UEA, alongside the University of Plymouth and partners, has been shortlisted for two awards at the 2023 Health Service Journal (HSJ) Partnership Awards.
Associate Professor Dr Paul Fisher, UEA, along with Associate Professor Dr Peter Keohane, University of Plymouth have led the development of Clinical Associate in Psychology (CAP) training across England. It was formally announced on Monday 5 December that this work has been shortlisted for the prestigious HSJ Partnership Awards 2023.
Their award ‘Group of Trainers for Clinical Associates in Psychology - Establishing and Training a new psychology workforce for the NHS’ has been shortlisted for Best Mental Health Partnership with the NHS and Best Educational Programme for the NHS. The award ceremony and announcement will take place in March.
The news of UEA being shortlisted for these awards comes at a good time for the development of the CAP profession. A consortium of NHS trusts entered CAP into a different set of national awards and won the Workforce Initiative of the Year Award. These new nominations now recognise the training part of this expansion, which UEA has been leading.
There has been rapid growth of CAPs across England with over 400 CAPs now either qualified or in degree apprenticeship training. UEA were the sixth programme to open in England since late 2020 and there are now ten active programmes spread across six NHS regions. UEA and the University of Plymouth have led the Group of Trainers for Clinical Associates in Psychology (GTiCAP) throughout this period of huge growth.
UEA opened its Clinical Associate in Psychology Masters Degree Apprenticeship programme in Norwich Medical School last December. The UEA CAP programme, which was also the first Degree Apprenticeship programme in MED, continues to expand. Having admitted its first cohort in December 2021, it secured funding for a second cohort with its NHS partners in September 2022.
To date, the UEA programme has focused on developing staff to work with adults with mental health problems. As a flexible training model, the CAP team at UEA is working collaboratively with NHS providers and commissioners to explore the development of a training route working with Children and Young People with mental health difficulties, for the third cohort of apprentices. This would ensure that young people can also benefit from this new NHS profession.
The development of CAP training at UEA and across England has been a huge collaborative effort and this award nomination is recognition of the hard work, dedication and achievement of everyone who has been involved. This work is developing a training pathway and workforce to support the transformation of mental health services.
