Mental Health Wellbeing Practitioner

Are you passionate about working with children and young people?

Do you want to be part of a team that focuses on creating stronger families, happier childhoods and positive futures for young people?

Are you enthusiastic about facilitating meaningful group work, both in schools and the community?

Can you develop excellent and inclusive services with young people to enhance their, wellbeing, happiness and opportunities?

If you have answered yes…Barnardo's Old Market Services is looking to recruit a Mental Health Wellbeing Practitioner for our HEAL (Helping Empower Adolescent Lives) service.

HEAL provides wellbeing support to children and young people who have been exposed to high harm incidents, including serious youth violence and exposure to interpersonal trauma.

What will the role include?

• You would be required to support children and young people as part of targeted group sessions and one-to-one support.
• You would need to feel confident in working within schools, the local community and environments that best meet the needs of children and young people.
• You would be supported to provided intervention which focuses on offering peer mental health first aid, coping strategies for those who display symptoms of PTSD along with recovery and self-care techniques.
• As part of our HEAL team you would provide a tiered approach to supporting children following high risk incidents. Along with support to both peer groups and sibling.
• Our HEAL workers are co located with our Exploitation and Missing workers which means you will have the opportunity for peer learning and shared roles.

Location:

Our HEAL workers deliver support in and around the Bristol area. Therefore, a driving licence is desirable but not essential.

We are looking for applicants who are:

• Confident and creative in engaging and working alongside children and young people.
• Skilled in designing and delivering groupwork sessions for children and young people.
• Able to provide emotional and practical support to young people along with a sound grasp of child protection and safeguarding processes.
• Able to work in a flexible way (including some evening) if and when required. To ensure we can meet the needs of children and young people post, exposure to trauma.
• Able to maintain a good standard of case recording and assessment.
• Experienced at working with children, knowledgeable around mental health and trauma with a competent understanding of working with those impacted by exploitation and serious violence.

HEAL is recruiting 2 candidates one full time (37 hours) and another part-time (20 hours)

Our Values:

At Barnardo's we believe in children and are dedicated to changing childhoods.

We advocate and champion the rights and well-being of every child regardless of who they are, their past experiences and current circumstances. We are committed to creating happier childhoods through support, and work hard to create opportunities for all children to thrive and reach their full potential.

Flexibility:

Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting employees to have a healthy work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements that are mutually agreeable.

When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification, Job Description and Additional Information document (if applicable). This should be done with an understanding of the context of the service described. We are committed to welcoming people from a diverse background, culture and experience.

Although this contract has a permanent status, please be aware that this post is subject to funding currently to 01 October 2025 and therefore should this funding not be extended further, you may be subject to a redundancy consultation or a TUPE arrangement. This contract is due to expire on 01 October 2025.

Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore are open to offering flexible working arrangements.

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.