PG Diploma in Psychological Therapies Practice (Children, Young People & Families) - Core Module
Your training on the PG Diploma has two parts; a core module which all trainees must complete and then a module or modules relating to training in modality specific psychological therapies or practice.
Working alongside children, young people and their families and applying evidence-based psychological therapies requires fundamental academic knowledge and clinical skills together with a reflective approach to practice. This module therefore delivers the Department of Health’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies for Children and Young People Programme (CYP-IAPT) national curriculum of core knowledge and skills you will need in order to practice effectively as an evidence-based psychological therapist. You will explore how session-by-session measurement and routine outcome monitoring are fundamental components of effective practice. You will have the opportunity to reflect on the importance of user involvement in all aspects of CYP IAPT. The core module covers the aims of CYP IAPT and a number of topics relevant to working successfully with children, young people and their families.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| PYCM027 | Core Skills for Working with Young People with Mental Health Problems and Their Families | 60 |
Module Aims
| Code | Title and Aims |
|---|---|
| PYCM027 | In this module you will develop your practice in evidence-based psychological therapies for children, young people and families. You will develop the knowledge and core competencies required to be an effective practitioner, as determined by the national curriculum for the CYP IAPT Programme |
Download PYCM027 Core Module Descriptor
More information
The core skills component domain that that will be covered in your training include:
- The collaborative care model
- Young people’s and parents’ participation
- The CYP IAPT active outcomes framework
- Evidence-based practice/practice-based evidence
- The process of organisational change
- Supporting access, diversity and minimising disadvantage and discrimination
- Fundamentals of therapy adapted to CYP IAPT principles
- Sharing evidence-based practice with children
- Fundamental CBT skills with children
- Fundamental parent training skills
- Fundamental principles of IPT-A
- Fundamental methods of working systemically with families
- Use of supervision
Some of these domains will be taught as distinct ‘core’ sessions in your timetable with your colleagues on the other modality pathways, others will be integrated and interwoven throughout your modality specific workshops and tutorials. We may also make use of some of the e-learning sessions on the MindED sessions to supplement your teaching with respect to the underpinning knowledge. Please see www.minded.org.uk/course/category.php?id=16&viewtype=program.
Location of Teaching:
Currently all teaching is being delivered remotely, over Zoom. All necessary links to online teaching will be embedded in your timetable. When we are able to return to in person teaching, this will take place in the Washington Singer Building, University of Exeter. Teaching sessions will occur on different days throughout the term.
The structure and timings of the Core teaching days:
Full day sessions:
09.30 – 16.30
Half day sessions:
09.30 – 12.30
12.30 – 16.30
Due to remote delivery, facilitators will ensure regular breaks throughout the day and may end teaching earlier than scheduled.
The core module will draw on the generic CAMHS competency Framework (Roth and Pilling, 2011) and the CYP IAPT national curriculum (core module section). Trainees will be encouraged to embed these core skills within their modality. This will be achieved through both distinct core taught sessions with peers on different pathways of the PG Dip but also interwoven thorough their modality specific training.
For further information the CYP IAPT national curriculum, please download:
For further Information on CAMHS Competencies, please visit: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/clinical-psychology/CORE/child-adolescent-competences/CAMHS%20Competences%20Framework_V1%20(2).pdf.
Download the CAMHs Competency Framework
Maintaining confidentiality is a vital aspect of maintaining professional standards. In general terms, no details that could be used to identify any client or part of their family should be included within any essay or assignment. As far as assignments for the Core Module are concerned, this should be easier to ensure as we do not ask for work that discusses individual client details.
However, we do ask you to write about your own work in the context of your individual work-place and employing service. A secondary but still very important aspect of confidentiality is our ability as a course to ensure work is marked blind. This means that whoever is marking an assignment should not be able to identify the author of that work from what is written. This requires more care than may be apparent at first glance, since we generally run small cohorts with only one or two trainees from individual services, and markers include academic staff running these courses on a day to day basis.
To this end therefore, you are required in your assignments NOT to name your workplace or employing organisations. You can describe them in general terms as follows: a local-authority run children’s centre in the rural South West of England rather than saying I work in the children’s centre in X-town; or a city-based counselling service rather than saying Off the Record.
