L&D Partner / Mental Health Specialist Childrens

We are recruiting for an experienced Mental Health Specialist Trainer / Learning and Development Partner to join a growing children’s service supporting residential and educational settings across Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire, with occasional travel to Yorkshire.

This is a home-based role with regular travel and overnight stays as required.

Salary: £45,000–£50,000 depending on experience and qualifications
Hours: Full-time, 40 hours per week

The Role

This is an exciting opportunity for a qualified mental health professional with experience in children’s services to play a key role in developing and delivering high-quality training programmes across residential and educational services.

You will support staff teams working with children and young people with complex mental health, trauma-related, emotional, and behavioural needs. The role focuses on strengthening workforce confidence, competence, and therapeutic practice through engaging, evidence-based learning and development.

Working closely with operational leaders and multidisciplinary teams, you will identify emerging training needs and design both core and bespoke learning interventions to support safe, trauma-informed, and psychologically informed care.

Key Responsibilities

Deliver specialist training across children’s residential and educational services
Design and develop engaging learning programmes aligned to legislation and best practice
Support staff working with trauma, anxiety, depression, emotional dysregulation, attachment difficulties, and self-injurious behaviour
Promote trauma-informed and relationship-based approaches
Deliver workshops and bespoke interventions tailored to service needs
Support and upskill Learning and Development colleagues in specialist mental health practice
Maintain accurate training records and evaluations
Ensure training content remains current, evidence-based, and compliant
Build positive relationships with managers, operational teams, and multidisciplinary professionals
Provide guidance and support relating to mental health and complex presentations in children and young people

Training topics may include:

Safeguarding Children
Trauma-Informed Practice
Mental Health Awareness
Neurodiversity
PACE
Emotional Wellbeing
Anxiety and Depression
Self-Injurious Behaviour
Positive Behaviour Support
Medication Awareness
Emergency First Aid
Child Sexual Exploitation and Missing from Home
Ligature Awareness

About You

We are looking for a confident and experienced trainer with a strong background in children’s mental health and trauma-informed practice.

Essential requirements:

Professional qualification in a mental health-related field such as Mental Health Nursing, Social Work, Occupational Therapy, Psychology, or similar
Minimum 3 years’ experience within children’s residential services, mental health services, education, or related settings
Experience supporting children and young people with complex mental health and behavioural needs
Strong understanding of trauma-informed care and therapeutic practice
Experience delivering specialist training programmes
Excellent communication and relationship-building skills
Strong IT, literacy, and organisational skills
Full UK driving licence and access to a vehicle
Ability to travel regularly across Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire, with occasional travel to Yorkshire

Desirable:

Training or teaching qualification
Previous experience within Learning and Development or staff training roles

What’s on Offer

Opportunity to influence and improve practice across children’s services
Supportive and collaborative working environment
Career development and ongoing professional learning
Meaningful role supporting positive outcomes for children and young people

To apply or find out more, please get in touch for a confidential discussion.