists, to ensure a range of exercise and fitness classes are available for all members of staff.
7. Provide qualitative and quantitative analysis of the impact of wellbeing related activities.
8. Implement and maintain online systems which allow staff to measure and track their progress on their personal health and wellbeing targets.
9. To manage a small budget.
10. Be a proactive team player, lead and contribute to relevant meetings and events as appropriate and required.

Supporting Staff

Deliver annual refresher training to ensure that staff can recognise signs and symptoms of mental health needs in students and know what to do should they have a concern.

Statutory Responsibilities

Active engagement, participation and compliance with any other statutory responsibilities applicable to the role, as amended from time to time.

Qualifications

• GCSE (or equivalent) in English and Maths.
• Degree or equivalent experience.
• Qualified Mental Health Nurse.
• Level 3 Certificate – Jersey Safeguarding Partnership Board or equivalent and capability and willingness to obtain NSPCC Level 4 Safeguarding training.
• Youth Mental Health First Aider trained or equivalent.
• Child Protection Designated training and experience.
• Level 5 Leadership and Management - Working with Children and Families Qualification.
• Maybo Level 3.
• Demonstrate the willingness to undertake further and additional training in relation to legislative requirements.

Experience

• 5 years’ experience of safeguarding responsibility, including leading other professionals, in a school/college/health/police or similar setting.
• Managing and delivering Early Help assessments and Interventions.
• 5 years’ experience of working with multi agency approaches.
• Experience of writing policy to inform strategic planning.
• Experience of leading and managing staff.

Technical/Work-based Skills

ESSENTIAL

• Ability to provide training to all staff about developing positive mental health and wellbeing.
• Ability to assess emerging sensitive situations during the working day and plan and manage.

DESIRABLE

• Up to date knowledge and skills to put theory into practice in a classroom context.

Knowledge

• Well developed ICT skills to support all areas of record keeping.
• Good organisational skills to deliver mental health refresher training for staff, ensuring resources and appropriate training activities.
• A thorough and demonstrable knowledge of developing positive mental health, safeguarding and child protection legislation, policy/procedure and systems. This will include a detailed knowledge of local inter-agency support, child protection procedures and systems.
• A track record of strong leadership with the ability to inform and lead on change within the organisation.

General Skills/Attributes

• Plan time effectively and to meet deadlines.
• Ability to contribute to the design of up to date training materials.
• Prioritise to meet the needs of the students.
• Ability to demonstrate understanding of complex problems and apply in depth knowledge to strategically plan student support developments.
• Ability to develop original techniques, methods and solutions.
• Be a team player and have experience of this attribute
• Flexibility to work outside of normal office areas is a prerequisite.

Additional job information 1

Communication and Relationships

The postholder will have excellent communication skills to confidently represent the student support function and Haute Vallee School as a whole, in speaking to various groups at different levels including; students, parents/guardians, all staff including the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), Senior CYPES and other Government of Jersey Department Officers and a wide range of partner and external agencies.  This range of partner and external agencies includes but may not be limited to:

• CYPES inclusion teams.
• CYPES Educational Psychology and Special Educational Needs service.
• Children and Families Hub Team.
• Dewberry House Sexual Assault Referral Centre.
• Drugs and Alcohol Team.
• CAMHS.
• CEOP and other online protection agencies.
• Health and Community Services.
• Probation Service.
• States of Jersey Police.
• Probation Service.
• Customer and Local Services.
• Housing.
• GPs.
• The Bridge.
• Parish Authorities.
• Other Government of Jersey Schools/Private Schools.
• Charitable Organisations, ie Barnardo’s.

Ability to be a strong and inspirational leader, who can recognise and develop the strengths of staff, delegate responsibilities as necessary to deliver school improvement and development initiatives.

Daily contact with all stakeholders including staff, senior leadership, students, parents/guardians, guests, partner agencies, external agencies both face to face and in writing.

Dealing with difficult and demanding situations. Dealing with conflict, hostility, disengagement and disagreements between stakeholders including staff, students, parents/guardians, members of the wider community, partner and external agencies. This includes providing and receiving complex and sensitive information, eg safeguarding/child protection referrals, case conferences and strategy meetings.

Communicate and report to the SLT, partner agencies, external agencies and other stakeholders, on the performance and effectiveness of student support functions and on resulting strategies planning and policy.

