Components of a Good Job Description

Whether you are writing a contract or hiring a consultant directly, writing a detailed job description is imperative. This job description must reflect your Head Start program’s vision for mental health services. In addition, it should clearly articulate the skills, knowledge, and abilities of the mental health consultant. See the sample job description for an early childhood mental health consultant in this document, keeping in mind that the specific characteristics that you may need in your program may differ somewhat.

A good job description has several components, including the following. Your agency may have additional required sections, depending on your specific human resource policies

Summary Statement

Describe in two to three sentences the primary role that the mental health consultant will fill in your program.

Duties and Tasks

Duties are the major subdivisions of work the mental health consultant performs, while tasks articulate what is done, how it is done, and why it is done. You will want to provide a detailed account of the types of activities and tasks that you will ask your consultant to provide. Major subdivisions of work might include things like:

• Staff training
• Family training
• In-class consultation and coaching
• Individualized child- and family-centered consultation
• Individual child screening, assessment, and referral

If possible, you may want to assign a proportion of the consultant’s allocated time to each of the expected duties — for example, 15% staff training; 15% family training; 50% consultation (strategies to support the classroom, individual children or families, or program-wide policies and procedures); and 20% screening, assessment, and referral.

Tasks are the specific activities within these categories that you may expect the consultant to engage in. Be as specific as possible about the consultant’s required tasks. For example, if you want the consultant to provide training on mental health-related topics twice per year, specify this in the job description. If training happens more often, be clear about expectations for this.

When the consultant or someone else reads the job description, they should be able to formulate a specific picture of how they will spend their time with your program, and the kinds of activities that are most central to the job.

Degree of Administrative and Clinical Supervision

This describes the way in which mental health consultant duties are assigned and supervised, and how and when the consultant receives supervision. Distinguish between “administrative supervision” (i.e., who will oversee and monitor the work within the program) and “clinical supervision” (i.e., who will oversee the clinical work that the consultant does with families and children). Providing adequate supervision and support for the mental health consultant is a characteristic of effective consultation programs. The job description should indicate whether the Head Start program or another agency will provide clinical supervision.

Description of the Required and Preferred Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities of the Mental Health Consultant

Provide a list of both the required and the preferred knowledge, skills, and abilities of the consultant. The Performance Standards offer a starting point for thinking about the qualifications of the consultant. You will need to decide, based on your specific programmatic context, which characteristics are required versus preferred. For example, a program that services predominantly Spanish-speaking families and children may require a bilingual or bicultural consultant, while one that has a small number of these families may prefer someone with this skill set. A consultant serving a program that includes infants and toddlers as well as preschoolers may need knowledge and experience in working with infant attachment, while this may not be important for a program that services only preschool-age children.

Knowledge refers to the core content areas in which you expect the consultant to have had training and experience, keeping in mind that the Performance Standards require experience and expertise in working with young children and their families. Core content areas might include:

• Infant and early childhood mental health, including the underlying causes of behavioral concerns, attachment relationships, and typical and atypical child development
• Best practices in working to support young children’s social and emotional development
• How mental health services and concepts differ across different cultures
• The mental health service delivery system
• Head Start program models and approaches

Skills are the specific competencies that you would like the mental health consultant to be able to demonstrate, including the ability to:

• Build strong, collaborative relationships
• Conduct observations of children and environments and use the results of these observations to set goals and develop individualized plans
• Partner and work collaboratively with staff and families
• Work as part of a team to support children and families
• Motivate and engage staff and family members

Practical skills such as writing and documentation skills, organizational skills, self-management skills, the ability to efficiently manage time, and communication skills may also be included.

Abilities reflect the extent of experience that the mental health consultant has, such as number of years of training or experience providing consultation services, working in early childhood settings, or type of degree the position requires. Typically, mental health consultants in Head Start programs will have at least a master’s degree in social work, counseling, psychology, or a related field. The Performance Standards require the mental health consultant to have a certificate or license from the appropriate governing board in their state and discipline, and the standards recommend having a clinical license.

Other Requirements

Be sure to include in the job description any other requirements, such as valid driver’s license, criminal background check, CPR certification, or other things this position requires. The description also usually includes physical requirements (e.g., the ability to work with active children ages 3 to 5, and any required lifting or other physical activities).

Activity: Job Description Checklist

Review your program’s current mental health consultant job description or contract. Assess where you may need to improve your job description or contract. For each item below, think about whether you need to add or improve the component:

• Job summary statement
• Description of general duties
• Description of specific tasks
• Allocation of time for duties and tasks
• Description of administrative supervision
• Description of clinical supervision
• Required or preferred content knowledge
• Required or preferred specific skills
• Required or preferred abilities or experience
• Required or preferred training and education
• Other identified requirements

Last Updated: August 6, 2025