King's College London

This programme is a shared initiative between the Department for Education and Department of Health, and supports the government’s priority to increase access of mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people. The EMHP is a new professional role which delivers evidence based early interventions in education settings.

This is a government funded course where students are employed at NHS band 4 by a Mental Health Support Team (MHST), that sits between health and education, for one year during training. On successful completion of the programme, practitioners are employed for a further year at NHS band 5 within the same team, as a qualified Education Mental Health Practitioner.

During training, students attend lectures, clinical skills workshops and video feedback groups at university, while practising clinically under supervision in the MHSTs. They learn how to deliver guided self help interventions for common mental health problems such as anxiety, depression and behavioural problems in individual and group format; and the whole school approach to wellbeing. They learn service project, audit and workshop skills, and clinical competencies are assessed with video sessions and case report.