Trainee Mental Health Wellbeing Practitioner | South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

We are looking for two highly motivated individuals to join our Older Adult Community Mental Health teams (CMHTs) as Trainee Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner (MHWP).Two posts are available, across our four Older Adult Community Mental Health Teams (Lewisham, Southwark, Lambeth & Croydon). This is an exciting new role created by NHS England to support the transformation of older adult community mental health services. Your training will be fully funded by the NHS.

This role contributes to ensuring older adults with severe mental health problems have greater access to psychologically informed interventions.

Please note

The trainee mental health wellbeing practitioner posts are training positions. Successful candidates will be expected to study at University College London and may need to travel to campus. They will also need to travel between different locations across the four SLaM Boroughs, including visiting people at their homes, for their clinical work.

We are committed to developing a team that is fully representative of the communities that we serve.

We particularly welcome applications from candidates with experience of supporting older people or with personal caring responsibilities. If relevant, please make this explicit in your supporting statement and describe how this experience has informed your practice and skills.

As a Trainee MHWP, you will be expected to work under supervision as part of a dynamic mental health team delivering psychologically informed interventions and supporting adults to receive the right care. You will need to have flexibility and adaptability and a passion for working with older adults with severe mental health problems.

During the one-year graduate certificate or postgraduate certificate training, you will, under supervision, develop knowledge and practice skills to employ wellbeing-focused psychologically informed interventions for serious mental health problems for adults individually and in groups, as well as support their families and carers, in line with the education providers expectations.

The second largest inner London Borough with an official population of around 350,000. The local population has needs related to a high level of social deprivation such as unemployment, poor social housing and child poverty. There are also pockets of greater affluence. There are high levels of morbidity, and levels and complexity of mental health problems are above the national average

Lambeth CCG and Lambeth Council want people of Lambeth to have a fully integrated and coordinated mental health system which focuses on people’s strengths and supports their whole health and wellbeing. They have commissioned SLAM NHS as part of the Lambeth Living Well Network (LWN) Alliance to lead, co-ordinate and, in large part, deliver support and services for those experiencing mental health issues in Lambeth.

The Trust

The South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust is part of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) and committed to innovation, effective interventions and improved service user outcomes. It provides mental health services to the people of Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham and Croydon, and some more specialist services to people from across the UK.

The Trainee Mental

Health and Wellbeing Practitioner will

• attend all elements of the training programme of study and progress successfully through assessments of competence and attainment
• work in an older adult community mental health service when not completing the programme of study
• develop and practice psychologically informed interventions under supervision, working directly with older adults in the community
• support collaborative care planning, alongside other members of the multi-disciplinary team
• work closely alongside a team of mental health professionals to deliver a set of brief wellbeing-focused psychologically informed interventions - not therapy - for example:

o Behavioural Activation and Graded Exposure using the “GOALS” programme

o Problem-solving

o Improving sleep

o Recognising and managing emotions

o Confidence building

o Managing Worry

The Trainee Mental Health and Wellbeing

Practitioner will be required to

• Demonstrate the ability to work at degree level
• Have experience of work interacting with the public, working as part of a team, analysing complex information and communicating effectively
• Demonstrate the ability to establish and maintain empathic, supportive relationships with older adults in significant distress, their families and carers

This is a training role within older adult community mental health services. The post-holder will be enrolled in a graduate certificate or postgraduate certificate training delivering the national curriculum for Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioners. Once successfully enrolled, the post-holder will attend all elements of the programme of study and progress successfully through assessments of competence and attainment. Until enrolment, and in the remaining part of the week during training, they will work as a trainee in the service, under close supervision and regular course assessment of practice competence. They will work within the limits of their experience and assessed competence for their stage of training:

To work alongside service users, families, carers and multi-disciplinary team members to co-ordinate care, supporting collaborative decision-making about care and treatment.

To deliver a set of wellbeing-focused psychologically-informed interventions, aligned to cognitive-behavioural principles, based on the best evidence available, that address problems often experienced by people with severe mental health problems.

To work within the limits of level of training and experience as a developing practitioner, taking on clinical practice appropriate to assessed levels of competence and stage of training. The post-holder will work as a trainee under close case management supervision from a suitably qualified professional to provide high quality collaborative care planning as a member of the multi-disciplinary team, with a level of autonomy matched to level of demonstrated competence and stage of training. The post-holder will work under close clinical skills supervision from an HCPC registered clinical / counselling psychologist, BABCP accredited cognitive behavioural therapist or Senior MHWP to provide specified psychologically-informed wellbeing-focused interventions, with a level of autonomy matched to level of demonstrated competence and stage of training.

Reasonable Adjustments

It is important to note that completing the MHWP training programme while working within NHS secondary mental health care can be challenging, and thus it is important that trainees are prepared for the challenges of the programme. While the education provider and clinical placement will provide reasonable adjustments, neither course content nor the format or pass threshold of clinical competence assignments can be changed. Potential applicants are welcome to contact the education provider for advice.

This advert closes on Tuesday 10 Nov 2026