Create and maintain strong relationships with partner and external agencies.

Create and deliver effective presentations to individuals and groups from 1 to 800 people including students, staff, partners and outside agencies.

Represent the school at multi-agency meetings.

Additional job information 2

Analytical Skills

The postholder will be required to develop, implement and lead a referral system and graduated response package that identifies and supports individual students who are disengaged from education due to wellbeing or mental health issues and, in consultation with internal and external agencies, provide individual support packages to assist students to re-engage with their studies.

In addition, there is also a need to employ a high level of expertise in assessment and risk management to ensure that students can access appropriate support packages by taking on a liaison, signposting and linking role.

Planning & Organisation

The postholder will be required to develop and facilitate effective and relevant group interventions in order to make best use of peer support and maximise the promotion of positive emotional wellbeing. As the postholder will be leading all staff in safeguarding, the planning and organisation of training and communication will need to be at a high level.

Physical Skills

Effective keyboard skills is a requirement of the role, as the use of computer software packages will occur daily.

Where required, in exceptional circumstances, the physical capability to use Maybo procedures to keep students and others safe.

Policy and Service Development

The postholder will be a key contributor to school improvement strategic planning and Operation.

The postholder will act as a link between the school and outside agencies by developing strong links with external health professionals, voluntary groups and societies to offer wide ranging support and resources.

They will also act as an appropriate point of contact and co-ordinator for other support services within the school for consultation on matters relating to mental health or wellbeing of students.

Lead on quality assuring, monitoring and improving safeguarding policy and operation.

Financial and Physical Resources

The postholder is responsible for managing a budget of £10,000 for the professional development of student support in all staff as well as line managing staff in the salaried roles of School Counsellor, Designated Safeguarding Lead and Education and Welfare Officer (£150,000 plus). The postholder leads all salaried staff in the approach to student support (£10,000,000 plus).

Staff Management

The postholder directly line manages staff as detailed above ensuring that they are performing to the expected standards and deal with any HR issues in a timely manner.  This includes where appropriate the monitoring of team TOIL, leave, professional development and performance management processes.

The postholder leads all staff (circa 120) in the quality assurance, monitoring and improving of all student support processes.

The postholder is responsible for running/co-ordinating sessions, as might be required within school on topics such as nutrition, posture, exercise and other topics that may be requested by staff. They must also act as a role model for health and wellbeing in the workplace, encouraging positive lifestyle choices and being a source of information for staff to access.

Additional job information 3

Information Resources

Using feedback and data, including student voice and self-disclosure, contribute significantly to identifying those groups most at risk of being affected by wellbeing issues and, wherever possible, address any gaps in provision proactively. Record, analyse and utilise data to assess the impact of specific initiatives and report back appropriately.

In addition, they are responsible for providing qualitative and quantitative analysis of the impact of wellbeing related activities and overseeing the implementation and maintenance of online systems which allow staff to measure and track their progress on their personal health and wellbeing targets

Freedom to Act

The postholder will oversee the delivery of a series of events and activities aimed at promoting wellbeing and mental health through the academic calendar, working closely and co-ordinating with Staff Wellbeing Lead, Heads of Year, PSHE Lead, SMSC Lead to ensure co-ordination of events.

They will also create and lead annual Mental Health refresher training to staff and develop resources to support wellbeing and positive mental health.

Physical Effort

Normal office work, within a school environment.

Mental Effort and Concentration

The postholder will be required to exert a high degree of mental effort and concentration leading student support systems for over 600 learners in the school.

Emotional Effort

The postholder will definitely have to support young people, on a weekly basis, who are presenting with

suicidal ideation, are disclosing physical/emotional/neglect/sexual abuse or have experienced close family bereavement.  The postholder will provide professional support to other colleagues delivering the same function.

Due to the complexities of the job, it is extremely understandable that any reasonable person would become upset.

The postholder will frequently observe stressful and emotional responses during their role as they will be working with our most vulnerable students.

Working Conditions

The postholder will work in a school environment, which can often be noisy with frequent distractions.

Pupils may also display aggressive behaviour and/or signs of distress.

Personal Attributes

Appointees to this role will be required to adhere to and perform their duties in line with the standards identified in the Government of Jersey Tier 4 core accountabilities attributes and behaviour indicators.