Child and Young Person IAPT Therapy, PG Dip

University College London (UCL) and King’s College London (KCL) are in partnership together to deliver the CYP IAPT training (Children and Young Peoples, Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) in London & the South East.  

CYP IAPT Courses are funded by National Health Service England (NHSE) with the aims of expanding the workforce to build capacity and fill gaps in provision. The courses run are delivered to current Managers, Supervisors and newly recruited practitioners in CAMHS & 3rd Sector services.  

There are five courses related to IAPT training. This page is dedicated to the CYP IAPT Recruit to Train, or also known as the Children and Young Persons IAPT Therapy Programme. 

The successfully recruited candidates will undertake a 1 year full-time training on the Postgraduate Diploma in CYP IAPT Therapy, usually starting in January.  

University days are around 2.5 days a week during term time, with the remaining time spent working in the service.  There are the occasional extra teaching days required for intensive training (such as for the Incredible Years training for 0-5s)

The course fees are covered by NHSE pending a successful application process. As this is a NHSE funded course with employment placements, prospective candidates for the UCL modalities must be able trainees must also be eligible for Home Fees and have plans to remain in the UK for at least 2 years post-graduation.

Course Brochures: 

ASC/LD Brochure 

CBT Brochure

IPT-A Brochure

0-5s Brochure

How do I apply? 

Application Process: 

Please note applications for these courses are a dual process. Prospective candidates must apply to the University course at the same time as one of the associated job adverts. The job advert will have guidance embedded into the advert about applying for the university course, however if this is not included, please contact the Programme Officer.  

Each service goes out to advertise individually and will conduct a standard recruitment process, however during the interview period they will share their shortlist with the University. The University will check their Applications Portal and confirm candidates’ course eligibility and report this to the service. The service will create a final shortlist with this information and will give a tentative offer to the applicant successful at the job interview (subject to final University and HR checks).  

Candidates can apply to multiple job adverts and to different modalities – however they should review the person specifications to ensure that their experience is suitable for each modality. Each job advert will have different recruitment forms to fill out, however per recruitment cycle, the University Portals only need to be filled out once no matter how many jobs are being applied for. Candidates should ensure that they have applied to the correct course and university (or in some cases, both KCL & UCL if applying across different modalities).  

We strongly recommend in your university application that you mention the modality (or modalities) you are applying for, and tailor your personal statement around the modality/modalities.  

For more information, please contact the Programme Officer.

Eligibility: 

Each service has their own criteria for assessing applications and so please pay attention to the person specification for each role. However, as a minimum university requirement for the course, candidates will normally need to demonstrate: 

- 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). 

* Applicants without a Bachelors degree but with relevant professional experience are encouraged to apply and will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

- A registerable professional qualification in a relevant subject (e.g. psychology, psychotherapy, counselling, social work, nursing) from a UK university or overseas professional qualification of an equivalent standards. 

- Two years’ experience of working within a professional setting concerned with the mental health of children and young people or families (e.g. as a mental health worker). 

- Experience of working professionally with children & families (e.g. as family support worker, psychosocial liaison, midwife, health visitor). 

- Capability to complete academic work at postgraduate diploma level, including IELTS or equivalent to the appropriate level for students with English as a foreign language (BAND D). More information can be found here.

- Eligible for UK Home fees at UCL.

As soon as funding for the programme is confirmed by National Health Service England, services will advertise for Recruit to Train practitioners. This is often through sites such as jobs.nhs.uk and healthjobsuk.com. We also recommend searching via a search engine such as Google which will display recent adverts. We recommend searching for and setting up alerts for terms such as:  

- ‘Recruit to Train Practitioner’ 

- ‘CYP IAPT practitioner’ 

- “ASC/LD practitioner’ or some other format of each modality

Please see the FAQ (updated regularly) for other information.  We strongly recommend you read this document as it contains a lot of helpful information. 

When can I apply? 

The course typically starts in January, with services advertising the roles anytime from mid-August - late November the year before. The University Portal typically opens from August. Service advertise individually and at different times.

The course will start in January 2024.  

The course is running from mid-January 2024, with Recruitment to begin from August through to early November. 

Candidates interested in applying should be actively researching for job adverts via search engines during the recruitment period to avoid missing any opportunities or application deadlines.  

When applying for a job, there will be guidance embedded into the advert about applying for the university course – you will need to apply to both the job and the university to be shortlisted for the role. 

Recruiting Services for January 2024 

We have compiled a list of services who will be recruiting for UCL modalities for the January 2024 training. Where possible, we will be aiming to add links to the relevant job adverts when they go live, so do visit this document regularly. 

Click here to view the recruiting services document on Google Drive

We have devised a comprehensive FAQ document for all prospective candidates interested in the course. We strongly recommend you review this FAQ as it will answer most questions you may have. Click here to view the FAQ document on Google Drive

Click here to view the UCL Programme Page

Prospective Candidate Webinar

If you missed our Prospective Candidate Webinar (2022), you can find the slides and the script here. A Webinar will run in 2023 for the 2024 course start date. The FAQs are also being updated with questions we received from the webinar and in emails. 

Contact

For further queries on the programme, please contact the Programme Team - cypiapttherapy@annafreud.org

Mailing List

Prospective candidates can sign up to our mailing list for updates from the Workforce Development Team. Where possible, we will aim to provide updates during the recruitment process but we would advise you to actively search for roles within your area to avoid missing out on any opportunities. 

Click here to sign up to our mailing list

'The experienced, knowledgeable, positive and focused tutors facilitated worthwhile discussion.' CYP IAPT Therapist 

'It was extremely useful and thought provoking.' CYP IAPT