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Children and Young People's Psychological Trainings: Leadership in CYP Mental Health Services PG Cert

London, King's Cross (Anna Freud Centre)

This is the programme information for 2025/26 entry

If you require details of this year's programme, Children and Young People's Psychological Trainings: Leadership in CYP Leadership Mental Health Services PG Cert (2026/27), click here

UK students International students

Study mode

Part-time

UK tuition fees (2025/26)

See Fees Note

Overseas tuition fees (2025/26)

See Fees Note

Duration

1 calendar year

Programme starts

January 2026

Applications accepted

Entry requirements

Normally 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) and/or a registerable professional qualification in a relevant subject (e.g. medicine, psychology, social work) from a UK university or overseas professional qualification of an equivalent standard. Candidates without a degree, but with a minimum of three years professional experience in a CAMHS (or equivalent) setting together with a relevant professional qualification will also be considered.

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

The Leadership Course is a one-year programme for clinical leads & service managers committed to the delivery of high-quality care for children and young people. This Postgraduate certificate programme provides specialist post-qualification training for anyone in a leadership role implementing transformation & change in Children and Young People's Mental Health (CYPMH) and Wellbeing provision across Education, Voluntary Sectors, NHS or Social Care. The programme is applicable to all aspects of CYPMH service improvement with particular focus on implementing policy around CYPMH including: Future in Mind, the Green Paper, Five Year Forward View & the Long Term Plan. It is relevant to leaders and service managers with responsibility for delivering aspects of policy including The Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme (CYP IAPT), Mental Health Support Teams, Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP) & Children's wellbeing practitioner (CWP) new workforce development.

Who this course is for

The programme is aimed at experienced service leads where leading change and service improvement is part of their current position. Please note that you will need to be nominated by a manager in a CYP-MH service that has been allocated a place on the course to be considered.

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

What this course will give you

This programme aims to support your professional and personal development in your CYPMH leadership role. In particular, it aims to support you in the implementation of your transformation and change objectives. The programme firstly aims to be a resource for you in achieving locally determined goals. In this way, the intention is to ensure that the teaching, the small group work and the assignments are all designed to support real-world challenges and planned change rather than being an additional academic burden to participants who already have to manage high levels of demand with their work settings.
The intention of the programme is to enable you develop your knowledge and skills as a compassionate leader. To reflect on your own knowledge and expertise and to apply your previous experience in the implementation of the CYP Psychological trainings.
The programme aims to facilitate learning between managers and leaders and across services, by enabling learning about each other's context and by facilitating joint problem solving around implementation problems.

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

The foundation of your career

This programme aims to provide leaders with:

the necessary background knowledge and understanding to implement change within their CYPMH services,
the practical tools to manage this change effectively and
a framework for reflective practice and evaluation of the implementation process
critical knowledge of the theoretical, research and implementation literature that underpins such service change.
a space to reflect on issues of ethnicity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and their impact on leadership and service delivery.

Employability

The Leading Transformation and Change programme is founded on curricula developed through the national CYP IAPT programme by working groups of experts in their field, and in turn delivered by leading academics and clinicians at world class training organisations. At the end of the programme, students will be able to demonstrate knowledge and a critical understanding of:

The governments Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Services transformation programme
Outcomes Monitoring
Increasing young people’s participation in service improvement
Systemic theory around organisational change
Key findings from Implementation Science

Networking

There are different networking opportunities which can be through:

Teaching,
External speakers,
Tutors,
Peers,
Workplace.

Teaching and learning

The programme consists of twelve in-person full teaching days at Anna Freud London, combining academic lectures, seminars and small group tutorials which are highly tailored to working clinical leads & service managers. Programme participants particularly value the peer-based learning environment which the programme fosters.
It is delivered by highly experienced public sector and CAMHS managers and leaders and is based on real life experience in children and young people’s services.

The programme is assessed is through written assignments, an oral assessment and a project report of 5,000-8,000 words.

Contact hours: 12 teaching days (once a month) and each day is scheduled to start at 10:00 and finish at 16:00).
It is expected that private study and project work will comprise a minimum of 300 hours over the whole year or about 6 hours per week

Modules

The course is divided into two compulsory modules which run in parallel over the year:

Module 1: Leading Transformation and Change: Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Services (1) (30 Credits).
Module 1 includes 12 formal teaching days spread over the 12 month period, private study and project work throughout the year. The module will require the completion of:

One written assignment (2500 words, 15 credits),
One oral assignment (45 minutes, 15 credits).
Module 2: Leading Transformation and Change: Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Services (2) (30 Credits).

Small group seminars will support the completion of a 5000-8000 word written assignment based on a descriptive analysis of a Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Services focussed service transformation project.

Compulsory modules

Leading Transformation and Change: Children and Young People's Mental Health and Wellbeing Services (2)

Leading Transformation and Change: Children and Young People's Mental Health and Wellbeing Services (1)

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 two modules to the value of 60 credits. Upon successful completion of 60 credits, you will be awarded a PG Cert in Children and Young People's Psychological Trainings: Leadership in CYP Leadership Mental Health Services.

Accessibility

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

Visit us

All open days and events

19 November 2025

UCL Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL, United Kingdom - Open day

Life and Medical Sciences Postgraduate Open Evening

16:30 — 19:30

Are you interested in postgraduate studies at UCL in health, medicine, psychology or life sciences? Join us at our upcoming open evening where you can discover Masters degrees delivered by six UCL faculties: Brain Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, Population Health Sciences, and Social & Historical Sciences.

Fees and funding

Fees for this course

UK students International students

Fee description	Part-time
Tuition fees (2025/26)	See Fees Note
Tuition fees (2025/26)	See Fees Note

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

The tuition fees shown are for the year indicated above. Fees for subsequent years may increase or otherwise vary. Where the programme is offered on a flexible/modular basis, fees are charged pro-rata to the appropriate full-time Master's fee taken in an academic session. Further information on fee status, fee increases and the fee schedule can be viewed on the UCL Students website: ucl.ac.uk/students/fees.

Additional costs

There are no additional costs for this programme.

UCL’s main teaching locations are in zones 1 (Bloomsbury) and zones 2/3 (UCL East). The cost of a monthly 18+ Oyster travel card for zones 1-2 is £114.50. This price was published by TfL in 2024. For more information on additional costs for prospective students and the cost of living in London, please view our estimated cost of essential expenditure at UCL's cost of living guide.

Funding your studies

Places on this programme are funded by NHS England. For further details, contact the Anna Freud, or visit the CYP MH Workforce Development webpages.

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

There is no application fee for this programme.

When we assess your application we would like to learn:

Why you want to study Leading Transformation and Change at graduate level
Why you want to study Leading Transformation and Change Management 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 Leading Transformation and Change programme is not an ordinary application process. Partnerships have a preliminary stage where they bid for places on the programme. Managers, supervisors and therapists are then put forward by these particular partnerships to take part in the programme. Therefore, you have to be working within an organisation which is part of an existing Child IAPT collaborative to be considered for this programme.

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.

UCL is regulated by the Office for Students.