Workforce Development

Recent Developments in Northern England

In 2003 there were only 13 qualified Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists in the whole of the north of England and they were mainly in isolated posts without access to a clinical network or professional support.  The workforce has grown steadily thanks to the support of NSCAP and now in 2024 exceeds 100 qualified individuals and a number of well developed services with professionals in role from trainees through to Consultants and Heads of Service.  The geographic spread of qualified CPTs and trainees has also increased greatly so that child psychotherapy is available to a great many more children and families than it was previously.

However, there remain many areas where child and adolescent psychotherapy is not provided or only a very limited service is available.  There are local variations and inequity in the availability of specialist interventions for vulnerable children, young people and families whose needs may be complex, severe or enduring. 

Children and adolescents with severe emotional and behavioural disturbances require a coherent, skilled, timely, appropriate and effective response to their own personal difficulties and to the circumstances in which their problems are manifested. They are also most at risk of their problems escalating if effective treatment is not provided soon enough and will enter a destructive cycle of further deprivation, developmental breakdown and use of increasingly expensive interventions.

It is therefore essential that NSCAP continues to train and develop the child and adolescent psychotherapy workforce and to work with services across the region to implement specialist interventions for children, their families and the network of services in contact with them. We would be pleased to visit any service in the north of England that would like to find out more about the role that child and adolescent psychotherapy can play within effective multi-disciplinary teams. To arrange a meeting please contact Carolyn Wellings on 0113 8558750.