You will help ensure that trainees and newly appointed colleagues receive a positive introduction to the service, have effective induction and support arrangements in place and feel part of both their individual MHST and the wider Essex MHST programme.

The Operational Manager is expected to ensure trainees are actively supported to meet their learning needs and to support new staff to integrate successfully into the team.

Welcoming new schools into MHST

As our teams expand, so will the number of education settings we work alongside.

Working collaboratively with the MHST leadership team, you will support the onboarding of new schools across North Chelmsford, Braintree and Tendring, building strong relationships with education partners and ensuring that expansion is well planned, coordinated and communicated.

Partnership working is fundamental to the role, with key relationships including education settings, primary care, local authorities, voluntary sector organisations and wider children's services.

What will you bring?

We are looking for an operational leader who is enthusiastic, organised, visible and comfortable working at pace.

You will need to be someone who can balance the immediate practicalities of recruitment and mobilisation with the longer-term task of building sustainable, high-quality teams.

You Will Bring

• Strong operational leadership and people management skills
• Experience of recruitment, HR processes and workforce planning
• Experience of managing substantial service development or change
• Strong project management and mobilisation skills
• Confidence managing staffing, performance, budgets and resources
• An ability to build relationships across professional and organisational boundaries
• A supportive leadership style, particularly when working with newly recruited and developing staff
• Excellent communication, analytical and problem-solving skills
• An understanding of mental health provision within schools and the wider children's mental health system
• The ability to maintain momentum, manage competing priorities and turn plans into delivery.

The post also requires a professionally registered, post-graduate qualified psychological practitioner or graduate-qualified healthcare professional, alongside relevant management experience, as set out fully within the person specification.

You won't be doing this alone

Although this is a significant leadership role, you will be joining an already established and experienced Essex MHST service.

You will work alongside the Head of Service, Clinical Leads and a wider group of experienced MHST Operational Managers, providing an established leadership network with colleagues who understand the opportunities and challenges of growing MHST services.

This means you will have the opportunity to bring your own leadership experience and ideas while also benefiting from the knowledge, support and learning of managers who are already successfully leading MHSTs across Essex.

The role works particularly closely with the Head of Service and Locality Clinical Lead to ensure the effective day-to-day running of services, alongside responsibility for workforce planning, finance, staff in training, performance and longer-term sustainability.

Why join us?

This is an exciting opportunity to join MHST at a genuinely formative stage of our next phase of development.

You will have the opportunity not simply to manage an existing service, but to help build new teams, welcome new schools, support the development of our future EMHP workforce and shape how our expanding services operate from the very beginning.

If you are an enthusiastic and experienced operational leader who enjoys developing people, building services and turning ambitious plans into effective delivery, we would love to hear from you.

Base: Stapleford House, Chelmsford

Locality: North Chelmsford, Braintree & Tendring

Band: 8a

Role: MHST Operational Manager

Our Values 2025 - 2030

Working with our colleagues, patients and carers we have co-produced three new values that we aim to embed within our culture here at NELFT.

They Are

• We are kind.
• We are respectful.
• We work together with our communities.

These three values help us to strive to provide the best care by the best people.

Starting with NELFT

NELFT place a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers, and attend a number of drop-in sessions focusing on engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Goodmayes Hospital.

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period.

Certificates of Sponsorship

Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points-based system. When calculating the basic salary for sponsorship, HCAS (High-Cost Area Supplement) is not included to ensure fairness and consistency within our Trust.

Use of AI

We value applications that genuinely reflect each candidate’s own skills, experience and motivations. We therefore strongly discourage the use of AI-generated content in applications.

Applications should be written in your own words and accurately represent your knowledge, skills and experience.

We reserve the right to reject an application where we reasonably believe AI has been used to generate or materially contribute to its content.

Please See The Attached Job Description And Person Specification

for more information about this role and working at North East London NHS Foundation Trust. We encourage you to refer to this when completing your application.

We welcome your application even if you do not meet all the criteria listed in the person specification. Please apply as soon as possible as some posts close early to limit the number of applications.

Name: Natasha Ramcharitar

Job title: Head of Service

Email: natasha.ramcharitar@nhs.net