Please also anonymise extracts from documents included as appendices – for example, statements from project reports that include a service name as a header or footer. Such details should be physically blanked out using this facility in Word, or using a felt-tip pen. Making references to key documentation in your assignments often inadvertently identifies a service – so you are NOT required to include details of such documents in the reference list for core assignments. Refer to any such documents in the text along the following lines: “My employing organisation has published a report that includes relevant statistics for the participation of local young people with mental health problems. This report states ...”. You may include copies of the relevant page from such reports as appendices, or an extract as a figure within the text if you so wish, as long as any indentifying details are suitably blanked out – such as the locality and/or the organisation/service name.
If you have any questions regarding issues of confidentiality and anonymisation, please do discuss these as soon as possible with a member of your academic team.
Any breaches in confidentiality in any assessment will result in the assessment automatically being returned to the trainee who will have 48 hours to reply and correct the errors, otherwise the assignment will be failed.
Should any breach of confidentiality be regarded as serious enough (identifying names and addresses of clients, for example or excessive repeated naming of a workplace or service), this would result in an automatic fail and the trainee would need to resubmit a second submission correcting the error (and making any other changes if there are other resubmission criteria).
Please refer to your individual strand handbooks for further information about confidentiality in strand-specific assessments:
CBT - http://cedar.exeter.ac.uk/iapt/cyphandbook/cbt/confidentialityandanonymisation/
PT - http://cedar.exeter.ac.uk/iapt/cyphandbook/pt/confidentialityandanonymisation/
0-5s - http://cedar.exeter.ac.uk/iapt/cyphandbook/05pathway/confidentialityandanonymisation/
SFP - http://cedar.exeter.ac.uk/iapt/cyphandbook/sfp/confidentialityandanonymisation/
There are three main assessments in the core module. These include:
- Essay (summative)
- Core Reflective Summary (summative)
- Core therapy competencies (self-rating and supervisor rating CAPS) (formative and summative)
If you have difficulties with written assessments please use the University study skills department.
CYP IAPT Practitioners Assessment Procedures
CYP IAPT practitioners core assessment summary
|
Module Code |
Module Name |
Assessment Element |
% of Marks |
Deadline |
Consent required? |
|
PYCM027 |
Core Skills |
Evidence-based theory essay (3000 words) |
30% |
17/03/22 |
No |
|
PYCM027 |
Core Skills |
FORMATIVE - Supervisor rating of Core Therapy Competencies A (CAPS) |
N/A |
07/04/22 |
No |
|
PYCM027 |
Core Skills |
Supervisor Rating of Core Therapy Competencies B (CAPS) |
20% |
21/07/22 |
No |
|
PYCM027 |
Core Skills |
Core Reflective Practice Log (2000 words) |
30% |
06/10/22 |
Yes unless composite |
|
PYCM027 |
Core Skills |
Supervisor Rating of Core Therapy Competencies C (CAPS) |
20% |
17/11/22 |
No |
*You can expect to receive your results 15 working days after your deadline, 20 working days for tape submissions, or 6 weeks for KSA portfolios. Please note that if you have mitigated your submission, this will be 15/20 WD after your set deadline, not the original deadline. If your work is submitted late without an authorised extension, but within the 14 day late period, this work in not included in the 15/20 WD guarantee.
Marks for work submitted within two weeks of an extended university holiday are due back on the Friday of the first week in the next term.
Files to Download:
You will submit one essay as part of the core module.
Word limit: 3,000 words (NB marking will stop at this word limit and work exceeding this limit will therefore not receive credit)
As time has passed since the introduction of CYP-IAPT, some variations in the core principles envisioned to inform the programme have occurred. CYP-IAPT was conceived as a whole service transformation project for the delivery of improved mental health services to children, young people and families. To support this improved access and engagement with services, 4 underpinning core principles were identified as follows:
- Evidence-based practice
- Participation
- Routine Outcome Measures
- Collaborative practice and shared decision-making
In the essay title given below, we have identified 4 principles which vary from those given above. We have left out collaborative practice and shared decision-making. In order for the first 3 principles to be delivered well, attention must necessarily be paid to this fourth principle. For the purposes of creating a meaningful essay title therefore, and to reduce the potential for duplication when writing critically about the principles, we have given the first three as above, and added a fourth principle of “Reflective Practice”. Whilst this does not show up in the published information supporting CYP-IAPT as a core principle, the CYP-IAPT team at Exeter University believe strongly that this is a fundamental aspect of improving access to and reducing stigma around mental health services for children and young people – and essential in understanding and implementing the other principles. Those staff members originally involved in the conceptualisation and creation of the CYP-IAPT programme, remain aware that Reflective Practice was always very much on its agenda.
