REGIONAL WORKSTREAM:
Age-inclusive Psychological Therapies in Primary Care
INTRODUCTION
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) is hosting the
development of a clinically-focused Age-inclusive Psychological Therapies workstream
to engage health care professionals within Primary Care. The purpose of this
workstream is to promote and model a smooth transition of responsibility by hosting
networking events away from the Strategic Health Authority (SHA) into local systems.
This Psychological Therapies forum will sit alongside a number of other clinically-specific
workstreams, and will be encompassed within an overarching Mental Health and
Learning Disabilities Managed Clinical Network (MCN) for the NHS East of England
(EoE). The MCN will be hosted by the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ (RCoP) College
Centre for Quality Improvement (CCQI).
BACKGROUND
This workstream will focus on the clinical domain of Age-inclusive Primary Care
Psychological Therapies. Although the specific remit of the workstream will be selfdetermined by its clinical stakeholders and members, the overall aim of the workstream
is to establish a good practice sharing forum for the development of primary care
focussed Psychological Therapy (PT) services across the age range identified within the
NHS Operating Framework. Responding to the cross-government mental health strategy
‘No Health without Mental Health’ and the ‘Talking Therapies: A four year plan of action’,
this workstream will support primary care services to consolidate* and extend** their
Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programmes to the following
sectors of the community:
 Adults of all ages* but paying particular attention to Older People over 65 (OP)**;
 Children and Young People (CYP)**;
 People with physical Long Term Conditions (LTC) or Medically unexplained
Symptoms (MUS) caused by psychological distress**;
 People with Severe Mental Illness**.
KEY PRINCIPLES
A key outcome of the project will be to establish agreement amongst stakeholders
regarding the ultimate destination and governance of the workstream to enable it to
flourish beyond the span of the SHA. A secondary outcome will be to facilitate
leadership and expertise to ensure that discussions about policy, practice,
commissioning and service design will enhance quality, assure safety, and deliver both
improved outcomes and efficiencies.
RATIONALE FOR ESTABLISHING A PSYCHOLOCIAL THERAPIES WORKSTREAM
Stakeholders across mental and physical health have indicated a wish to retain the
benefits of networks which were previously hosted by the SHA. The benefits of
participating in this Psychological Therapies workstream will include:
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Developing clinical leadership, engagement and expertise to inform the
commissioning and delivery of services;
Promoting transparency, openness and accountability in the commissioning and
delivery of health and social care services;
Ensuring the effective implementation of national policy and guidance;
Promoting seamless age-inclusive patient care with the objectives of prevention,
health promotion and early intervention to improve the population’s health and
wellbeing;
Agreeing common principles, protocols and pathways to guide practice and
services;
Integrating care across existing professional and health-care boundaries;
Recognising the diversity of professional contributions;
Promoting more equitable service provision for patients;
Supporting the dissemination of good practice across the East of England.
Stakeholders
An over-arching principle of establishing this workstream will be the adoption of a multidisciplinary and multi-professional approach, which includes (but is not limited to):
 Clinicians and managers from mental health, physical health and social care
provider organisations in the statutory, third and private sectors;
 Health and social care commissioners from current and emerging commissioning
organisations (e.g. local authorities, PCTs and CCGs), and the NHS
commissioning board;
 Education and training providers;
 Service users and carers.
Functions
The primary function of this workstream will be to support primary care service
development and innovation by the sharing of information and knowledge. Hosted
workstream events will build capacity and capability for working with all sectors of IAPT
client groups through the sharing of:
 Evidence-based practice;
 Information, good practice, training and education;
 Outcomes of clinical audit, service evaluations and research.
This Psychological Therapies workstream will provide opportunities to examine and
discuss key initiatives and projects to:
 Ensure practice is in line with Department of Health Key Performance Indicators;
 Evaluate the implementation and impact of Payment by Results (PbR);
 Disseminate the outcomes of service evaluations and pilots involving OP and
CYP, as well as service users with LTC, MUS and SMI;
 Deliver services in primary care community settings rather than in hospitals;
 Provide strategic leadership by bringing together members to plan and monitor
service commissioning with regards to the implementation of local action plans;
 Provide a systematic overview of the health and social care needs of the
population;
 Promote equality and diversity.
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Activities (to be agreed):
This workstream will utilise a range of activities to ensure the effective sharing of
information, knowledge and skills, including hosted quarterly meetings, work-stream
themed workshops and training events. A regional conference will also be hosted that
will involve nationally recognised key note speakers, as well as a broad range of
practical and clinically-focused learning events and master-classes which delegates can
elect to attend. In addition, the workstream will employ e-platforms and forums to collate
relevant resources in order to signpost:
 Affiliated national, regional and local networks or workstreams;
 Outcomes of on-going clinical / research projects;
 Relevant educational and training materials;
 Regional experts.
Membership (to be agreed):
 Clinical, manager and administration representatives - mental health trusts;
 High Intensity (CBT) therapists and Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners;
 NHS and local authority commissioners from each PCT cluster;
 GP mental health and community leads (CCG);
 Service users and carers;
 Community pharmacist;
 Private and third sector provider representatives;
 Academic partners, including the Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) and
the Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care
(CLAHRC).
Nicola Biggs
Assistant Psychologist: Clinical Workstream Coordinator
Regional Workstream for Age-inclusive Psychological Therapies in Primary Care
nicola.biggs@cpft.nhs.uk
Krishna Singh
Clinical Director and Consultant Clinical Psychologist
Primary Care and Liaison Psychiatry Division
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