The South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) commission Barnardo's to provide Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) across South Cumbria. Due to an exciting expansion to our service, we are seeking to recruit an enthusiastic and committed Team Manager who can support staff to deliver an outstanding service to children, young people and their families across the region.

The service operates as 2 locality teams across South Cumbria ~ Barrow in Furness covering Barrow / Dalton / Millom and South Lakes covering Kendal / Ulverston / Sedbergh / Windermere. This role will involve covering the South locality area.

Each MHST locality area team comprises of:

0.5 – Children's Service Manager
2 – Team Manager and Clinical Lead
4 – Senior Practitioners
8 – Education Mental Health Practitioners/ Trainees
1 x Admin

The service bases are situated in Kendal and Barrow. The office base for the post holder will be agreed following interview.

The South Cumbria MHST work with 22 education settings which include 1

secondary schools, 2 higher education colleges, 3 special education

schools and 1 pupil referral unit (PRU) across the community.

However, with an additional 48 primary schools in September 2026.

Role Summary

We are seeking an experienced children and young people's mental health professional to work collaboratively with the Children's Service Manager; Clinical Leads and Team Managers to provide:

leadership
line management
supervision across the South Cumbria MHST

The main responsibility of this role is :

To lead on the development and expansion of the service, including recruitment, training and supervision of a multi-disciplinary team
Operational management and leadership within the service
Oversight and day-to-day responsibility for the waiting list and flow of young people through the service.
To lead on developing, delivering, monitoring and evaluation of training packages to school staff, parents and young people.
Creating and disseminating resources around Mental Health and Wellbeing
Line management of Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) and High Intensity Cognitive Behaviour Therapists in Eden locality.

Principal Accountabilities:

Service Coordination with Education
Management of waiting list
Working with Partners
Supervision and Training of Team
Line Management of Clinical Team
Operational Leadership and Delivery
Service Evaluation

Completing your application

Please find attached a Barnardo's Job Description and Person/Role Specification. Barnardo's use generic Job Descriptions and Person Specifications: when completing the application form please provide evidence to demonstrate how your skills, experience and qualifications meet the requirements of the Person Specification and in addition, the following skills and experience: -

Essential

Relevant professional qualification (minimum Diploma/Degree) e.g. Cognitive behavioural therapy, mental health nursing, social work, occupational therapy, education, teaching, psychological wellbeing practitioner, children and young people's wellbeing practitioner, child and adolescent psychotherapy, systemic therapy, interpersonal therapy, counselling

Appropriate and valid UK professional registration e.g. Nursing Midwifery Council, Social Work England, British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, British Psychological Society, General Teaching Council
Specific skills and knowledge relevant to working with mild to moderate mental health needs
Experience of working in a mental health setting

Desirable

Experience of working in a Mental Health Support team
Qualification in Supervision /management or experience of managing staff/ volunteers.
Relevant graduate qualification in Mental Health related field (e.g., CYP IAPT CBT, Systemic Practice, Interpersonal Therapy, Parenting, PWP)
Completion of Senior Mental Health Lead training.

MHST Background

Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) are a national programme jointly delivered with the Department for Education, NHS England and Health Education England. The programme has three core functions:

Delivering evidence-based interventions for children and young people with mild to moderate mental health needs
Supporting the senior mental health lead in each education setting to introduce or develop their whole school/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

MHST's support the promotion of wellbeing and good mental health with particular focus on early intervention. They work with existing social, emotional, mental health and wellbeing support within education settings, building relationships with each education setting and with children, young people, parent-carers and partner in the locally system to co-design and evaluate the support offer required.

The MHS teams provide direct therapeutic care to children and young people who show signs of mild to moderate mental health difficulties, alongside supporting education settings with their whole education approach.

Working for Barnardo's

Barnardo's has been providing services to some of the most vulnerable children across the UK for over 150 years. We work in partnership with children's social care and health partners enabling the delivery of integrated health and social care services in a number of areas. We recognise that to really transform children's life chances, they need sustained interventions that meet the diversity of their needs and that participation and co— production must a key component of any service. If you enjoy pushing the boundaries of what works; working closely with other agencies to innovate and create; have the clinical expertise to lead on this project and want to work with children and young people and their families to deliver services that truly meet their needs, then we would like to hear from you.

For further information, please contact:

Amy Armstrong

amy.armstrong@barnardos.org.uk

Tel:- 07874 795 425

We welcome enquiries from people interested in this role and are happy to facilitate online meetings prior to interviews.

Interviews are to be held on the 6 th August 2026 The interview will be face to face and held at the Barrow office.

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values.  We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours.  More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.

Barnardo's require colleagues to be UK residents, based in the UK and to complete their roles from within the UK (with the exception of colleagues providing Barnardo's services in Jersey and colleagues who live in the Republic of Ireland providing services in Northern Ireland)

Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our Buy Your Leave scheme
A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
Service related sick pay from day 1
Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
Cycle2work scheme
Interest free season ticket loans
Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
20% discount at Barnardo's stores
Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

Reference number:23304
Job Title:Team Manager
Location:Barrow in Furness
Locality:South Cumbria
Contract type:Permanent
Hours:37
Salary:£44,635
Closing Date:26 July 2026
Interview Date:6/08/26

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