The Children and Young People's IAPT Project works with existing CAMHS in the NHS, voluntary sector and other settings to improve services to children and young people.
At the heart of the project is a vision of using routine patient reported routine outcome measurement to improve the quality and experience of services.
Data will be collected by all Tier 2 and 3 clinicians working within services which have received project funding.
In developing a suitable approach for
the CYP IAPT programme, the aim was to make sure that the data collected
support both:
a) meaningful use directly in the
clinical encounter, and
b) meaningful analysis outcomes
across participating services.
The importance of not introducing
undue burden in terms of data collection was also a guiding principle.
In selecting measures and developing
an appropriate approach to meet these dual aims (whilst attempting not to
create undue burden) compromises sometimes had to be made
For example, whilst individually determined (bespoke) measures, such as progress against individually agreed goals, are likely to be useful to clinical interaction, they may be less helpful in terms of rigorous statistical analysis to allow comparison across groups. On the other hand more standardized measures, such as pre-defined symptom specific checklists, are likely to be useful for benchmarking and therapeutic planning within some modalities but some of the questions may not feel relevant to a particular child and family. Similarly whilst shorter measures are likely to be most acceptable in the clinical encounter, longer measures generally have greater sensitivity to change. Whilst clinicians often comment that a wide range of contextual factors may be relevant to interpreting outcomes, capturing the full range of factors can add too great a burden of data collection for clinicians and service users.
Click here for a briefing note that summarises the way forward agreed for routine outcome monitoring in CYP IAPT
Click here for CYP IAPT dataset detailing all data fields collaborating sites are required to collect
Click here for A Practical Guide to Using Service User Feedback & Outcome Tools to Inform Clinical Practice in Child & Adolescent Mental Health
Click here for the Children and Young Peoples IAPT Tracking Outcomes Resource Pack which contains a range of measures and resources for use with children, young people and parents
Please note that contents of these documents are now fixed in terms of approach and key elements and will be reviewed in July 2012. Please let us know if you spot any inconsistencies or factual inaccuracies by 29th February 2012, to iapt@dh.gsi.gov.uk.