Job summary
We are delighted to offer an exciting opportunity for aPerinatal and Infant Mental Health Practitioner to join our growing Parent and Child Wellbeing Team, part of the Health Visiting Service within East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust.
This innovative service supports parents and their babies during the perinatal period and up to two years post-birth, promoting emotional wellbeing, sensitive caregiving, and secure early relationships. You will play a key role in delivering high-quality early intervention to families, supporting colleagues across Health Visiting teams, and contributing to developing Perinatal and Infant Mental Health (PIMH) pathways across East Sussex.
As a Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Practitioner, you will:
- Deliver compassionate, culturally sensitive 1:1 and group interventions focused on parent and infant wellbeing.
- Work with families experiencing a range of emotional, relational, or perinatal mental health challenges.
- Provide duty support: responding to queries, screening referrals, and escalating complex cases appropriately.
- Build strong therapeutic relationships with parents, promoting strengths-based, trauma-informed practice.
- Advise and support Health Visiting colleagues with complex cases.
- Maintain excellent, contemporaneous records and contribute to audits, service improvement, and evaluation.
Main duties of the job
- Be part of a developing, forward-thinking Parent and Child Wellbeing Team.
- Work within a supportive, reflective and compassionate culture.
- Access regular clinical and safeguarding supervision.
- Contribute to shaping Perinatal and Infant Mental Health provision within East Sussex.
- Opportunities for training in specialist parent-infant and perinatal approaches.
- Make a meaningful difference to families during a critical period of development.
About the Service
The Parent & Child Wellbeing Team sits within the Early Help 0-19 Service and works closely with Health Visiting teams, Family Hubs, Midwifery and Mental Health Services. Our vision is to ensure that every parent and infant receives timely, accessible, and relationship-focused support, with a commitment to equity, inclusion and trauma-informed practice.
Interested? If you are passionate about early relationships, emotionally attuned practice, and supporting families during the perinatal period, we'd love to hear from you.
About us
A wide range of staff benefits are available to our staff including staff development, enrolment in the NHS pension scheme, auto-enrolment to our Temporary Workforce Service, access to onsite nurseries. staff restaurants and accommodation.
In addition to an internal Occupational Health department, all staff also have access to free psychological support through our confidential Employee Assistance Programme. Onsite parking is available from only £50 a year.
There has never been a better time to join East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, submit your application today.
Statement on the Use of AI
We value the individuality that each candidate brings to the application process. While we understand that AI tools are widely available, we strongly discourage applicants from using AI-generated content when applying for jobs with us. We believe that your application should reflect your true skills, experiences, and motivations, which are best conveyed through your own words and unique perspective.
Using AI for your application may not accurately represent your knowledge, skills, and experience and may result in a disconnect between your qualifications and our assessment of your application.
We encourage applicants to take the time to thoughtfully complete their applications; by doing so, you allow us to better understand your true potential and ensure a fair and transparent evaluation of your application. Over reliance on AI-generated content may diminish your chance of success.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the job description attached.
If you have any questions about this position please do not hesitate to contact us.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the job description attached.
If you have any questions about this position please do not hesitate to contact us.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Educated to GCSE level - including Maths and English at a grade C or above or equivalent level of knowledge and experience.
- Educated to NVQ level 3 in relevant subject or equivalent level of knowledge and experience.
- Evidence of relevant infant feeding training
Desirable
- Recognised teacher qualification.
Experience
Essential
- Experience of providing Infant feeding support
- Experience of facilitating groups
- Previous experience of maintaining records and databases.
- Experience of working on own initiative and solving problems.
- Experience of inter-agency and partnership working.
Desirable
- Experience supporting BFI accreditation processes.
- Experience delivering training to volunteers or staff.
- Knowledge of the Healthy Child Programme and role of the Health Visiting service.
- Experience working in Family Hubs or early years community settings.
Skills
Essential
- Understanding of the UNICEF BFI Standards and their application in community settings.
- Understanding of safe breast pump use, expressing and milk-storage guidance.
- Ability to support families from diverse backgrounds and communicate in a culturally sensitive manner.
- Ability to maintain professional boundaries in mixed professional/volunteer environments.
- Ability to work as a member of a team and contribute to team development.
- Ability to communicate effectively with range of people.
- Ability to motivate others.
- Ability to manage and prioritise own workload
- Good IT skills including knowledge of Microsoft Office including Word, Excel and Outlook.
- Good keyboard skills.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Good listening and problem solving skills.
- Able to input and maintain data accurately.
- Ability to demonstrate compassion and the ability to communicate sensitively and manage challenging conversations.
- Ability to plan and organise a broad range of activities
- Understanding of data collection and how data can be used to inform service delivery
Desirable
- Knowledge and understanding of the NHS structures and functions.
- Experience of measuring impact of voluntary services.
- Understanding of promoting good practice in enhancing patient experience
- Experience developing policies and procedures, ideally with reference to good practice volunteer services.
- An understanding of health inequalities.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Educated to GCSE level - including Maths and English at a grade C or above or equivalent level of knowledge and experience.
- Educated to NVQ level 3 in relevant subject or equivalent level of knowledge and experience.
- Evidence of relevant infant feeding training
Desirable
- Recognised teacher qualification.
Experience
Essential
- Experience of providing Infant feeding support
- Experience of facilitating groups
- Previous experience of maintaining records and databases.
- Experience of working on own initiative and solving problems.
- Experience of inter-agency and partnership working.
Desirable
- Experience supporting BFI accreditation processes.
- Experience delivering training to volunteers or staff.
- Knowledge of the Healthy Child Programme and role of the Health Visiting service.
- Experience working in Family Hubs or early years community settings.
Skills
Essential
- Understanding of the UNICEF BFI Standards and their application in community settings.
- Understanding of safe breast pump use, expressing and milk-storage guidance.
- Ability to support families from diverse backgrounds and communicate in a culturally sensitive manner.
- Ability to maintain professional boundaries in mixed professional/volunteer environments.
- Ability to work as a member of a team and contribute to team development.
- Ability to communicate effectively with range of people.
- Ability to motivate others.
- Ability to manage and prioritise own workload
- Good IT skills including knowledge of Microsoft Office including Word, Excel and Outlook.
- Good keyboard skills.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Good listening and problem solving skills.
- Able to input and maintain data accurately.
- Ability to demonstrate compassion and the ability to communicate sensitively and manage challenging conversations.
- Ability to plan and organise a broad range of activities
- Understanding of data collection and how data can be used to inform service delivery
Desirable
- Knowledge and understanding of the NHS structures and functions.
- Experience of measuring impact of voluntary services.
- Understanding of promoting good practice in enhancing patient experience
- Experience developing policies and procedures, ideally with reference to good practice volunteer services.
- An understanding of health inequalities.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
