Child and Young Persons Psychological Wellbeing Practice, PG Diploma

The UCL application portal is open for applications for January 2025 starters. 

About this programme

The new Diploma level training curriculum will be worth 120 credits and will be delivered at both level 6 and 7, across a structure of 6 modules, aligning it to the Education Mental Health Practitioner Diploma level training qualification. The CWP diploma delivery will consist of approximately 64 taught days in addition to service-based learning (including service supervision and observation / shadowing) and private study.  The taught days will be a mixture of online and face to face delivery.

This programme, a Department of Health initiative, aims to train a new workforce for CAMHS: Children’s Wellbeing Practitioners. Graduates will complement the work of existing practitioners by building better links with communities and offering rapid access to brief treatment interventions for children and young people with mild to moderate mental health difficulties, as part of a stepped care model of service delivery. 

The specific aims for the programme are to equip students with the following: 

• Knowledge, attitude and competence to operate effectively in an inclusive, values driven service. 

• Fundamental skills to assess cases using appropriate and effective assessment tools and engage with young people and their families. 

• Knowledge and skills in effective brief (low-intensity) interventions for children, young people and family systems based on the most up to date evidence. 

• Knowledge of a range of interventions (including written and computerised interventions) and knowledge of services available to Children and Young Person (CYP) & families across CYP agencies.

Trainee CWPs will undertake postgraduate certificate level training for 1 year, hosted by either University College London (UCL) or Kings College London (KCL) whilst being based within a service and 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 children and young people who demonstrate mild to 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 two days a week university training, with three 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 at university around one day a week with most of their time spent at service. 

The course fee is covered by NHS England (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. 

The course will follow a blended learning approach with some teaching online and some face to face in small groups, including workshops and seminars.

Who can apply?

Each service has their own criteria for assessing applications and so please pay particular attention to the person specification for each role but as a minimum, candidates will need to demonstrate:

• A minimum of a second-class Bachelor’s degree from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard in a relevant subject (e.g. psychology).

• If not Bachelor's degree, relevant professional experience will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

• Motivation to undertake and complete the course.

• If your education has not been conducted in the English language, you will be expected to demonstrate evidence of an adequate level of English proficiency.

Download a generic CWP trainee job description and person specification, here.

When can I apply?

The course will start in Jan 2025 (exact date TBC) and services will begin advertising roles between Aug/Sep 2024 and Nov/Dec 2024.

How do I apply?

Please note that applications for this course is a dual process. Prospective candidates must apply to the university course at the same time as one of the associated job adverts. The job advert will have guidance embedded into the advert about applying for the university course, however if this is not included, please contact us.

Each service goes out to advertise individually and will conduct a standard recruitment process, however during the interview period they will share their shortlist with the university. The university will check their applications portal, confirm candidates’ course eligibility and report this to the service. The service will create a final shortlist with this information and will offer to the applicant successful at the job interview (subject to final university checks).

Candidates can apply to multiple job adverts – however they should review the person specifications to ensure that their experience is suitable. Each job advert will have different recruitment forms to fill out, however per recruitment cycle, the university portals only need to be filled out once no matter how many jobs are being applied for. Candidates should ensure that they have applied to the correct course and university (or in some cases, both KCL & UCL if applying across different modalities).

We strongly recommend in your university application that you mention the modality (or modalities) you are applying for, and tailor your person specification around the modality/modalities. For more information, please contact us.

Where do CWPs work?

CWPs work in a variety of different settings including CAMHS, local authority and voluntary sector organisations. The work of a CWP is very varied as each service will be tailored to local needs and provisions but can include assessments, face to face sessions, telephone work, workshops, groups and service user involvement activities.

For more information about the CWP programme please take a look at the CWP candidate FAQs. You can read an article about the typical week of a CWP in the ‘New Beginnings’ issue (page 14) of Aspire.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Recruitment and mailing list

Recruitment has now started for cohort 10 of the CWP programme in London and the South East. Please see the current recruitment status at the bottom of this page.

Please sign up to our mailing list to be informed of upcoming developments and receive notification of advertised roles.

As soon as funding for the programme is confirmed by Health Education England, services will begin to advertise for trainee CWPs. This is often through sites such as jobs.nhs.uk and healthjobsuk.com so we recommend setting up automatic job searches/notifications with the following terms:

• ‘Children’s Wellbeing Practitioner’

• ‘Child Wellbeing Practitioner’

• ‘Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner for Children and Young People’

If you have signed up to express your interest, we will email as soon as we have been notified that a job has been advertised (however this depends on when we are notified so please do not solely rely on this).

When you apply for a job, there will be guidance embedded into the advert about applying for the university course – you will need to apply to both the job and the university to be shortlisted for the role.

Further information for candidates

We are awaiting funding information from Health Education England about future cohorts. Please sign up to our mailing list to be informed of developments and receive notification of advertised roles.

For more information about the course including content, structure and fees or to make an application, please visit the UCL webpage.