Mental Health Programme Manager - West Sussex Alternative Provision College

About Us

Mental Health Programme Manager

Maternity Cover | Start ASAP | Senior role equivalent to NHS Band 8a

An opportunity to lead, shape and grow mental health support across education in West Sussex

Sussex Alternative Provision College (APC) is looking for an experienced and professionally registered mental health professional to lead our established Mental Health Programme during a period of maternity leave.

This is an exciting leadership opportunity for someone who wants to use their professional expertise beyond traditional clinical practice. Reporting directly to the Chief Operations Officer, you will lead and develop a multidisciplinary programme that brings together mental health, psychology and education to improve outcomes for children and young people experiencing significant barriers to education.

Our Mental Health Programme sits within APC's growing Curriculum Access Team (CAT). CAT brings together a range of specialist interventions designed to intervene earlier, strengthen the adults and systems around the child and help children and young people remain successfully engaged in education. As our offer continues to develop county-wide, this role will be central to shaping what comes next.

The Role

You will provide senior professional and clinical leadership to the Mental Health Programme, leading the team, overseeing programme delivery and ensuring intervention is safe, purposeful, evidence-informed and making a measurable difference.

Working closely with our Clinical Psychologist, Assistant Psychologists, Mental Health & Wellbeing Practitioners, education colleagues and wider CAT Team, you will ensure different areas of professional expertise work together effectively while maintaining clear professional boundaries and accountability.

This is not a role centred around carrying a routine clinical caseload. Your direct clinical involvement will be focused where complexity, increased risk or presentation requires senior professional expertise. Your wider focus will be leadership: developing people, strengthening practice, overseeing quality and outcomes, managing capacity and resources, and continuing to develop the programme's reach and impact.

A particularly exciting part of the role will be helping us extend our work with mainstream schools across West Sussex. You will contribute to the continued development of CAT's county-wide offer, strengthening early intervention, building confidence and capability within education teams and helping schools respond effectively to emerging mental health and wellbeing needs.

Job Details

About You

We are looking for someone who combines strong professional mental health expertise with the ability to lead people, develop services and work confidently across professional and organisational boundaries.

It is essential that you are a registered mental health professional with an appropriate UK professional regulator, for example the NMC or HCPC, with substantial relevant post-registration experience.

You will bring experience of working with children and young people with complex mental health needs, alongside the confidence and professional judgement to oversee risk, intervention and clinical governance. Just as importantly, you will understand that this is an education-based Mental Health Programme: our role is to strengthen children's access to education and the capacity of those around them, while recognising when another service or specialist pathway needs to step in.

You are likely to have experience of leading or developing a mental health, wellbeing or multidisciplinary service; managing and developing practitioners; working across agencies; and using evidence, data and outcomes to drive improvement. Experience of SEND, education or supporting children and young people facing significant barriers to learning would be particularly valuable.

What You Need to Succeed

Criteria for the Role

We are looking for someone who is:

• Experienced: You have substantial experience supporting children and young people with mental health needs in a clinical, educational, or alternative provision setting.
• Collaborative: You thrive in multi-agency environments and can act as a confident point of contact across health, education, and social care systems.
• Driven by Equity: You are committed to improving life chances for disadvantaged young people and promoting inclusive, holistic care.
• Organised and Insightful: You bring analytical thinking, excellent communication skills, and strong ICT/data literacy to the role.

You’ll Also Need:

• An excellent understanding of safeguarding, SEND, and behaviour policies.
• The ability to work flexibly across locations in West Sussex.
• A proactive approach to CPD and continuous improvement.

Further Information

APC works with some of the most diverse and vulnerable children and young people across West Sussex. Our scale gives us an opportunity to do more than provide excellent intervention to individual pupils: we can use what we learn to influence practice, build confidence in schools and intervene earlier.

CAT is growing, and our Mental Health Programme is an important part of that development. This maternity-cover role offers the opportunity to take leadership of an established service while also having genuine scope to influence its next stage — working directly with the COO, Clinical Psychologist and wider CAT leadership to develop a responsive, sustainable and impactful offer across APC and mainstream education.

If you are a senior mental health professional who enjoys developing services as much as delivering them, can bring together clinical and educational perspectives, and wants the opportunity to make your expertise reach further, we would love to hear from you

We can offer:

• Opportunity to work in a rewarding and vibrant team environment
• Full support and ongoing training
• Invaluable experience of working in an Alternative Provision setting
• Inclusion in our School Wellbeing strategy
• Term time plus two weeks contract
• LGPS Pension

West Sussex Alternative provision college and West Sussex County Council are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We will ensure that all our recruitment and selection practices reflect this commitment. All successful candidates will be subject to an appropriate Disclosure and Barring Service check along with other relevant employment checks, including satisfactory references.

How to Apply

To apply for this role please download the job description and application form below. Complete the application form and ensure that you outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills in the job description). Once complete please return this to hr@wsapc.co.uk

Should you have any questions regarding the role or the application please feel free to email us or contact us on 01444 231 234

NOTE TO CANDIDATES - Please do not select the ‘Apply online’ button as the School processes your applications directly rather than through this site.​

The reference number for this role is SCHO02988.