Children's Wellbeing Practitioner (CWP) Programme
Service information about the Children's Wellbeing Practitioner (CWP) programme.
Information for prospective students
Funding for Cohort 10 of the CWP programme has been preliminary confirmed by NHS England (NHSE). If you are a prospective student, please view the UCL webpage and our CWP page to find the relevant information.
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About this programme
The national CWP programme was established as a response to the target for offering an evidence based intervention to 70,000 more children and young people annually by 2020, by training up 1,700 new staff in evidence based treatments, outlined in Implementing the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health.
The CWP Programme is a fantastic opportunity for services to create new trainee roles that:
Increase capacity by expanding the workforce
through creating a new sub-service with close links to local providers.
Focus on prevention and early intervention
– diverting children and young people from specialist services through guided self-help for anxiety, low mood and common behavioural problems.
Meet the gap in services
– increasing accessibility and seeing children and young people who might not meet the threshold for current services.
By Cohort 6 there had been 397 CWPs (including current trainees) based in over 42 different services including NHS, Voluntary Sector and Local Authority across London & the South East.
The CWP programme in London and the South East has produced some impressive outcomes for children and young people. You can find a thorough evaluation of the first year of the CWP programme here.
What do CWPs do?
CWPs are trained to offer guided self-help to children, young people and families with mild to moderate anxiety, low mood and common behavioural problems.
CWPs work in a variety of different settings including CAMHS, local authority and voluntary sector organisations. The work of CWPs is very varied as each service will be tailored to local need and provision but can include assessments, face to face sessions, telephone work, workshops, groups and service user involvement activities.
Child and Young Persons Psychological Wellbeing Practice, PG Diploma
Trainee CWPs will undertake postgraduate diploma level training for one year, hosted by either University College London (UCL) or Kings College London (KCL) whilst being based within a service.
Trainee CWPs will be trained over the course of a year to offer brief, focused evidence- based interventions in the form of low intensity support and guided self-help to young people who demonstrate mild/moderate:
anxiety (primary and secondary school age)
low mood (adolescents)
common behavioural difficulties (working with parents for under 8s).
During the first term, CWPs will receive an initial three days a week of university led training, with a further two days a week allocated to work within their service under close supervision. During the second term, this reduces to one day a week university training, with four days for CWPs to put their skills into practice within their service, supported by local supervisors and service development leads. The third term sees CWPs in their service full time.
The course fee is covered by NHSE funding pending a successful application process. As this is a NHSE funded course with employment placements, prospective candidates must be able to access Home fees.
Teaching will be conducted in a blended format. Please follow the links below to see the course brochures. Please view the 2024/25 brochures below for more information.
Funding packages for services
Providers (NHS, Local Authority, Voluntary Sector) and CCGs can apply in partnership for a funding package provided by NHS England to create CWP training posts at band 5, which in previous cohorts has included:
One year certificate level CWP training course at University College London or Kings College London for trainee CWPs.
Salary support at the equivalent of NHS upper band 4 for each trainee CWP (in addition to on costs and high-cost living area weighting where applicable).
Placement support funding for each service to recruit a CWP Supervisor/Service Development lead to provide intense supervision and support for one day a week per CWP within their service.
A training course for new CWP supervisors.
Services interested in the CWP programme should contact us as a first step to discuss further.
