Transforming children's services across the Midlands and East of England: real life experiences of implementing routine outcome measures, increasing access to psychological therapies and promoting young peoples' involvement

In 2012 the NHS strategic health authorities in the midlands and east of England funded 14 service transformation projects to embed the principles of evidence based practice, routine outcomes monitoring (ROMs) and young people’s involvement in Children’s Mental Health Services across the region. This drew on the principles of the national Children and Young People Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (CYP IAPT) programme which began in the UK in 2011. CYP IAPT aims to bring about service transformation in CAMHS, ultimately broadening access to young people. Each project was funded to implement at least one of the principles of CPY IAPT within its services. This symposium presents the experiences of three projects who have been working to change the way services are delivered using CYP IAPT principles. Each project will give an account of the work that has taken place, the context in which this has happened, how this has been received within CYP services and the impact it has had on service delivery. We also explore the Midlands and East Mental Health and Wellbeing project (MEMHW) which is conducting an evaluation on the experiences and perceptions of implementing the principles of CYP IAPT into services. The MEMHW study is the first to explore CYP IAPT principles in service transformation, and as such provides new insights into the impact of service change and enables us to reflect on the way that staff experience and respond to pressures of transformation, and the challenges and opportunities that arise in this process.