The NHS long term plan aims to create a sustainable workforce of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists that is both equitably spread across the country and representative of the diversity of the communities it serves. The ACP is working with Health Education England (HEE) to address issues of equality and inclusion in the child psychotherapy profession and to improve access to the training to people from more diverse backgrounds. Although we are a diverse profession in many respects there is an under-representation of people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. HEE has provided funding to the Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy Training Schools to improve equity of access and inclusion for Black, Asian and minority ethnic entrants to training through the provision of bursaries. This is an opportunity to become a truly multi-cultural profession.
Part of the funding is being used to initiate an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) programme to deliver specific measurable improvements on equity and inclusion. Jemima Phorson, a Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist based in the West Midlands, is the National EDI Lead working to develop this programme.
We are very much looking forward to welcoming the recipients of the bursaries to our clinical and preclinical courses over the next few years, as no doubt the experiences that they bring will enrich the training as a whole. If you are interested in finding out about training opportunities, read our how to train section and you can contact the training schools directly for information about the bursaries.