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Child and Young Persons Psychological Wellbeing Practice PG Dip

London, King's Cross (Anna Freud Centre)

UK students International students

Study mode

Full-time

UK tuition fees (2024/25)

See Fees Note

Overseas tuition fees (2024/25)

See Fees Note

Duration

1 academic year

Programme starts

January 2024

Applications accepted

January 2024 entry: 02 Aug – 19 Dec 2023

Applications closed

Find similar courses still open

Entry requirements

Normally a minimum of a second-class Bachelor's degree from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard is required. No prior professional experience or accreditation is required.

The English language level for this programme is: Level 2

UCL Pre-Master's and Pre-sessional English courses are for international students who are aiming to study for a postgraduate degree at UCL. The courses will develop your academic English and academic skills required to succeed at postgraduate level.

Further information can be found on our English language requirements page.

Equivalent qualifications

Country-specific information, including details of when UCL representatives are visiting your part of the world, can be obtained from the International Students website.

International applicants can find out the equivalent qualification for their country by selecting from the list below. Please note that the equivalency will correspond to the broad UK degree classification stated on this page (e.g. upper second-class). Where a specific overall percentage is required in the UK qualification, the international equivalency will be higher than that stated below. Please contact Graduate Admissions should you require further advice.

About this degree

This programme aims to train a new workforce for CAMHS: Children’s Wellbeing Practitioners.

The programme is only available to those who have been offered CWP trainee roles in one of our partnering CYP-IAPT MH sites.

The content of the curriculum is specified at a national level and covers a range of evidence-based interventions currently available for work with children, young people and their families experiencing mental health and behavioural difficulties. Teaching is provided by highly experienced practitioners and supported by supervisors within your work setting; and supervisors oversee your day to day work with children and young people.

Graduates will complement the work of existing practitioners by building better links with communities and offering rapid access to low intensity evidence-based treatment interventions, for mild to moderate mental health difficulties.

Themes and topics covered throughout the year include consideration of how to work with young people and their parents, development of CWP skills; understanding anxiety, depression and challenging behaviours, and exploring the evidence base for low intensity interventions and Guided Self Help (GSH) treatments currently available in these areas. Furthermore, you will work towards increasing accessibility to services by working with diverse populations from a community based and primary care service model, including prevention, health promotion, group work, training others/consultations skills, as well as 1-1 interventions with young people and parents.

Who this course is for

This programme involves a dual application process. This includes a university application and a separate application for a role as a Children's Wellbeing Practitioner (CWP) with one of our partnering mental health services. These can be found on job sites online. Please do not apply to the course unless you are also applying for one of these posts. Your University application will not be processed unless you have been invited to an interview with one of our CWP training sites. Please see our website for more information.

Read about what it takes to study for a Master's at UCL

What this course will give you

Alumni from this programme normally gain employment as Child Wellbeing Practitioners in a variety of settings including schools, NHS clinics, Local Authorities and charities.

Read about what you'll get out of a graduate programme

The foundation of your career

Alumni from this programme normally gain employment as Child Wellbeing Practitioners in a variety of settings including schools, NHS clinics, Local Authorities and charities

Employability

Successful applicants will be undertaking this programme in conjunction with their service role, typically in the CAMHS workforce (but also in local authorities, schools, or third sector organisations) as a Children’s Wellbeing Practitioner.

Networking

Students can attend the CWP Shared Learning Event to hear from other students about their experiences and network with colleagues.

Teaching and learning

The learning you acquire on this programme will be a combination of the theory and practical skills you undertake within the university setting coupled with your practical learning while undertaking case work within the CYP setting you are employed within. The balance of time spent on these two areas of learning varies as the programme progresses, with a weighting towards some classroom learning, online learning and skills practice sessions at the beginning of the programme which gradually moves towards more of an emphasis on work based CWP setting learning later. Teaching is a combination of pre-recorded lectures, live synchronous teaching, in-person lecture-style workshops and small group seminars delivered by leading practitioners in the field.

Teaching days will involve a combination of pre-recorded materials to view online, in-person/livestreamed lectures, whole group discussion and exercises, workshops, online quizzes/discussions forums, as well as small group project work in skills practice groups. Skills Practice Groups involve you presenting video examples of current case work. Skills Practice tutoring is carried out by the staff members of the programme. It involves detailed analysis and practice of assessment and conceptualisation, strategy and techniques of intervention. It is aimed very much at skill development rather than case management. This will enable you to develop the skills required to engage CYP and their parents and to effectively deliver a range of interventions. Project work will cover critical evaluation of the evidence base and research studies undertaken for various interventions when working with CYP. Teaching days will typically be a full day with a break for lunch, both online and in-person. Assessment on the programme will comprise a combination of written, oral (presentations) and video assessments. At the end of the week, a lecture is generally convened which consolidates learning from the week and provides an opportunity for expansion on key areas of learning.

