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West Sussex County Council

Mental Health Support Team Coordinator

The Opportunity

Salary: NJC Grade 6 £27,254 to £28,598 per annum

Contract Type: Fixed Term Contract / Secondment until 27 June 2027

Working Pattern: 37 hours per week, full time, Monday to Friday 09:00 – 17:00

Location: Arun Civic Centre, Littlehampton, with hybrid working

Please note:

Internal candidates wishing to apply for this role will be considered for a secondment position. Please can you discuss and agree this with your manager before applying.
Your current work base is Arun Civic Centre, Littlehampton. The use of Arun Civic Centre is currently initially expected to be in place for three years to April 2029. The substantive hub for your service is Worthing and therefore, there is the potential for services to relocate to Worthing in the future.

Closing date: 05 July 2026

Interview date: 13 July 2026

Are you a self-motivated team player with integrity, openness, and an awareness of others?

Do you have excellent time management, organisational, and communication and interpersonal skills?

Being both adaptable and flexible, you will enjoy the challenge this role will give you to meet service needs and be able to participate in the future planning of the service and new ways of working positively and effectively.

Our Mental Health Support Team Coordinators play a fundamental role in achieving our three core functions.

Delivering evidence-based interventions in schools for mild to moderate
mental health issues.

Supporting the senior mental health lead in each education setting to
introduce or develop their whole school or college approach.

Giving timely advice to school and college staff, and liaising with external
specialist services, to help children and young people to get the right
support and stay in education.

They ensure the smooth running of the service, by providing self-directed, proactive, confidential, and professional business and administrative support. Acting as the front door for the service, they field all incoming emails and queries, upholding our professional reputation in their communications, whilst managing sensitive information and data.

They are responsible for coordinating and attending triaging panels, updating databases, supporting data gathering and analysis, and supporting senior leaders to enable them to deliver their strategic objectives and key outcomes.

They are required to remain up to date and compliant with all relevant
legislation, organisational procedures, policies, and professional codes of conduct to uphold standards of best practice.

About You

Key responsibilities of the role:

Gathering and accurately recording sensitive and confidential data, collating key information relating to Thought-Full - Mental Health Support Team, Early Help, Children’s Social Care, and partner agencies.
Assisting with the preparation of reports, evaluation of data and compiling a range of written material.
Supporting the effective delivery of meetings including triage.
Booking resources, arranging meetings and hospitality, minute, and report writing and organisation of events.
Providing guidance and advice to all enquiries in a timely manner through a variety of media.
Demonstrating a clear understanding of the meaning of safeguarding and escalations where appropriate, as defined in relevant policy guidance.
Assisting leadership with tasks as required, such as recruitment, inductions, partner communications and providing support to the wider team.
Establishing effective working relationships with colleagues across the organisation as well as partner agencies such as Early Help, SPOA and schools.
Responsible for the careful handling and processing of service-related computerised data, filing and retrieving sensitive or contentious data.
Contributing to developments in the process and service, by using a solution- focused approach and challenging existing practice.
Remaining up to date and compliant with all relevant legislation, organisational procedures, policies, and professional codes of conduct to uphold standards of best practice.

We are looking for someone who can build strong working relationships who has organisational skills and who enjoys problem solving and communicating with others to provide advice and support.

Please refer to the key skills in your cover letter as these will be used for shortlisting criteria.

Key Skills:

Ability to build strong working relationships with external partners and stakeholders, as well as working as part of a team, and to negotiate and influence across the organisation.

Ability to demonstrate good organisational skills, including good time management, and to be able to plan work effectively. Ability to meet set deadlines and to understand when problems need to be referred upwards, e.g. in responding to complaints promptly for a quick accurate solution.

Ability to interpret and communicate, both verbally and in writing, complicated or sensitive information to a range of audiences with tact and diplomacy to achieve positive outcomes.

Good interpersonal skills with the ability to work with children, young people and families in a confident and sensitive manner e.g. dealing with complex queries and family issues, responding appropriately to people who may be in distress or in need of support.

Highly accurate IT and keyboard skills, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint, to produce high quality minutes and reports. The ability to quickly learn and develop expert knowledge in a large number of internal systems and processes.

Problem-solving skills to anticipate problems and resolve issues, planning effective solutions to benefit the service.

For more information on the Responsibilities, Key Skills and the Qualifications and/or experience required, please refer to the Job Description attached.

About Us

Our Mental Health Support Team is made up of over 70 professionals, and we are continuing to increase our service to support the growing needs of our communities.

We currently have opportunities for Mental Health Practitioners to make a real difference in supporting Mental Health in Children. You will be working within our Mental Health Support Team (MHST) on exciting new initiatives and an important strand of the Government’s 2017 Green Paper ‘Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision’.

We fulfil 3 core functions:

Delivering evidence-based interventions in education settings (primary and secondary schools and colleges) for mild to moderate mental health issues.
Supporting the senior mental health lead in each education setting to introduce or develop their whole school or college approach.
Giving timely advice to school and college staff, and liaising with external specialist services, to help children and young people to get the right support and stay in education.

For more information, please visit our Thriving in Education Thought-Full website

Benefits

As an employer we recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance, and are rewarded for the work they do.

For a full list this can be found at our Rewards and Benefits page.

Upon joining us you will have access to a range of benefits including the following:

Employer Pension Contribution: TBC, this alters per annum on the 1 April each year (previous employer contribution for 2025 18.70%)

Annual leave: 27 days holiday + Bank Holidays = 35 days

How to Apply

The reference number for this role is CAFHE06425

For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact Fran Ruocco, Team Manager, at Frances.Ruocco@westsussex.gov.uk

To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and Cover Letter.

In your cover letter please outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.

Further Information

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults.

This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check, five years referencing, and an occupational health check.

Equity, inclusion, and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.

We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.

If you require any reasonable adjustments to support your application, please contact Natalie Greene, Recruitment Specialist, at Natalie.Greene@westsussex.gov.uk

Job Reference: CAFHE06425

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