King's College London

THIS VACANCY IS OPEN TO INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY

About us:

The King’s community is dedicated to the service of society. King’s Strategic Vision 2029 sets out our vision for the future, shaped around five priority areas: educate to inspire and improve; research to inform and innovate; serve to shape and transform; a civic university at the heart of London; and an international community that services the world. Our ambitious Education Strategy sets out the actions that we must take to transform how we teach, how and where our students learn and how we support them during their time with us.

The Counselling and Mental Health Support Service is part of the Students & Education Directorate, a collection of wide-ranging professional services in place to support King’s students and their education. As a directorate we manage the student lifecycle from application to graduation and beyond, to ensure a coherent and seamless student experience and effective administrative processes, working closely with King’s faculties to do so.

The Counselling and Mental Health Support Service provides a highly specialised Counselling and Mental Health service to students who are often in distress and require sensitive, timely access to psychological and mental health support.

  We are part of the Students & Education Directorate, a collection of wide-ranging professional services in place to support King’s students and their education. As a directorate we manage the student lifecycle from application to graduation and beyond, to ensure a coherent and seamless student experience and effective administrative processes, working closely with King’s faculties to do so.

About the role:

The Senior Counsellor – Intake & Triage is a clinical role and plays a key part within the Counselling and Mental Health Support Service. The purpose of the role is to accurately assess the mental health needs of students at the point of registration to the service, assess level of risk and complexity of presenting issue to ensure an appropriate level of service is provided either within the Counselling & Mental Health Support Service or signposting or referral to external services, including crisis mental health services where necessary. The role requires a Senior Counsellor with an ability to work independently to assess mental health risk, risk management and safety planning. The role will provide some complex case management ensuring students are referred to appropriate services in a seamless and containing way.

The Senior Counsellor will provide overall oversight of the Duty Counsellor system which will involve staff training, maintaining accurate records, referrals to internal and external services, monitoring and adjusting the Duty Counsellor duties as needed. The Senior Counsellor will also support the Head of the Counselling Service to respond to intake queries and co-ordinate the processes of intake and triage within the Service. This includes the co-ordination of the Intake and Triage team, line managing Clinical Assessors who carry out Intake and Triage tasks as well as offering clinical assessments to suitable students.

The Senior Counsellor – Intake & Triage will provide brief evidence based interventions to students as well as consultations with relevant Student Support Services across the Student Support Service portfolio including Student of Concern teams, Support for Study, Money and Housing and Faculty Wellbeing.

This is a part time role (70% FTE) and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

About you:

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Demonstrated ability to work with high-risk clients, assessing and treating complex mental health issues, and managing challenging situations with knowledge, sensitivity, and judgment.
2. Demonstrated high-level competence in assessment and clinical interventions that are trauma informed and culturally appropriate with individuals of different ages and backgrounds and presenting concerns.
3. Demonstrated ability to provide consultation, advice, and support to key stakeholders, including family members, primary carers, academic teaching staff and other internal/external support services, whilst confidently balancing safety and confidentiality.
4. Demonstrated empathy for, and understanding of, the psychosocial issues and concerns experienced and demonstrated by students undertaking university level studies.
5. Demonstrated understanding of the impact of equity and inequity principles which impact student’s mental health, academic progress and experience within an HE environment and in society more generally.  This includes a complex understanding of systems and structures which impact diverse student cohorts, e.g. equity groups, international students, and higher degree by research students. Eg. Post graduate students, PhD students
6. Possesses high-level communication (written and oral) and interpersonal skills, including liaison and influencing skills to work collaboratively, flexibly, and productively within and across teams to provide advice on student mental health issues and service to students.
7. Applicants must have a relevant academic degree and must hold the proper license or accreditation to legally provide counselling services in the UK, e.g., BACP, UKCP, HCPC, BPS.
8. Accepted degrees include an M.A. or Ph.D. in Counselling or Psychotherapy, or a Ph.D. or Psy.D. in Clinical or Counselling Psychology.

Desirable criteria

1. A strong understanding of triage processes and risk assessment in a tertiary education setting would be advantageous.
2. Previous experience managing staff in a mental health service in HE or similar role
3. Previous experience working in liaison with NHS crisis mental health services or community mental health services or Higher Educational setting would be desirable
4. Previous experience in the oversight and co-ordination of a new service delivery model within an existing service.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further information:

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.