Band 8a MHST Operational Manager
Mental Health Support Teams | North Chelmsford, Braintree & Tendring
Base: Stapleford House, Chelmsford
Help us lead the next phase of MHST expansion across Essex
An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced and enthusiastic Band 8a Operational Manager to join our established Mental Health Support Team (MHST) service at a significant point in its continued growth.
You will be joining ahead of a major recruitment and mobilisation programme for our incoming new MHSTs, giving you a unique opportunity to help shape, build and support the new teams from the outset.
Working alongside the MHST Head of Service, Clinical Leads and an experienced team of MHST managers, you will take a key operational leadership role in the development and mobilisation of services across the North Chelmsford, Braintree and Tendring areas.
The role will be based at Stapleford House, Chelmsford, with travel across the locality as required.
What are Mental Health Support Teams?
MHSTs work in partnership with schools, colleges and the wider children and young people’s system to provide early mental health and emotional wellbeing support for children and young people.
The service provides timely, accessible and evidence-based interventions, working collaboratively with children, young people, parents, carers and education settings. The Operational Manager has an important role in ensuring that services are safe, effective, responsive and well integrated with the wider mental health and wellbeing system.
MHSTs include Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) alongside a wider multidisciplinary workforce, and a key part of this role will be creating the operational environment in which both established and newly recruited staff can develop and thrive. The Job Description specifically identifies supporting EMHPs, trainees and senior staff, as well as ensuring effective induction, orientation, mentorship and development arrangements for new colleagues.
A key role in our next phase of expansion
This post will be onboarded ahead of a significant recruitment programme for our new MHSTs, and we are therefore particularly looking for someone with strong experience and knowledge of:
Recruitment and workforce mobilisation
HR and people management processes
Onboarding and induction of new staff
Supporting staff through periods of significant service growth and change
Operational and workforce planning
Complex project management
Building effective, supportive and high-performing teams
Experience of complex project management and managing major changes in service provision are essential requirements within the person specification, alongside effective leadership, staff and budget management, analytical skills and the ability to motivate teams through new challenges.
You will work closely with our recruitment and HR colleagues and the wider MHST leadership team to help ensure our new services have the right workforce in place, at the right time, with the right support around them.
Supporting our future EMHP workforce
A particularly important element of the role will be supporting our newly recruited EMHP trainees as they begin their journey within MHST.
You will help ensure that trainees and newly appointed colleagues receive a positive introduction to the service, have effective induction and support arrangements in place and feel part of both their individual MHST and the wider Essex MHST programme.
The Operational Manager is expected to ensure trainees are actively supported to meet their learning needs and to support new staff to integrate successfully into the team.
Welcoming new schools into MHST
As our teams expand, so will the number of education settings we work alongside.
Working collaboratively with the MHST leadership team, you will support the onboarding of new schools across North Chelmsford, Braintree and Tendring, building strong relationships with education partners and ensuring that expansion is well planned, coordinated and communicated.
Partnership working is fundamental to the role, with key relationships including education settings, primary care, local authorities, voluntary sector organisations and wider children’s services.
What will you bring?
We are looking for an operational leader who is enthusiastic, organised, visible and comfortable working at pace.
You will need to be someone who can balance the immediate practicalities of recruitment and mobilisation with the longer-term task of building sustainable, high-quality teams.
You will bring:
Strong operational leadership and people management skills
Experience of recruitment, HR processes and workforce planning
Experience of managing substantial service development or change
Strong project management and mobilisation skills
Confidence managing staffing, performance, budgets and resources
An ability to build relationships across professional and organisational boundaries
A supportive leadership style, particularly when working with newly recruited and developing staff
Excellent communication, analytical and problem-solving skills
An understanding of mental health provision within schools and the wider children’s mental health system
The ability to maintain momentum, manage competing priorities and turn plans into delivery.
The post also requires a professionally registered, post-graduate qualified psychological practitioner or graduate-qualified healthcare professional, alongside relevant management experience, as set out fully within the person specification.
You won’t be doing this alone
Although this is a significant leadership role, you will be joining an already established and experienced Essex MHST service.
You will work alongside the Head of Service, Clinical Leads and a wider group of experienced MHST Operational Managers, providing an established leadership network with colleagues who understand the opportunities and challenges of growing MHST services.
This means you will have the opportunity to bring your own leadership experience and ideas while also benefiting from the knowledge, support and learning of managers who are already successfully leading MHSTs across Essex.
The role works particularly closely with the Head of Service and Locality Clinical Lead to ensure the effective day-to-day running of services, alongside responsibility for workforce planning, finance, staff in training, performance and longer-term sustainability.
Why join us?
This is an exciting opportunity to join MHST at a genuinely formative stage of our next phase of development.
You will have the opportunity not simply to manage an existing service, but to help build new teams, welcome new schools, support the development of our future EMHP workforce and shape how our expanding services operate from the very beginning.
If you are an enthusiastic and experienced operational leader who enjoys developing people, building services and turning ambitious plans into effective delivery, we would love to hear from you.
Base: Stapleford House, ChelmsfordLocality: North Chelmsford, Braintree & TendringBand: 8aRole: MHST Operational Manager
Our Values 2025 – 2030
Working with our colleagues, patients and carers we have co-produced three new values that we aim to embed within our culture here at NELFT.They are:
- We are kind.
- We are respectful.
- We work together with our communities.
These three values help us to strive to provide the best care bythe best people.
Starting with NELFT
NELFT place a great deal of importance on new starters beingproperly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starterswill join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and willundertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks whichwill include mandatory training, systems training and theallocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters willhave the opportunity to also meet the executive team, seniormanagers, and attend a number of drop-in sessions focusing onengagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. Theinduction will be held at our head office in Goodmayes Hospital.
Probationary Period
This post will be subject to a probationary period.
Certificates of Sponsorship
Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unableto offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibilityunder the UKVI points-based system. When calculating the basicsalary for sponsorship, HCAS (High-Cost Area Supplement) is notincluded to ensure fairness and consistency within our Trust.
Use of AI
We value applications that genuinely reflect each candidate’s own skills, experience and motivations. We therefore strongly discourage the use of AI-generated content in applications.
Applications should be written in your own words and accurately represent your knowledge, skills and experience.
We reserve the right to reject an application where we reasonably believe AI has been used to generate or materially contribute to its content.
Please see the attached job description and person specification for more information about this role and working at North East London NHS Foundation Trust. We encourage you to refer to this when completing your application.
We welcome your application even if you do not meet all the criteria listed in the person specification. Please apply as soon as possible as some posts close early to limit the number of applications.
For an informal chat or to arrange a visit, please contact:
Name: Natasha Ramcharitar
Job title: Head of Service
Email: natasha.ramcharitar@nhs.net
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