This is the reasoning behind including Reflective Practice as a fourth principle within the essay title as set out below. Please do approach a member of the academic team if you have any questions about this, but we hope that the above explanation will make it clear why Reflective Practice does not get identified as such as a core CYP-IAPT principle in the supporting publications. You can of course refer to supporting theories and cite evidence in support of collaborative practice and shared decision-making when writing about the two other principles you select for the essay title, should you wish to.
Essay title: With reference to the CYP-IAPT Core Principles, critically discuss two of the principles and the challenges in applying them in your modality and working with children, young people and/or families:
- Evidence Based Practice
- Routine Outcome Monitoring
- Participation
- Reflective Practice
When writing your essays, please do maintain a focus on the core principles chosen and how these principles relate to working with children, young people, parents and families within your modality. Modality refers to the strand you are studying, for example, CBT, Parenting, 0-5s, ASD/LD, Systemic Family Practice. Your core essay should therefore relate to the core principles in the context of your training strand. Essays that are borderline in terms of meeting the assessment criteria tend to focus far too much on very localised and personal accounts of what happens in services. Remember to maintain some sense of professional detachment and provide a balanced critical account of the topic. It can sometimes be tempting to allow strong personal feelings and experiences within your professional role to undermine the academic nature of writing the essay, which is to critically discuss the issues identified.
This means considering various different aspects of the topic and demonstrating your skills in reasoning by comparing evidence for/against the arguments you are making. Use the published views of scholars and researchers/recognised experts in the field to support the arguments you are making and to voice criticisms of these views. Sometimes you will have strong personal views to include and if these cannot be supported by others’ published work, be circumspect in how you express them and make it clear the views expressed are your own and explain how experience has shaped and formed them. Do not feel these views cannot be included however, or that they are invalid. Just be prepared to include counter arguments to such views as part of “critically discussing” them. Your essay response to the title can be assertive, as long as you provide a clear argument about the view being given and you draw some sort of balanced conclusion at the end of the essay. Answers that include mostly strong personal views which criticise services for example, are likely to fail as these tend not to appropriately answer the question in terms of balance and argued debate.
One final tip concerns the use of “voice” in writing your essay. Academic writing nowadays allows for the use of the first person “I”; “me”; “us”, as well as the more traditional third person voice “they”; “she”; “it”. Sentences that are constructed using a passive tense and in the third person – “It can be argued that IAPT has encouraged a reductive and pathologising approach to framing an individual’s problems with mental health” – can give distance and a detachment from the immediacy of the topic under review when one holds strong views about it. “In my service I have found IAPT just gives people labels and makes them feel like they are not a person any more” has a very different feel to it and historically essays that have failed have tended to include a lot of this type of material written in the first voice. Once started, it can carry one away on a wave of intense personal feeling and the overall effect can be to lose the academic nature of the writing.
NB: From 2020 we have changed the essay title slightly from previous years, so that it no longer refers to “… your service” and instead asks you to consider the CYP-IAPT principles in terms of “… your modality (e.g. CBT/PT/0-5s/ASD-LD or SFP) and working with children, young people and/or families”. We believe this will allow you to complete the essay even if you have only recently started, or have yet to start, in your Recruit to Train post. When we say “families” this includes parents and working directly with parents where this is the main focus of your role.
You will be required to submit a reflective summary of 2000 words (N.B. marking will stop at 2000 words) on the application of the core CYP IAPT aims and principles to your clinical Practice. You may choose to reflect on one or more of the principles : Evidence Based Practice, Routine Outcome Monitoring, Participation and Reflective Practice.
