Dear all,

Here’s an update on what’s been happening in the network this month.

We’re delighted to announce that we’ve now set up a working group to progress some of the aims of the network and we will meet for the first time in early September. Key amongst these aims are to set up peer supervision groups and have a way of responding to documents which impact on CYPF and on the Clinical Psychologists working with them. If you’d like to be a part of this working group please do let us know.

This month we have met with one of the Clinical Psychologists from AChiPP (The association of Child Psychologists in private practice) and it seems we have some common issues and there is much we can work on together – One key area is the current requirement by some insurance companies to insist CYP visit a psychiatrist before they can access Clinical Psychology. This can be distressing to CYP at times, and also fails to recognize the professional qualifications and training of Clinical Psychologists. We hope to work jointly on this issue and others going forward. If you work in private practice with CYPF and would like to be involved in this work do get in touch.

You may have seen that the ACP have put out a consultation on the Children’s care review. We are incredibly grateful for Miriam Silver’s work on this. Please do contribute to this is you can. If there is an area you think we should be talking about let us know. We would like to respond to the recent Ficare consultation (which we know has already closed but we aware that other groups have requested an extension). If you work in perinatal/Neonatal settings and could help us with this please do get in touch.

We jointly hosted a webinar aimed at parents and carers who are also health workers. This was an issue close to our hearts – it was hard to hear all the wellbeing advice during the pandemic and wonder where we were going to fit in an extra online yoga class or early night. Juggling family life and work as a Clinical Psychologist can be incredibly challenging and we wanted to recognise this. Mary Welford did an excellent job using a CFT approach and it was very well received by all who attended. Thanks if you came along.

Best wishes

Ellie and Sam