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NHS Talking Therapies Applied Clinical Practice

Module description

The NHS Talking Therapies Applied Clinical Practice Placement module will prepare you for a clinically active extended placement within an NHS Talking Therapies mental health service, help you reflect on your practice to consolidate clinical skills development and support personal and professional development. During the placement you will be working as an honorary, unpaid employee under supervision and therefore your time and the content of the placement provided is managed and led by the service.

To undertake the clinical placement within this module, you must have successfully passed all elements of assessment within PYCM141 Engagement and Assessment of Patients with Common Mental Health Problems and passed the clinical competency assessment of a simulated treatment session with a patient within PYCM096 Evidence-Based Low-Intensity Treatment for Common Mental Health Problems. This module is non-condonable and has a 100% attendance requirement. Should you miss any hours of placement you must make up this time in the clinical setting and record this in a formalised action plan before the module can be completed. Should you not meet the clinical or academic requirements of this module you will fail the module and so fail the MSci Applied Psychology (Clinical) programme. You will be required to produce a portfolio of evidence demonstrating achievement of the required clinical outcomes during placement that the service manager or supervisor will then ratify, if they agree that you have met them and provided sufficient evidence of doing so.

You must adhere to the BPS Code of Conduct, BPS Social Media Guidelines and service governance requirements, policies and procedures in the placement at all times, including management of risk and confidentiality as well as safeguarding. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are familiar with the requirements of your specific placement area and its policies and procedures. This module cannot be passed if you are not able to complete the module due to misconduct, a fitness to practice issue or due to removal from the placement due to a breach of the employee regulations for the area in which the placement takes place.

The credits from this module supplement the 60 credits gained from the core PWP training as outlined in the national curriculum (modules PYCM141, PYCM096 and PYCM103), these additional credits correspond to the master’s level of this course and are not part of the core PWP training.

Module aims - intentions of the module

In this module you will apply your clinical competency in low-intensity cognitive behavioural therapy to work directly with patients experiencing a range of common mental health problems and enhance knowledge of applied practice in NHS Talking Therapies . Pre-placement teaching will prepare you to manage wider challenges associated with working within a mental health setting and the working environment more generally. These include team working, enhancing personal resilience, responding to novel and unfamiliar problems, collaboration (respecting the views and values of others, taking initiative and leading others) and using supervision effectively. Throughout, and at the end of the placement, supported group-based reflective classes will enable you to gain a critical appreciation of ways to adapt your clinical practice to accommodate groups of patients that represent diversity, consider and reflect on challenges such as managing structure (identifying key demands of the task, setting clearly defined goals, responding flexibly to changing priorities) and time management.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Critically reflect on NHS, professional body and service procedures, policies and values.
• 2. Critically reflect on the use of supervision to enhance professional and personal development.
• 3. Critically evaluate theoretical ideas, research evidence and ethical codes of conduct to the treatment and support of patients.
• 4. Practice Outcome 1: Demonstrate competency in undertaking and recording a range of assessment formats. This should include both triage within an NHS Talking Therapies Service and problem focused assessments.
• 5. Practice Outcome 2: Demonstrate experience and competence in the assessment and correct identification of presenting problem across a range of problem descriptor including depression and two or more anxiety disorders.
• 6. Practice Outcome 3: Demonstrate the common factor competencies necessary to engage patients across the range of assessment formats.
• 7. Practice Outcome 4: Demonstrate understanding of the complexity of mental health difficulties, to conceptualise co-morbidity of mental health disorders and prioritise the appropriate primary problem in the context of both physical and mental health co-morbidity.
• 8. Practice Outcome 5: Demonstrate competence in accurate recording of interviews and questionnaire assessments using paper and electronic record keeping systems.
• 9. Practice Outcome 6: Demonstrate competence in identifying patients at assessment who do not fit the criteria for treatment at Step 2 (e.g. those with PTSD, social anxiety disorder or severe mental health problems) and facilitate appropriate stepping up or onward referral.
• 10. Practice Outcome 7: Demonstrate experience and competence in the selection and delivery of treatment of a range of presenting problems using evidence-based low- intensity interventions across a range of problem descriptors, including depression and two or more anxiety disorders, and across all modes of intervention (in person, telephone, video platform).
• 11. Practice Outcome 8: Demonstrate an understanding of problems that should not be treated at Step 2, and where and how appropriate treatment should be accessed for these.
• 12. Practice Outcome 9: Demonstrate the ability to use common factor competencies to manage emotional distress and maintain therapeutic alliances to support patients using low-intensity interventions.
• 13. Practice Outcome 10: Demonstrate competence in delivering low-intensity interventions using a range of methods including one-to-one treatment (in person, via video consultation, via telephone, interactive text or computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (cCBT)) and where possible guided self - help groups (in person and via video).
• 14. Practice Outcome 11: Demonstrate competence in selecting and revising mode of delivery, as necessary on an ongoing basis depending on patient choice, suitability, etc.
• 15. Practice Outcome 12: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding to map core skills into text-based interventions.
• 16. Practice Outcome 13: Demonstrate high quality clinical note keeping and effective use of clinical outcome measures to shape and adapt low intensity interventions.
• 17. Practice Outcome 14: Demonstrate the ability to engage with people from diverse demographic, social and cultural backgrounds in assessment and delivery of low-intensity interventions. This could include adaptations to practice in line with positive practice guides, using interpretation services or self-help materials for people who are deaf or whose first language is not English, and/or adapting self-help materials for people with learning or literacy difficulties including as a result of cognitive or neurological conditions.
• 18. Practice Outcome 15: Demonstrate the ability to effectively manage a large caseload efficiently and safely, including step-up within NHS Talking Therapies, onward referral to employment support and signposted services, or other referral beyond NHS Talking Therapies.
• 19. Practice Outcome 16: Demonstrate the ability to use supervision to the benefit of effective (a) case management and (b) clinical skills development. This should include: (A) a report on a case management supervision session demonstrating ability to review caseload, bring patients at agreed pre-determined thresholds and provide comprehensive and succinct case material; and (B) a report on use of clinical skills supervision including details of clinical skills questions brought, learning and implementation.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 20. Apply the NHS constitution, professional body, service procedures, policies, values and placement regulations to inform placement practice.
• 21. Effectively plan and organise your time to manage a case load of patients with common mental health problems efficiently and safely whilst ensuring prompt and efficient access to care for patients.
• 22. Demonstrate clinical competency working with patients, including anti-racist practice and cultural competency.
• 23. Operate within your own level of competence, acknowledging boundaries of the PWP role knowing where to seek support if personal competency is insufficient, including referral to step up and signposting to alternative services.
• 24. Effectively engage with case management and clinical skills supervision to enhance clinical competency and support on-going personal development.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 25. Operate effectively as part of a team.
• 26. Critically reflect on personal practice, set personal learning goals and evaluate progress.
• 27. Apply skills to enhance personal resilience.
• 28. Use personal reflection to enhance personal and professional development.