We would expect you to identify the area that you are going to reflect on and then provide a reflective analysis of this area followed by a plan. Your analysis should demonstrate your ability to reflect on your practice in relation to the CYP IAPT Principle(s) . The analysis should provide a critical evaluation of the therapy skills that you demonstrate within the applying these principles, drawing on relevant theory, research and literature and identify areas for improvement. The following model may be help with this. You should make reference to your self-rating forms within the summary. The four stage experiential learning model (Kolb 1984 and Lewin 1946) in Bennett-Levy et al (2004 p. 19) is the most widely used model in adult education (see fig. 1).
Figure 1.Experiential learning cycle (Bennett-Levy et al. 2004)
Different terms have been used by different authors to reflect the same four stages. Plan, Experience, Observe, and Reflect.
Effective learning is said to proceed through a series of these cycles.
EXPERIENCE: The experience
OBSERVE: What happened
REFLECT: Making sense of what happened by
- Relating it to previous experience and knowledge
- Searching for understanding
- Generalising, abstracting principles
- Fit with the formulation
PLAN: With the new understanding, how can I take this forward?
During your training you will complete:
- One ‘Core’ Reflective Summary – this is summative – this will be marked with a %
The purpose of the summary is to demonstrate your ability to:
- Reflect on your experience of practice of embedding the CYP IAPT principles
- Critically analyse and make sense of that experience (informed by theory and literature where appropriate)
- Extract useful learning and plan for change to help with competency development
You will be assessed on the following dimensions:
| Introduction of topic of reflection |
|---|
|
| Experience and observation |
|
| Critical analysis |
|
| Understanding and use of theory |
|
| Summary and implications for future practice |
|
| Structure & style: |
|
| Spelling / Grammar / Typos |
|
Download the Core Reflective Summary Criteria (.doc)
Download the Core Reflective Summary Mark Sheet (.doc)
Your core therapeutic competences will be assessed using the CAPS PRECISE Process document You will submit three CAPS assessments of over the course:
1. A supervisor rated formative CAPS early in term 2. This will be completed by your workplace supervisor.
2. A supervisor rated summative CAPS during the summer. This will be completed by your workplace supervisor.
3. A supervisor rated summative CAPS at the end of term 3. This will be completed by your workplace supervisor. All Supervisor CAPS summaries will be submitted during the course alongside supervisor reports and all CAPS summaries will form part of the final clinical portfolio.
The Process section of the CAPS will be used and will focus on the following competences known as PRECISE:
P - Partnership working
R - Right developmental level
E – Empathic
C – Creative
I – Investigative
S – Self efficacy
E - Enjoyable
Download the CAPS Precise Scoring Sheet
Criteria for CAPS
In order to pass the summative CAPS assessments you are required to achieve a minimum of ‘2’ on each of the individual CAPS items and a minimum of 50% overall.
Child and Adolescent Practice Scale (CAPS)
Introduction to the CAPS:
Rating the scale
The seven point scale (i.e. a 0-6 Likert scale) extends from (0) where the trainee does not believe they currently meet competence to (6) where they believe they are currently expert in that particular competence. A score of 6 (Expert) should only be used if the competence has been demonstrated in the face of significant difficulties. For example, partnership working may be rated as expert if the family/child are very hostile or critical and yet the clinician was able to maintain a collaborative relationship). It is expected that in most sessions significant difficulties will not be present and so maximum ratings of competence will be 5 (Proficient). Mark each competence using whole and half numbers to indicate the level to which each competence has been demonstrated
Reading List
Bennett-Levy, J., Turner, F., Beaty, T., Smith, M., Paterson, B., & Farmer, S. (2001). The value of self-practice of cognitive therapy techniques and self-reflection in the training of cognitive therapists. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 29, pp. 203-220
CYP IAPT National Curriculum www.iapt.nhs.uk/silo/files/children-and-young-peoples-improving-access-to-psychological-therapies-project.pdf
Fonagy, P. and Target, M. (2005). What works for whom: a critical review for children and adolescents. London: Routledge
MindEd Core IAPT sessions www.minded.org.uk/course/category.php?id=16&viewtype=program
Roth & Pilling (2007) & Roth, Calder & Pilling (NHS Education for Scotland Competence Framework for Workers in CAMHS Settings, 2011): www.ucl.ac.uk/clinical-psychology/CORE/competence_frameworks.htm
