Different ways that IAPT teams operate

Representative workforce

Several IAPT services are working to ensure their workforce represents their population, for example:

Slough

Ensures staffing is ethnically and linguistically representative of the local population. The Trust is currently performing a review of ethnic minorities colleagues in senior positions.

Leeds IAPT

Ensures recruitment panels are diverse and that their team is 50% from ethnic minorities communities.

Camden & Islington

The service has a Black and Minority Ethnic working group, which is looking at access and linking in with community organisations and adapting interventions for particular groups. It set up reflective groups for staff in response to the Black Lives Matter campaign. The intention is for the working group to have representation from different staff groups within the service (e.g. administrative, PWP, HITs, management team), to improve diversity within the service (particularly at more senior levels), driven by the staff rather than service leads.

Lewisham

Deliver culturally sensitive training to the IAPT workforce. Recruit to represent the community (in terms of racial backgrounds) – case study

Areas of expertise

IAPT services take different approaches to how the services are delivered, and how outreach work is carried out.

  • East London Foundation Trust staff are trained across all modalities. This gives advantages to a more flexible workforce which enables them to see a wide variety of patients with different presenting conditions but does require additional supervision time to be allocated. The service employs dedicated outreach workers.
  • Camden & Islington iCOPE, each member of staff has a specialist interest area that they spend 1 session per week working on – for example ethnic minorities or older people.
  • Greenwich IAPT staff are encouraged to be involved in a particular special interest.

Culturally sensitive training

  • Lewisham IAPT deliver culturally sensitive training to its workforce.
  • Greenwich plans to do cultural intelligence training with the IAPT workforce, for example what it’s like to experience racism. It plans to undertake consultation and peer support with staff members.

Webinars

National IAPT Programme Webinar series on delivering condition specific treatment during COVID-19 

In response to COVID-19 the National IAPT Programme (NHS England and Improvement) offered from April – June 2020 a webinar series (NHS Futures link – not publicly accessible), on delivering different therapies during COVID-19. Owing to the popularity of the initial series they offered a second series (NHS Futures link – not publicly accessible), in August looking at post-COVID syndrome (now commonly referred to as long-COVID). Recordings and slide packs are available on the IAPT Future NHS platform – access can be requested using your NHS email address. This platform has also been utilised during the period of the pandemic to serve as a forum for discussion with national IAPT colleagues and to share good practice.