Facilitating and limiting factors of training available to staff of specialist CAMHS
| Pages | 22-31 |
| Published date | 01 September 2008 |
| Date | 01 September 2008 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17556228200800018 |
| Author | Ruth Edwards,Richard Williams,Nisha Dogra,Michelle O'Reilly,Panos Vostanis |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
22
Facilitating and limiting factors of training
available to staff of specialist CAMHS
Abstract
Specialist CAMHS provide skilled assessment and
interventions for children, young people and their
families who have mental health disorders. The
training needs of the staff who work in specialist
CAMHS are not always clear or prioritised, due to the
complexities and differing contexts in which
specialist CAMHS are provided. The aim of this paper
was to establish stakeholders’ experiences of service
complexities and challenges that affect training
within specialist CAMHS. The project employed
interviews to gain wide-ranging consultation with
key stakeholder groups. The sample consisted of 45
participants recruited from policy departments,
professional bodies, higher education providers,
commissioners, service managers, and practitioners.
The participants identified a number of themes that
limit training, and put forward solutions on how
these could be facilitated in the future. Emerging
themes related to leadership and the role of service
managers, strategic management of training,
commissioning, levels of staff training, resources,
impact of training on service users, and availability of
training programmes. The findings emphasise the
need for the strategic workforce planning of
training to meet service delivery goals. Policy,
commissioning, workforce training strategies,
service needs, and delivery of training should be
integrated and closely linked.
Key words
training; education; competencies; CAMHS; staff
Introduction
The UK policy document, Together We Stand (NHS Health
AdvisoryService (HAS), 1995), identified that specialist
CAMHS had developed on an ad hoc basis without any
strategic or workforce planning. This led to significant
reviews of service provision, policy change and service
redesign (Williams & Kerfoot, 2005). Increasingly,
national policies are promoting child-centred delivery of
services to meet children’s mental health needs by
joining up previously fragmented provision (DfES, 2003;
DoH, 2004a; 2004b). Every Child Matters (DfES, 2003)
placed children and young people’s needs as a definite
priority for all agencies.
The National Service Framework for Children, Young
People and Maternity Services in England (NSF) (DoH,
2004a), set standards and objectives for the
commissioning and provision of comprehensive child
mental health services. Additionally, there has been
increased pressurefor services to become moreclinically-
and cost-effective. The implementation of the NSF and
achievement of current service reforms, visions and
targets have led to several challenges, including those to
workforce design and planning, to ensure that the child
and adolescent mental health workforce is adequately
equipped, both in capacity, and through appropriate
Ruth Edwards
Research Associate, Greenwood Institute of Child Health, University of Leicester
Richard Williams
Professor of Mental Health Strategy, Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care, University of Glamorgan
Nisha Dogra
Senior Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Greenwood Institute of Child Health, University of Leicester
Michelle O’Reilly
Lecturer in Psychology, Greenwood Institute of Child Health, University of Leicester
Panos Vostanis
Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Greenwood Institute of Child Health, University of Leicester
The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice Volume 3 Issue 3 September 2008 © Pavilion Journals (Brighton) Ltd
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