Publish date: 10 August 2022
West London NHS Trust is proud to reveal that our Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) has been shortlisted for this year’s HSJ Workforce Initiative award, recognising outstanding contribution to healthcare and earning the opportunity to showcase their achievements on a national platform.
Now in its 42nd year, the HSJ Awards continue to provide an opportunity to shine a light on the outstanding efforts and achievements that individuals and teams across the sector deliver on a daily basis.
The judging panel was once again made up of a diverse range of highly influential and respected figures within the healthcare community.
Following the thorough judging process, the team was shortlisted, ahead of the official awards ceremony to be held later this year (November 17th). Despite the tough competition, the project CAMHS submitted really did stand out as a ‘success story’ worthy of a prized place on the panel’s shortlist. At this first stage of judging, the shortlist was based on ambition; outcome; value; involvement & working together and crucially, how the project might be “picked up” and replicated elsewhere for the benefit of both patients and professional colleagues.
The CAMHS initiative – improving recruitment
The CAMHS Training and Progression Programme is an initiative to expand the CAMHS workforce by recruiting into vacant posts at a band lower than the post was originally established at (usually at Band 6-7).
The programme encourages recruitment of new disciplines into CAMHS and supports adult mental health nurses and other practitioners to transition into CAMHS roles. Successful recruits complete a planned programme that enables the acquisition of the necessary CAMHS competencies over a period of 12 to 18 months. Once they have evidenced that all necessary competencies have been achieved, they are automatically promoted to the original banding.
As of June 2022, the programme has recruited, developed and retained 30 CAMHS Practitioners from a range of disciplines and 15 trainees are currently enrolled in the programme. This total of 45 staff has been a major contributing factor in the reduction of our vacancy rate from over 40% to around 20%.
Keyur Joshi, Associate Director for CAMHS "This really is wonderful news - the fact we’ve been shortlisted for Workforce Initiative of the Year in the HSJ Awards 2022 will undoubtedly be a huge ‘pat on the back’ for our amazingly hard working and deserving Practice Development team.
“The recruitment challenges in Mental Health have been so significant but our staff have gone above and beyond to improve the specific recruitment challenges in the CAMHS workforce with a focus on not reducing the quality of service and care, while making CAMHS roles more accessible for a wider group of clinicians. Aligning with the HSJ Awards programme really allows us to share our success as well as everything we’ve learnt through implementing our project.
“We hope we might even inspire other colleagues across the UK to pursue and put their ideas and innovations into practice too!”
HSJ editor Alastair McLellan, adds; “On behalf of all my colleagues, it gives me great pleasure to congratulate West London NHS Trust on being shortlisted as a finalist in the category of ‘Workforce initiative’. All of the applications represent the ‘very best of the NHS’ and often leave our esteemed panel of judges with an impossible choice!
“Year on year the number of entrants continue to rise which I find so encouraging and is testament to the effect that HSJ Awards can have on improved staff culture and morale.
“We’re all very much looking forward to welcoming our finalists to the awards ceremony in November, celebrating their impressive achievements and jointly acknowledging our values of sharing best practice, improving patient outcomes and continuously driving for better service. But we never forget that the award ceremony is not just a celebration within a night, but a platform to recognise the hard work of all our NHS staff, all year round.”
The full list of nominees for the 2022 HSJ awards can be found at https://awards.hsj.co.uk
The selected winners will be announced during the awards ceremony at the Battersea Evolution Centre, London on November 17th 2022.