Syllabus plan

The content, module-specific learning objectives, style of delivery and assessment for this module will support placement engagement and enable you to develop your clinical competency and support on-going personal and professional development. This module will therefore begin before the placement and support clinical, personal and professional reflection throughput the placement. Content will therefore focus on the knowledge and skills necessary to prepare for the placement with reflective practice supported during and at the end of the placement to consolidate and enhance clinical, personal and professional development. University directed learning will be set throughout the placement to support personal reflection and on-going development.      

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to resit the failed assessment. The module mark given for re-assessment as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.

If a placement outcome is not achieved, a three-way action plan will be initiated to allow a further limited period of time for the outcome to be achieved. If the outcome is not achieved within the date agreed in the action plan you will fail the assessment and this will result in a fail overall on the module and on the award of the MSci Applied Psychology (Clinical) programme. 

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Core reading:
• Bennett-Levy, J. et al. (2010). Oxford guide to low intensity CBT interventions. OUP Oxford.??
• Department of Health (2023). The NHS Constitution for England. London: Department of Health. Available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs-constitution-for-england/the-nhs-constitution-for-england
• Farrand, P. (Ed.). (2020). Low-Intensity CBT Skills and Interventions. London: SAGE.
• Haarhoff, B. & Thwaites, R. (2014). Reflection in CBT. London: Sage Publications.
• Hughes, J. & Youngson, S. (2009). Personal Development and Clinical Psychology. Chichester: Wiley.
• National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (2024) NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression manual (formerly known as Improving Access to Psychological Therapies). Available at:? https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/the-improving-access-to-psychological-therapies-manual/
• Richards, D. & Whyte, M. (2011). Reach Out: National Programme Student Materials to Support the Delivery of Training for Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners Delivering Low Intensity Interventions, 3^rd edition, Available at https://cedar.exeter.ac.uk/v8media/facultysites/hls/cedar/resources/Reach_Out_3rd_edition.pdf 

Key words search

Supervision, professional practice, placement, competency development, personal and professional development, NHS Talking Therapies.