A clinical psychologist from the University of Plymouth has collected a prestigious national award for work that’s boosting the NHS’s ability to support mental health.
Clinical Associate in Psychology (CAP) is a new professional role and Plymouth’s Dr Pete Keohane co-chairs the Group of Trainers in Clinical Associate in Psychology (GTiCAP), alongside the University of East Anglia’s Dr Paul Fisher.
The group won the Best Educational Programme for the NHS award at the recent Health Service Journal (HSJ) Partnership Awards, and the initiative was also highly commended in the Best Mental Health Partnership in the NHS category.
Dr Keohane says:
“The University of Plymouth has played a core part in developing and delivering Clinical Associate in Psychology Training locally, regionally and nationally. We are so proud to win this award. The amazing work of GTiCAP and of our highly popular Plymouth CAP Degree Apprenticeship programme is providing a new psychological mental health workforce for the NHS.”
The NHS needs to increase the psychology workforce by 60 per cent by 2024, yet in England in 2020 only 18 per cent of psychology graduates were accepted on to clinical psychology courses via traditional training routes.
GTiCAP is changing that and now comprises 10 training providers, training CAPS in six NHS England regions, with 420 CAPs either qualified or in training.
The HSJ awards’ judges described CAPs as "an accessible training pathway which embeds widening participation and demonstrable benefit to communities. This is workforce transformation and has recognisable service benefit across systems and MDTs".
CAPs further improve support for people with mental health conditions and to help bridge the gap between the roles of Assistant Psychologist and Clinical Psychologist. They are already having a substantial impact in the services that they have been commissioned – reducing waiting times, improving care and enabling meaningful transformation within the NHS. These awards demonstrate the importance and impact that they are having on the ground.
In collecting the award at the ceremony hosted by Joel Dommett, the University of Plymouth’s Dr Lealah Hewitt-Johns and Dr Keohane were joined by GTiCA(A)P members and co-chair, NHS Trailblazers, CAP supervisors and, most importantly, the CAPs themselves.
