Children, Adolescents & Families Specialist Interest Group (CAFSIG)

To join CAFSIG please contact BABCP office babcp@babcp.com. If you are not yet a member of BABCP, find out more here: Join BABCP

To contact the branch please email: cafsig@babcp.com

Teaching/Training Sub Group

Mission statement:

This sub-group aims to co-ordinate the provision of teaching and training events in the area of CBT with children, adolescents and families.

Aims and objectives:

• To ensure the provision of a variety of training events aimed at people with different levels of expertise in CBT with children.
• To encourage an ethos of discussion and sharing of ideas to promote the development of this field.
• To ensure the provision of a wide range of events covering the spectrum of theory, research and clinical techniques and practice.

To promote accessibility of training events by locating them nationwide.

Committee Members

Training Courses

For information regarding training courses please see:

BABCP Level 2 Accredited Courses (including IAPT)
BABCP Level 1 Accredited Courses
Advertised Courses

Accreditation Information

It is recognised that it is difficult for CBT clinicians working with children to gain accreditation, mainly due to the difficulties with supervision. On discussion with Amanda Cole, Chair of the Accreditation and Registration Sub-Committee of BABCP, the following advice for clinicians working with children and considering accreditation was provided.

1. In order to meet criteria for accreditation, supervision must have a clear CBT basis.
2. CBT supervision does not necessarily need to be provided by an accredited supervisor, but could be from an ‘accreditable' supervisor. This means that an individual's supervisor need only meet criteria for accreditation, which would be judged by the A&R committee at point of application.
3. Telephone supervision and/or peer supervision are acceptable forms of supervision.
4. Where no child CBT supervisor is available, the combination of a supervisor using CBT with adults (for technical advice) and a more generic supervisor working with children (for case management issues) is the preferred option.
5. Amanda Cole wanted to encourage clinicians using CBT with children who consider that they may meet criteria for accreditation to make applications to the sub-committee. If, upon doing so, the application were not successful, the sub-committee would provide detailed feedback as to how they could improve their application in the future.

Supervision

This is a list of CBT practitioners who work with the child and adolescent population and are willing to offer and are willing to offer specific child and adolescent supervision to other practitioners in their area. BABCP members can search for accredited supervisors by logging into the members area.

The child, adolescent and families special interest branch is not able to make specific recommendations about individuals.

Links

Royal College of Psychiatrists - Child & Adolescent Mental Health

A Quality Framework for Supervision of CBT with children, young people and families

Quality in supervision is a key factor in provision of quality therapy, therapist skills progression and workforce development. Despite CBT being a key evidence-based intervention for core presentations to child and adolescent mental health services, it remains the case that many therapists offering CBT within mental health services for young people still have difficulties accessing appropriate supervision. Furthermore, where such supervision is available, service structures or requirements can at times also constrain best practice.

We at CAFSIG aim to promote quality therapeutic practice, supervision and research into CBT with children, young people and families and so would like to ask BABCP members to support us in compiling a best practice statement for supervision of CBT with children, young people and families that will hopefully support supervisors, therapists and service managers enhance quality of CBT supervision and therapy with young people, therapist development and ultimately workforce development.

We propose a framework of four interacting domains, or levels, that influence quality of supervision and its transmission into quality in therapeutic practice, positive outcomes for young people and therapist skills and development:

1. Contextual domain: (National and local e.g. service context, organisational arrangements, national guidelines, etc)
2. Supervision of supervision level: (What processes or practical arrangements are most helpful, what contracting arrangements, evaluation, documentation, etc)
3. Supervision level (What models are helpful, what sessional process, contracting arrangements, evaluation, documentation, etc)
4. Therapy level (What models are helpful, what process, contracting arrangements, evaluation e.g. ROMs or specific symptom or behavioural measures, documentation, etc)

We would therefore be very interested to hear from anyone working therapeutically with young people or supervising those that do about the things that, at this time of immense change in mental services for young people, have been most helpful in supervision you either provide or receive to support CBT with children, young people and families. For example, there have been some very useful developments in outcome monitoring and service transformation. How for example have these factors affected quality of supervision and what insights can be usefully be integrated? What models of supervision do you use, what session structure, contracts, etc?

Please email your thoughts directly to me at: nicola.dummett@nhs.net

Nicky Dummett BABCP CAFSIG Lead for Supervision