CYP IAPT, MindEd and other opportunities to promote the mental health of young people leaving care Dr Cathy Street, National Children’s Bureau (NCB) Research Centre March 4 th 2014

Overview A brief overview of three current programmes that aim to promote children and young people’s mental health:  Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies – CYP IAPT  Minded – new e-learning portal  GP Champions - a pilot project supported by Youth Access and the Association for Young People’s Health (AYPH)

Why it’s important to think about the mental health of care leavers?  An important life transition – and often one where young people experience difficulties accessing services  Well documented that children and young people in care show higher rates of mental health problems than other children and young people  Study by Ford et al (2007) reported that 45.3% of 5-17 year olds looked after by local authorities had some form of psychiatric disorder; similar figures noted in the CAMHS National Review (DH and DCSF 2008)

CYP IAPT  National programme - originally run by Department of Health and now NHS England  Aims to transform Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) – in particular, to improve access to psychological therapies  Policy context – the focus on evidence-based practice, outcomes monitoring, patient choice and participation  Now in year 3 with aim to cover 60% of all CAMHS  Builds on existing services – does not create new standalone IAPT services (so unlike adult IAPT)

How CYP IAPT works  5 geographical locations or “Learning Collaboratives”: North East, Yorkshire and Humber; South West; London and the South East; Oxford & Reading and the North West – Salford, Manchester, North and Central Lancashire  Each learning collaborative has 1-2 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) who provide a range of 1 year training courses – in CBT, parenting, Systemic Family Therapy (SFT), Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), leadership and supervision  Each collaborative is made up of CYP IAPT partnerships who link to the HEI – groups of services including CAMHS teams, LAs, voluntary sector services (e.g. counselling services)

A focus on evidence based practice  Offers training with ‘backfill’ for staff released to go on either a trainee, supervisor or managers course  Infrastructure support for IT (since outcomes are monitored on a session by session basis), children and young people’s participation and accreditation  Idea is that trainees cascade out the learning, thereby supporting change across services/whole staff groups  Sharing of learning and expertise promoted across partnerships and collaboratives, with variety of national groups underpinning this (e.g. national curriculum group)

How young people leaving care might benefit?  More accessible services, with more active involvement of young people and emphasis on ‘listening to young people’  Young people share their views nationally about what they think the priorities for CAMHS should be… and these have included improving transitions/supporting young people when they leave services  Continued opportunities for young people to get involved to support service development  Self-referral also being promoted through CYP IAPT… less hoops to jump through to get help when needed

MindED  A new e-portal providing an extensive array of e-learning sessions about children and young people’s mental health and emotional wellbeing  Funding from the Department of Health/NHS England, with development support via the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and e-LfH (e-learning for health)  Portal launches this month, on Tuesday 25 th March

Portal structure Counselling MindEd MindEd Core Content Healthy Child Programme MindEd CYP IAPT Curriculum MindEd e- therapies and evidence review

What the e-learning sessions cover  Portal will offer over 200 e-learning sessions (designed to take about 30 minutes to complete)  Written for both universal and specialist audiences  Wide range of topics including: children and young people’s rights; relevant legislation; participation; mental health problems and treatment approaches; outcomes monitoring; understanding child development; different treatment approaches and ways of working  Will provide links to other learning materials – reports, useful websites, organisations etc

GP Champions  Pilot project running in 10 areas of England that aims to transform the way that public services are delivered to young people aged years  Collaboration between GPs and voluntary youth services including shared learning sets  Draws on the evidence of young people’s preferred access routes  Development of new models – e.g. GP surgery sessions in youth counselling services; new models of outreach support  Aims to influence local commissioning and planning of services

How young people leaving care might benefit  Improved local offer of services  Raised GP awareness and understanding of young people’s needs  Service planning that is better attuned to young people’s concerns, informed by their active participation

More information  For CYP IAPT, provides resources and information to support practitioners, discussion forums and dedicated section for young people. Register via the site for regular e-bulletins and event informationwww.myapt.org.uk  Information about MindEd is available from  For GP Champions, go to and