Clinical Associate in Psychology - Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

The Clinical Associate in Psychology Programme in EPUT is an 18-month Masters (Level 7) qualification. The programme is validated by the University of Essex, who confer the MSc upon successful completion of the course.

The EPUT programme is unique in England as the only CAP course delivered by an NHS Trust, partnered by a university. This allows the programme to be closely in tune with the employers of our CAPs, ensuring the programme is aligned and responsive to workplace needs.

We are also one of the only courses offering two specific MSc workplace pathways:

Adult Mental Health Pathway training CAPs working across all adult mental health services, including inpatient services and specialist services such as early intervention and personality disorder services, as well as adult community mental health teams.
Health, Ageing and Disability Pathway training CAPs working in clinical health psychology services, services for older people, learning disability services and neurodevelopmental services including with autistic people and their families.

The EPUT-Essex course is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS). This means that the programme complies with the training standards set out by the BPS and that graduates of the programme are eligible to join the BPS Wider Workforce Register as a qualified CAP.

Criteria to apply

You will need to have a minimum of an upper second-class Honours degree in Psychology (or in some cases a 2.2 will be accepted with appropriate additional experience, or contextual information, demonstrating academic potential).

You may also be eligible if you have completed a Psychology Conversion degree.

Whatever Psychology degree you have, you need to be eligible for Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) of the British Psychological Society (BPS). You can find more information about GBC on the BPS website: https://www.bps.org.uk/

How we train:

The majority of the practical learning takes places in students’ workplaces, with students released for a day each week to attend the academic programme. A blended Learning approach is taken here, with both in-person and remote teaching and workshops. The in-person sessions every month allow students to come together as a cohort and get to know each other, which supports their work across the group assignments as well as providing them with a supportive network during their training. The remote sessions allow students in disparate workplaces to join the taught programme easily and efficiently without a lengthy journey to start and end each teaching day.

We embrace and Adult learner model in which the students are at the centre of their own training, each with their own individual learning plan to tailor the programme to their particular learning needs. The students learn in a combination of full cohort and smaller learning set formats, with learning using a wide range of approaches to appeal to different learning styles, including didactic teaching, workshops and simulations. Workplace application is critical to the students learning, and they have guided learning time each week that is designed to support their application.

We keep in close contact with our students workplace supervisors and line managers, with supervision groups, staff-employer liaison meetings and post-qualification groups to ensure we maintain a truly ‘joined up’ approach to the MSc.

What role can CAPs play in your service?

CAPs are trained to work with clients specific to their workplace, including those with complex and enduring conditions, and to be able to conduct evidence-based psychological assessment, formulation and intervention within their scope of practice. Once qualified they are able to develop independent working, under the supervision of a registered Practitioner Psychologist who retains clinical responsibility for their case load.

All CAPs have training in the theory and practice of CBT and other third wave models specific to their workplace setting. They are also trained in evaluation and research and can take a lead on this work within their service. CAPs are expected to be an active member of their MDT and are trained to be able to deliver training, education as well as offering consultation and support to other professional groups.

Our recent graduate on the Adult Mental Health CAP pathway, Emilie Sachs reflects on her qualified experience:

My role is extremely varied which is amazing! I offer psychology assessments, individual and group interventions, attend and represent psychology in MDT meetings. I have also delivered trainings to staff, consultations to members of the CMHT and joined up team working with service users. I am also co-leading a service development project which has involved service development, evaluations, development of service offers of intervention and also presenting to a board of trust directors to share developments thus far.

There are many training and CPD opportunities available to us as qualified CAPs. Since qualifying I have completed the 2 day DBT skills training, working with complex PTSD and also metacognitive training in Psychosis, which provide the opportunity to enhance skills and understanding for the difficulties our service users present with.

Qualifying as a CAP has opened up a wide range of career progression routes for me. I am due to commence a PGDip in CBT for serious mental health, with a specialist interest route in the final year with Psychosis. Completing this will then allow me to become fully accredited with the BABCP and subsequently provide opportunities for further development. This is very exciting!

Thinking of employing a CAP?

Meet the programme: We’d be more than happy to arrange a time meet you and your team to consider your requirements for a CAP in your service, what pathway would be most suitable to join, and what specialist teaching they would require. Over the course of training four cohorts of CAPs we have gained an in-depth understanding of how best to train CAPs, the key components of a successful workplace experience as well as witnessing first hand our graduate CAPs grow and thrive in their workplace and become an incredibly valued and essential part of their team. We can support you and your team to consider the most suitable role for CAPs in your workplace and support you with all aspects of the recruitment process. We can advise on how to create a workplace in which they can train and a qualified environment in which they can thrive and will continue to work closely with you to offer ongoing support and collaboration once the trainee CAP is in post

Meet other employers in your speciality working with CAPs: We can link you up with other employers in your speciality who are already employing CAPs in training or qualified CAP roles to understand how best to utilise CAPs in your workplace and to get a better sense of the ‘on the ground’ reality of training a CAP. We have employers across adult mental health, older adult, learning disability, neurodiversity and clinical health services who are happy to speak with prospective employers about their experience.

Meet with a CAP: A number of our trainee CAPs as well as graduate CAPs from the EPUT programme are happy to meet with prospective CAPs or employers to talk more about their experiences, provide key tips for training and think with your team more about the CAP role in your service.

Read about other employers experiences: ‘They are assets and enable broader access to our profession’ | BPS