Details
1116574
University of Leicester
21/09/2026
6 Months
Please see advert for details.
Smart Casual
Pay
£28.00
£3.38
Description
Role
AccessAbility at the University of Leicester is seeking to recruit Specialist Mentors (Mental Health) to work with students with mental health conditions. The post will support DSA funded students, which means we require candidates to have the mandatory qualifications and professional body memberships as set out by SfE.
Duties and responsibilities
As a Specialist Mentor, you will be responsible for providing mentoring to students with various and sometimes complex mental health conditions. You will build professional working relationships with a caseload of students combining a person-centred approach with an understanding of the student’s condition, to support students with their academic progress.
Specialist Mentors provide highly specialist, specifically tailored, one to one support which helps disabled students address the barriers to learning created by a particular impairment. This includes a range of issues, for example, coping with anxiety and stressful situations, how to deal with concentration difficulties, time management and prioritising workload. Specialist Mentors help disabled students recognise the barriers to learning created by their condition and support them in developing strategies to address these barriers.
The accurate administration of timesheets, which serve as the post-holder’s record of work and as evidence that support has been provided to particular student(s), is also expected.
All AccessAbility workers are expected to maintain a high standard of confidentiality regarding student information in accordance with university guidelines on GDPR and Data Protection.
Specialist Mentors will liaise with their line manager, to discuss any issues arising from one-to-one sessions with students and to share good practice.
Skills and experience
This post will support students in receipt of the Disabled Students Award. Membership of a professional body and qualifications as recognised within the “DfE Mandatory Criteria” for Specialist Mentors - this document is available to download from: https://www.practitioners.slc.co.uk/media/2109/matrix-june-2025.pdf, is mandatory for this post.
The details of accepted professional membership bodies are on page 8.
Location
AccessAbility, Percy Gee Building, University of Leicester. With prior agreement by the Head of Service, work may be conducted remotely, via MS Teams.
Additional information
To apply, please submit your CV and a covering letter outlining your suitability for the role.
Informal enquiries are welcome, and should be made to accessable@le.ac.uk.
Duration: ASAP to 24 March 2027
Hours and Days: One disabled student may require one support session a year, where another disabled student may require thirty sessions a year. Sessions are not always regular and are made on an ad hoc basis according to each individual’s frequently fluctuating requirements. Mentors may see numerous students during the course of a day. Peak activity occurs typically in October, November, January, February and March.
Regular business hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Full-time equivalent hours would equate to 35 hours per week with a minimum of 25 hours being student appointments. Post-holders are not expected to work during the University of Leicester’s closure days or on Public Holidays.
Closing date for applications: Sunday 30 August 2026
This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 because the appointee will have substantial access to young people and/or vulnerable adults. Therefore, an appointment to this post will be subject to checking through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The successful applicant(s) for this post will, therefore, be required to give consent for the University to check and obtain appropriate clearance with the DBS for the existence and content of any criminal record in the form of an Enhanced Adult Workforce check.
Unitemps is acting as an Employment Business, supplying temporary workers, in relation to this vacancy.
The University of Leicester has been changing the world, and changing people’s lives, for 100 years. When you join us, you’ll become part of a community of Citizens of Change, which includes not only our staff and our current students but also thousands of Leicester graduates around the world.
As a diverse and forward-thinking employer, we embed the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion into everything we do. That includes not just our core missions of teaching and research, but also our support for staff, students and our local community through our values of Inspiring, Impactful and Inclusive.
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