This programme is divided into six modules aimed at teaching you the compulsory competencies and skills required to work with children and young people in mental health settings.

The six compulsory modules run in parallel and are assessed over the programme of the year by a variety of assignments, including written and digital video recordings of your therapy sessions and reflective analyses, as well as a service-based portfolio of clinical work carried out throughout the programme of the programme.

Teaching Day hours from 10am - 4pm.

Self study days - Number of self study days will be provided in the timetable.

Modules

This is a full-time programme, taught across one year, where you spend part of the week in face-to-face classroom-based learning with the majority of teaching delivered online and the remainder of the week employed in a workplace setting working with children and young people.

The teaching programme is made up of six compulsory modules, which are run in parallel throughout the year, totalling 120 credits.

These cover developing the necessary skills to engage with children and young people and their families and deliver effective prevention and intervention models, psychoeducation, developing understanding of the evidence base of treatments and how to critically evaluate this, and an understanding of the contexts within which interventions will be delivered and in which you will be working, including group work in community and healthcare settings.

Throughout the year, you will typically attend a maximum of three days per week of university training and will spend the remaining days working within your service. As your CWP skills and knowledge develop, you will spend less time on the university programme and more time in your work setting or in private study time.

Compulsory modules

Fundamental Skills: Children and Young People's Mental Health Settings: Context and Values

Fundamental Skills: Assessment and Engagement

Evidence based interventions: Theory & Skills

Working, assessing and engaging in community based and primary care settings

Mental health prevention in community based and primary care settings

Interventions for emerging mental health difficulties in community and primary care settings

Please note that the list of modules given here is indicative. This information is published a long time in advance of enrolment and module content and availability are subject to change. Modules that are in use for the current academic year are linked for further information. Where no link is present, further information is not yet available.

Students undertake modules to the value of 120 credits. Upon successful completion of 120 credits, you will be awarded a PG Dip in Child and Young Persons Psychological Wellbeing Practice.

Accessibility

Details of the accessibility of UCL buildings can be obtained from AccessAble accessable.co.uk. Further information can also be obtained from the UCL Student Support and Wellbeing team.

Fees and funding

Fees for this course

UK students International students

Fee description	Full-time
Tuition fees (2024/25)	See Fees Note
Tuition fees (2024/25)	See Fees Note

Fees for this programme are available on request from the department.

Additional costs

This programme has no additional costs.

For more information on additional costs for prospective students please go to our estimated cost of essential expenditure at Accommodation and living costs.

Funding your studies

Places on this programme are funded by National Health Service England. For further details, please visit the Anna Freud webpages on the Children's Wellbeing Practitioner Programme to find out more.

For a comprehensive list of the funding opportunities available at UCL, including funding relevant to your nationality, please visit the Scholarships and Funding website.

See all the ways you can fund your studies

Next steps

When we assess your application we would like to learn:

Why you want to study CYP Psychological Wellbeing Practice at graduate level
Why you want to study CYP Psychological Wellbeing Practice at UCL
What particularly attracts you to this programme
How your academic and professional background meets the demands of this rigorous programme
Where you would like to go professionally with your degree

Together with essential academic requirements, the personal statement is your opportunity to illustrate whether your reasons for applying to this programme match what the programme will deliver.

The application to the CYP Psychological Wellbeing Practice PG Dip is not an ordinary application process. Mental health services across NHS, local authority and voluntary sectors working in London and the South East of England make an application to join the London and South East IAPT Learning Collaborative. On successful entry to the Collaborative, services will then advertise Children's Wellbeing Practitioner Posts. All applicants to these posts will be required to submit an application form to UCL in addition to a job application to the relevant Service. You must be successfully appointed as a Children's Wellbeing Practitioner working within an organisation which is part of the London and South East IAPT Learning Collaborative to be considered for this programme. Please see our website for more information.

Please note that you may submit applications for a maximum of two graduate programmes (or one application for the Law LLM) in any application cycle.

This programme requires two references. Further information regarding references can be found on this Selecting your references page.

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