The Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism Programme Psychological Professions Workforce Strategy aims to identify and meet the challenges facing the psychological professions now and in the future.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, there was increasing demand for access to psychological therapies, with people wanting safe and effective services that provided a choice of treatment and support but the 2021 trajectory expansion target of the NHS Five Year Forward View for Mental Health for an additional 6,425 psychological professionals in an expanded mental health workforce has not been met.
The Psychological Professions are all key roles in trying to address this demand for psychologicaly informed care, influencing and shaping the development of services; delivering therapeutic activity and evaluating impact. This new strategy looks at how the Partnership's Mental Health Provider Collaborative will grow and build this workforce.
What is P2P3?
P2P3 is a project that has been set up in West Yorkshire to provide online training resources to anyone pursuing a career in the psychological professions. All the resources are hosted and accessed online, on a platform called Blackboard (see below for how to register). The training resources are designed to help anyone who is looking to pursue a career in the psychological professions, e.g. psychologist, psychological therapist. They cover a wide range of topics, including introductions to key theories and models, clinical skills, research and evaluation, and professional issue.
Who is P2P3 for?
P2P3 is currently available to anyone aspiring psychological professional in Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust (BDCT), Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT), or South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SWYT). This might be an assistant psychologist, mental health wellbeing practitioner, clinical associate in psychology, for example. Any P2P3 users must be receiving regular supervision from a qualified member of staff. We strongly encourage users to discuss their use of P2P3 resources in supervision and make use of the training plans and reflective logs available on the platform.
How to access
To gain access to the P2P3 platform on Blackboard, please follow these registration instructions. Please ensure that you discuss with your supervisor before registering. After completing the process, you will be required to email Clare Dowzer (copy in your supervisor) who will confirm your access. A link to Blackboard is contained in the registration document or can be found here.
How to use the P2P3 resources
P2P3 is still in its pilot phase, and as such not all of the resources have been created. However, there is plenty on there already to access. Resources include a mixture of video lectures, demonstrations, e-learning packages, and links to helpful materials. The best place to start is by looking through the different folders and familiarising yourself with what is available. There are handy documents in the 'how to use' folder, including training plan and reflective log templates to aid your learning. The platform is also used to make announcements about upcoming events.
If you have any questions, please email the P2P3 project lead, David Turgoose, at david.turgoose@bdct.nhs.uk.
