Student Counsellor – Parttime

Grade and Salary: Grade 7, £36,023.00 – £45,585.00 (Pro-rata)

FTE and Working Pattern: 0.6 fte- 3 days a week, hybrid permanent role

Holidays: 33 days (pro-rata), plus 9 buildings closed days

Job purpose

Heriot-Watt University, in common with all other Higher Education Institutions, has seen a significant rise in both the extent and severity of mental health difficulties in the student community. The role focuses on assessing the needs of students who present with emotional difficulties in order to ensure that appropriate interventions are delivered. This will range from providing on-going counselling; providing therapeutic support; making referrals to external agencies; and liaising with external professionals to ensure appropriate care and support.

Main duties

• Undertake initial assessments of students presenting at the Counselling and Support service to assess their needs, monitor risk, and offer appropriate response.
• Provide high quality counselling and support according to the professional practice agreed with the Counselling Manager and in compliance with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Ethical Framework;
• Liaise with Wellbeing colleagues, academic staff, and external services to negotiate appropriate support and responses for individual students
• Provide therapeutic support to a wide range of students to address their presenting emotional or psychological issues, including those who may have mental health difficulties
• Work flexibly from home or campus, according to service needs
• Participate in service development and liaise with other professional staff, as directed by the Counselling Manager
• Maintain appropriate records and make use of the IT based systems and provide written reports as directed by the Counselling Manager or Head of Student Wellbeing.
• Assist in the development and delivery of Wellbeing workshops and training for students and staff
• Undertake continuing professional development as appropriate and engage in external clinical supervision, and case management with the Counselling Manager
• Any other task as requested by the Counselling Manager or Head of Student Wellbeing

Person Specification

This section details the attributes e.g. skills, knowledge/qualifications and competencies which are required in order to undertake the full remit of the role.

Education & Qualifications

Essential

• Professional counselling qualification
• BACP accredited counsellor, UKCP registered psychotherapist, or HCPC registered counselling psychologist or eligible for such accreditation

Experience 

• Extensive experience in providing counselling
• Extensive experience of conducting Mental health assessments including risk assessments
• Experience in working within student services

Competencies, Skills & Knowledge 

• Highly developed assessment skills and the ability to make professional judgments as to which interventions are most appropriate
• Highly developed practitioner and therapeutic skills with the ability to provide a range of interventions, based on assessed need
• Capacity to work with a range of professionals
• Experience of developing and delivering training materials and workshops
• Excellent organizational, communication and networking skills
• Outstanding customer service skills, dealing with a broad range of students and staff
• Ability to work flexibly to plan and prioritise workload, and to meet deadlines
• Effective team working
• Excellent verbal and written English language skills
• Excellent IT skills including sound working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications,
• Understanding of the factors affecting student mental health
• Understanding of equality and diversity issues
• Knowledge of relevant legislation

About The Team

This post is located within the Student Counselling Team, within the wider Student Wellbeing Service, and works closely with colleagues from Disability, Student Experience and the Chaplaincy teams. The main purpose of Student Wellbeing is to provide advice, information and support to undergraduate and postgraduate students, throughout the student lifecycle, from the point of initial enrolment onto a University study programme right through to graduation supporting them to overcome barriers to learning.

How to Apply

Applications can be submitted up to midnight (UK time) on Sunday, 30th June 2024

Please submit via the Heriot-Watt on-line recruitment system (1) Cover letter describing your interest and suitability for the post; (2) Full CV 

Interviews will be held w/c 22nd July 2024

At Heriot Watt we are passionate about our values and look to them to connect our people globally and to help us collaborate and celebrate our success through working together. Our research programmes can deliver real world impact which is achieved through the diversity of our international community and the recognition of creative talent that connects our global team. 

Our flourishing community will give you the freedom to challenge and to bring your enterprising mind and to help our partners with solutions that can be applied now and in the future. Join us and Heriot Watt will provide you with a platform to thrive and work in a way that also helps you live your life in balance with well-being and inclusiveness at the heart of our global community.

Heriot-Watt University is committed to securing equality of opportunity in employment and to the creation of an environment in which individuals are selected, trained, promoted, appraised and otherwise treated on the sole basis of their relevant merits and abilities. Equality and diversity are all about maximising potential and creating a culture of inclusion for all.

Heriot-Watt University values diversity across our University community and welcomes applications from all sectors of society, particularly from underrepresented groups. For more information, please see our website https://www.hw.ac.uk/uk/services/equality-diversity.htm and also our award-winning work in Disability Inclusive Science Careers https://disc.hw.ac.uk/ .

We welcome and will consider flexible working patterns e.g. part-time working and job share options.

Use our total rewards calculator: https://www.hw.ac.uk/about/work/total-rewards-calculator.htm to see the value of benefits provided by Heriot-Watt University.

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