The Role: What you’ll do

We are excited to be recruiting for several enthusiastic Apprentice Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners to join our expanding Basildon and Brentwood Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Service.

The Apprentice Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (Apprentice PWP) is a new and developing route to train to work within IAPT, offering an opportunity for applicants without degree qualifications but with other relevant professional and work experience in caring for people, particularly those experiencing mental health difficulties, to train as PWP’s. Applicants will come from a range of backgrounds; often applicants will be support workers, care workers, triage assessors and other helping roles, and applicants who have experienced and overcome common mental health problems with career aspirations in mental health are encouraged to apply. If you are invited to interview we will ask you to write a short essay to demonstrate your capability to complete level 5 academic work.

Training

This training post will equip you to assess patients and deliver Step 2 Guided Self-Help Low Intensity Interventions to clients with a range of common mental health problems such as anxiety and depression in primary care, for which CBT interventions are demonstrated to be clinically effective. You will be in service three days per week gaining invaluable experience assessing and working with people from local communities, with one day at the University of Essex and one scheduled study day. There may be a combination of in person and remote learning and applicants need to be able to attend the University of Essex as required.

The course commences on the 18^th Jan 2023. The course is 12 months long and in addition to the training and assessments at university you will also need to complete an End Point Assessment conducted by a third party to assess core practical competencies. Successful completion of all of these elements will enable you to work as a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (PWP)

Vita Health Group celebrates life. Improving lives physically and mentally drives everything we do.

We work in partnership with the NHS, support the UK’s largest companies to help support their workforce and provide a full range of physiotherapy services to private customers. We are physical and mental health specialists with over 30 years of experience - we Make People Better.

Vita is fast growing, innovative and ambitious. If you would like to be part our journey and join a company that offers outstanding personal development, flexibility for a work/life balance and a genuine focus on delivering exceptional services then we would love to hear from you.

Your skills and background:

Essential:

• Evidence of working with people experiencing a mental health problem.
• Ability to demonstrate or evidence capability to complete level 5 academic work
• Level 2 Math and English qualifications, or the equivalent and must be able to evidence this with certificates.
• Experience of working with people from different cultural backgrounds and ages, supporting and facilitating diversity and inclusion.
• Flexible and able to provide out of hours clinics as required by service needs.
• Willingness to travel.

Desirable:

• Ability to work to deadlines, meet targets and prioritise workload.
• Experience of working in Primary Care Services.
• Worked in a service where agreed targets in place demonstrating clinical outcomes.

Other Requirements:

A Disclosure and Barring check (DBS, formerly CRB) will be required by the service for appointment to post.

Why Vita Health Group?

Vita Health Group celebrates life. Improving lives physically and mentally drives everything we do.

We are physical and mental health specialists with over 30 years of experience.  We work in partnership with the NHS, support the UK’s largest corporate companies to help assist their workforce and provide a full range of physiotherapy services to private customers.

To achieve our mission of making people better, we recognise the importance of investing in our staff. In addition to a competitive salary, we also offer the opportunity of a flexible work life balance and a comprehensive benefits package which you can view in full on our website.  To progress your skills and enable career development we provide Continued Professional Development opportunities including secondments, management training, a mentoring scheme and regular events and webinars across a range of clinical disciplines.

Vita Health Group is proud to be an equal opportunities employer.  We are committed to Equality, Diversity & Inclusion best practice and positively encourage applications from candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion/belief, marital status, or pregnancy/maternity.  To support this we have a dedicated team of EDI specialists and run a range of active in-house diversity networks.

We are actively seeking to increase the diversity of our workforce, to ensure we are representative of the communities we serve at all levels. We therefore welcome applications from candidates with a wide range of lived experience.

We are committed to equitably support the wellbeing of all employees as demonstrated by:

• Our association with the MINDFUL EMPLOYER Charter for Employers who are Positive About Mental Health.
• Our status as a Disability Confident Employer dedicated to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process. All disabled candidates that meet the minimum essential criteria will be invited to interview.
• Our status as a Menopause Friendly Committed employer.
• Our sign up to the Employer with Heart Charter.
• Our commitment to meet the standards outlined in the NHS Equality Delivery System (EDS2), Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) and Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES).
• The provision of access to health and wellbeing services for colleagues which includes a team of trained Mental Health Advocates and an Employee Assistance Programme.
• An embedded “speaking up” culture facilitated by Freedom to Speak Up Guardians.

Should you wish to discuss any adjustment or assistance you might need in the application or interview process please contact recruitment@vhg.co.uk and we will arrange.

Please note, all applicants must be legally entitled to accept and perform work in the UK and all positions are subject to a DBS check. 

Any data which you share with us throughout the hiring process will be stored securely within the UK and is accessible only by staff who require it. Should your application be unsuccessful, your data will be securely destroyed after 6 months. 

Vita Health Group reserves the right to close this job when sufficient applications have been received.

Vita Health Group