CWP for services and commissioners

Welcome to the Children and Young Peoples’ Wellbeing Practitioner (CWP) programme!

The CWP programme is a recruit to train programme. That means that for the first year, your practitioners are funded to work both in your service, and complete their training with the University of Exeter. The programme offers practitioners a rigorous training in the CYP IAPT principles and Evidence-based practice to equip practitioners to work with children and families with mild to moderate presentations of Anxiety, Depression, and behavioural problems in young children. CWPs will be able to work alongside children, young people and their families in a goal focussed, Low intensity way, with an emphasis on early intervention and prevention and the opportunity to reach into the community.

What is low intensity?

Low intensity means that children and young people are seen less intensively for support: this could mean less frequently, or it could mean that the tools employed are more structured around supported or guided self-help.

Does it work?

Yes! CWPs are able to improve earlier access to support by working within more community settings. This means that you could find them working in schools or seeing young people in the community – from youth groups to cafés to the football field – wherever young people want to be seen. What we know from the research is that young people find Low intensity approaches like supported self-help, computer-based CBT (cCBT) and telephone support more acceptable than traditional face to face, weekly therapy sessions. By improving their accessibility through self-referrals and community based work, CWPs are able to support children, young people, and families earlier and help to prevent challenges and distress from worsening.

What difference will they make to my service?

CWPs are rigorously trained to embed all of the CYP IAPT principles and practices into your service. That means that not only are they doing great evidence-based work within the community – helping to support early access to your service, and increase awareness and reduce the stigma around emotional wellbeing – but they are also rigorously trained in the use of clinically meaningful outcome measures. CWPs will be able to use these tools to identify the challenges with the young person, set goals and track them with the young person and family, over time. These outcome measures are also hugely meaningful for you as a service to be able to understand the challenges that the young people who refer to your services face, and also the best ways of working with them. This will feed into your service development and demonstrate success for your commissioning bodies. Furthermore, a solid grounding in translating meaningful participation in services, means that CWPs will be able to help encourage and engage children, young people, and parents / carers to help to shape your service and the support you offer, so that it always reflects your community’s needs.

Why should I have CWPs in my service?

By employing CWPs you are showing your commitment to the Future in Mind and Five Year Forward View papers that underpin the transformation of CAMH services. You are also helping to improve your community’s access to Psychological therapies, and helping to ensure that children and young people are seen for emotional wellbeing support as quickly as they would be for appointments around their physical health (parity of esteem). CWPs make sure that children and young peoples’ support needs are met in a location of their choosing, and in a way that decisions around their support are made in partnership with children and young people and their families. The question is “Why shouldn’t I have CWPs in my service!”

How do I apply for places?

Applications are now open! If you are not yet part of the collaborative and wish to join to access the CYP IAPT support and transformation as well as the CWP programme, please read our new partner guidance and complete the application form to join. If you are already a collaborative member, or are in the process of applying, you can apply for the CWP programme by contacting our project team or the CWP admin team. If you have any questions about joining the collaborative and the CWP programme, please contact our Clinical Lead Jonathan Parker on j.parker5@exeter.ac.uk.

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