Mental Health Outreach & Training Manager

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 & Mental Health Support (CMHS) 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, to ensure a coherent and seamless student experience and effective administrative processes, working closely with King’s faculties to do so. 

Although situated within CMHS the Mental Health Outreach Manager role is not a clinical position, and involves significant liaison and work with teams and staff right across the university, both in central services and in Faculties, as well as with KCLSU and other staff fora such as the King’s 100.   

About the Role

The Mental Health Outreach & Training Manager will lead, in collaboration with the relevant Academic and Professional Services leads, on three key areas.  

Firstly, to develop and take primary responsibility for the delivery, alongside the Head of Mental Health & Counselling Outreach and Training, of a new service to support student-facing staff with advice and guidance on managing concerns relating to student mental health and wellbeing. This will include the development of new procedures and systems, with a focus on the needs of the key stakeholders and ensuring strong clinical governance and data collection & analysis.  

Secondly, to act as a senior colleague in helping shape the new Mental Health staff training programme, providing guidance and supervision to the Mental Health Outreach & Training Practitioners on training content and delivery.  

And, thirdly, to support the links between Student Services and Organisational Development in helping to improve understanding of the professional and personal training and support needs of staff in student facing roles.  

The successful candidate will be an experienced clinical practitioner, with supervisory or training expertise, capable of co-designing and delivering a new service. They will have significant experience in understanding how to conduct dynamic risk assessments, linking best practice guidance to recommended actions, and a full understanding of the mental health and wellbeing needs of students in Higher Education. The successful candidate will be confident in regard to the monitoring of delivery and outcomes. They will demonstrate a keen understanding of the needs of student-facing staff colleagues and will work closely with Student Services, Faculty and Organisational Development colleagues to ensure that the needs of both staff and students are integrated into all aspects of delivery.  

Head of Service and/or Senior Managers have operational responsibility for a defined portfolio of education and student professional services, as: 

• A departmental lead within the Students and Education Directorate; or 
• Project/programme/departmental lead within an academic faculty; or 
• the lead of defined divisional-wide initiatives 

Heads of/Senior Managers work within and across teams and functions, engaging with a wide range of colleagues across King’s. They contribute and lead on activities which positively impact the student experience. This includes ensuring: 

• Close working with their Associate Director, and across organisational boundaries, to identify and action opportunities to improve efficiency and consistency of service (or project) delivery  
• Efficient resource utilisation and organisation of work resources within their department (or project) 
• Proactive engagement with service users and stakeholders to facilitate mutually effective working relationships  
• Their department (or project) embeds a culture of service, transparency and continuous improvement  

Heads of /Senior Managers will have an understanding of the priorities, cultures and pressures of a research-led university and of academic processes and the structure of the academic year. 

This is an exciting opportunity for someone who is experienced and passionate about student mental health and wellbeing and who wishes to utilise their skills and expertise to enhance support provided to staff and students at King’s.  

We encourage applications from candidates who have experience from both within and outside of the Higher Education sector where they can demonstrate the skills needed to succeed in this role. 

This is a hybrid role with a usual expectation of two or three days per week on campus, but the main location will be at Bush House, South East Wing, on our Strand campus

This post will be offered on an indefinite contract. 

This is a full-time post, but we welcome applications from candidates seeking a flexible work pattern within our necessary service operating hours (9 – 5, Monday to Friday).

Key Responsibilities

The Mental Health Outreach & Training Manager will be responsible for: 

• Developing and delivering a new staff-facing advice service for student facing colleagues who are managing student mental health and wellbeing issues and are seeking advice and guidance.   
• Ensuring that, where appropriate, staff are signposted to support via EAP, Togetherall or other support provision.  
• Supporting the Associate Director of Counselling & Mental Health Support and the Head of Mental Health & Counselling Outreach and Training in the development, monitoring and reporting of Service Expectations and Key Performance Indicators for the staff-facing Outreach & Training service.  
• Acting as deputy for the Head of Mental Health & Counselling Outreach & Training when required.  
• Working with the other members of Student Services, CMHS and the Outreach & Training team to develop navigation to and utilisation of both student and staff support provision in line with strategic objectives and the Student Mental Health Charter assessment framework.  
• Helping to shape training and information resources provided to staff about student mental health & wellbeing services at King’s and improving navigation to and utilisation of resources at all levels of the Pyramid of Support.  

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.  

Skills, knowledge, and experience 

Please clearly address how you meet the essential criteria in your application, and where possible how you meet the desirable criteria as well.

Essential criteria  

Desirable criteria

Further Information 

Please submit a personal statement when applying for this vacancy, clearly setting out how you meet the essential criteria, as this is how we shortlist applications. Learn more about how we recruit, including tips on writing your application and supporting statement on our website: https://jobs.kcl.ac.uk/gb/en/applying     

If you are a student or alumni of King’s there are resources from King’s Careers & Employability to support you in your application and interview. 

Interviews will be held in person at our Strand Campus, and will consist of competency-based questions linked closely to the essential and desirable criteria mentioned here. 

Although we have made improvements over the last number of years, our team is still under-represented in terms of staff from global majority ethnicities, LGBTQ+ identities, and from people with disabilities. We encourage applications from all backgrounds, communities and industries, and are committed to employing a team that has diverse skills, experiences and abilities.