Team Lead MHST

Job summary

Are you a confident and experienced mental health professional with a passion for leadership and improving outcomes for children, young people and families?

Dorset Health Care University NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an exceptional Team Lead for our Mental Health Support Teams (MHST). This is an exciting opportunity to lead and develop an innovative service delivering early intervention and mental health support within educational settings.

We are looking for an inspiring leader with experience of managing and developing staff within children's services. You will provide visible leadership, professional confidence, creating a culture of high support and high challenge where colleagues are empowered to deliver excellent care and achieve positive outcomes.

As Team Lead, you will be committed to delivering a high-quality, timely, child and family-focused service that is compassionate, responsive and evidence based.

You will be confident in assessing and managing risk, supporting others to make sound clinical decisions, and ensuring safeguarding is embedded throughout practice. Working closely with schools, families and partner agencies, you will strengthen pathways, promote emotional wellbeing and drive service improvement.

This role will suit a proactive, collaborative team player with excellent communication and relationship-building skills. It offers a fantastic opportunity to shape services and make a difference to children, young people and families across Dorset.

Main duties of the jobAs Team Lead for the Mental Health Support Team (MHST), you will provide day-to-day clinical, operational and professional leadership, ensuring the delivery of a safe, effective and child and family-focused service for children and young people within educational settings.

You will lead, supervise and develop practitioners, creating a supportive and accountable culture that enables high-quality, timely and evidence-based care. You will promote professional development, support clinical decision-making and ensure staff feel empowered to achieve the best outcomes for children and young people.

Working closely with schools, families, health colleagues, social care and voluntary sector partners, you will strengthen relationships, improve pathways and promote whole-school approaches to emotional health and wellbeing. You will also provide consultation, training and advice to education staff, parents and carers.

The postholder will ensure high standards of clinical practice, safeguarding and risk management, with care delivered in line with NICE guidance, CYP-IAPT principles and Trust policies. You will support service development, monitor performance and outcomes, and contribute to continuous quality improvement. You will also deputise for the Clinical Lead when required and play a key role in shaping the future development of the MHST service across Dorset.

About us At Dorset Health Care, we're on a mission to empower people to make the most of their lives through outstanding, joined-up healthcare services. We are a forward-thinking NHS Trust providing integrated community and mental health services, specialist inpatient care and community hospital services to almost 800,000 people across Dorset.

Rated'Outstanding' by the CQC, we are proud of the care we provide and the difference our staff make every day. With over 7,000 colleagues, we are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where diversity is celebrated, everyone feels valued, and staff are supported to achieve their full potential.

As Team Lead for the Mental Health Support Team (MHST), you will join a passionate and innovative service committed to delivering high-quality, timely, child and family-focused support within educational…