CHECK LIST: QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER WHEN SETTING UP
A MENTAL HEALTH TRAINING PROGRAMME
NB YOU SHOULD THINK ABOUT EACH OF THESE STEPS BEFORE COMMISSIONING
OR DELIVERING YOUR TRAINING
Contact Gill Allen ([email protected]) for further information
1. Who is the right person to lead on this?
- This agenda needs to be driven by a ‘champion’
- Ideally they will have a borough-wide remit, good relationships with schools
and the status / authority to set up and maintain a steering group
2. Who else needs to be involved?
- Multi-agency and multi-disciplinary is favourable – eg specialist CAMHS,
educational psychology, voluntary sector, healthy schools co-ordinator,
Connexions, school nurses, behaviour & attendance, PSHE / SEAL and schools
representative
- Having commissioners on board will be helpful in sustaining your training
programme
3. Do you need to establish a steering group?
- Yes, but perhaps there is a group already established that’s well placed to
incorporate this agenda (you will need to think about whether some
adjustments are needed and whether they have the capacity to take this on)
- The steering group will need to be properly organised with terms of reference,
scheduled meetings, agenda, minutes etc
- Think also about how it will link to existing strategic partnerships so the work
doesn’t develop in isolation
4. What operational and strategic links need to be made / in place?
- Your training programme should be aligned to your broader CAMHS strategy –
are there priorities for training which will enable other aspects of the CAMHS
strategy to be successfully implemented?
- Ensure you understand your local priorities for improvement (from, for
example, your Children & Young People’s Plan, workforce development plan or
CAMHS strategy), commissioning priorities and any performance issues
- Establish links with other relevant partnerships and accountability to ensure
progress continues in the event of key people leaving
5. What Tier 1 training has been / is already being undertaken?
- You may need to undertake an audit of EHWB / CAMHS training across Tier 1 /
schools (there are often a number of providers, including specialist CAMHS,
educational psychology, behaviour teams, school improvement, voluntary
sector etc)
- Think about your current training in terms of its quality, impact and
sustainability
Establish where the gaps are, in terms of who is being trained, what they are
being trained on, quality etc
6. What is your budget?
- What resources are available, can you pool different training budgets to
develop a sustainable programme?
- Can you join forces with another borough to develop a more cost-effective
approach?
- Are there any resources associated with strategic development / service
redesign?
7. What existing training packages are available locally and nationally and what do they
cost?
- Everybody’s Business includes free online trainers packages, e-learning
materials, modules on understanding mental health, infant mental health and
mental health promotion and for emergency first contact staff
(www.chimat.org.uk/default.aspx?QN=MENT_TIER1).
- What evidence is there about the effectiveness of the training and how has it
been evaluated? Is there evidence that the training makes an impact on
practice or does it just consider trainee satisfaction?
8. How engaged are tier 1 services and what needs to be done to secure their
engagement?
- Remember workforce development is a key part of any service development /
redesign / improvement project
- Promote the link to school improvement, using Healthy Schools and SEAL as a
‘way in’
- Do you need different approaches for different staff groups?
- What approaches have worked well before?
- Can you offer accreditation or free training as incentives?
9. Who should be targeted for the training?
- Consider targeting SENCOs, pastoral staff, heads of year – ie those with the
opportunity, authority and capacity to disseminate
- Contact managers / head teachers to enable staff to be released and warn
against short-termism – eg nominating junior non-teaching staff who may be
easier to release but less effective afterwards
- Use your mapping of existing training and other local issues (eg patterns of
inappropriate referral to specialist CAMHS) to think about priority groups of
Tier 1 staff
10. How should the training be organised?
- Options include INSET, twilight, on-line, whole staff group, targeted staff (by
role or age of CYP worked with), multi-agency, school cluster training etc
- Consider consulting on the different options to maximise uptake
- Think about one-off training vs a rolling programme / refresher training to both
meet needs and deal with staff turnover
- Think about additional support mechanisms that may be needed (see Q15)
- Get dates into training diaries and ensure they don’t clash with other key dates
(NB INSET days needs to be booked in well in advance)
- Are you able to afford / do you have access to a training co-ordinator who can
administer the programme?
-
11. Who will deliver the training?
- Local partner: eg specialist CAMHS, educational psychology or PMHWs –
benefits as understand local picture and issues, helps to build relationships
between the tiers, more sustainable but may not be skilled at training (see
Q17)
- External partner: eg Young Minds or Place2Be – skilled in delivering training,
tried and tested programmes. Be clear about ownership / dissemination of
materials and any follow-up work (see Q17)
- Combination: benefit of both worlds?
12. What is the purpose and aim of the training?
- Capacity building, raising awareness, affirming practice, developing knowledge
and / or skills, improving attitudes?
- The answers may have implications for the content of the training, how it is
delivered, the type and number of tools introduced, evaluation method etc
13. How will the training be delivered?
- Think about different learning styles and try to use a combination of
PowerPoint, case vignettes, engagement techniques, quizzes, practice tools etc
- The balance between didactic / experiential training and between theory /
practice is important if you’re seeking to incorporate learning into practice
- Small groups of 15-20 work well as they encourage participants to get to know
each other, break down barriers and allow for reflection regarding personal
mental health and wellbeing
- A series of half days (on different days) with tasks to do in between works well
14. What sort of content are you looking for?
- A basic programme will generally require an introduction to mental health and
CAMHS, knowing when to refer and the concept of watchful waiting
- Staff are also often interested in the issues they come across most often – eg
depression and anxiety, self harm, eating disorders, parental mental illness,
domestic violence, risk & resilience, engaging and working with families
- Consider consulting on the needs of different staff groups but be aware that
perceived need is not always the same as actual need (eg staff often ask for
anger management training but they need to understand the behaviour)
15. Will any follow-up be offered?
- Remember that this type of training can evoke powerful feelings in trainees.
This should be acknowledged in the ‘ground rules’ agreed between trainer and
trainees and time should be built in to training sessions to acknowledge the
impact this type of work can have.
- Would additional support mechanisms help to embed the learning, encourage
a culture of reflective practice and make the training more cost-effective – eg
supervision, work discussion groups, consultation?
- Who is best placed to deliver this?
- How will it work best and what is affordable? Telephone support? Group
support? Cluster-based peer support?
16. How will you know if you’re achieving your objectives?
- A number of tools are available – eg
- start and end of course questionnaires (eg around knowledge and
attitudes)
- use of case vignettes to assess ability to identify mental health problems
and knowledge of how to respond
- semi-structured interviews / focus groups with trainees and / or line
managers to assess impact on practice
- Consider undertaking 3-month / 6-month follow-ups to assess longer-term
impact
- Ensure you use the findings to make improvements to your training
programme
- See London CAMHS Programme legacy CD-ROM <Tier 1 training \ Charlie
Waller \ training materials \ questionnaires> for examples of tools that can be
used
17. Have you thought about how the learning could be disseminated?
- Are those who have been trained in a position to pass on their learning (NB
implications for training materials in terms of copyright, ease of reproduction
etc) or could they be supported to take on this role?
- Consider training for trainers to broaden your base of skilled trainers