PPN NW Newsletter
Thursday 20th February 2025
Welcome to the latest edition of the Psychological Professions Network North West newsletter. We aim to bring you the latest updates about our work to join up psychological professionals, associated stakeholders, carers and experts by experience in the region.
Community of Practice Special Edition
Welcome to this edition of the PPN NW newsletter, which has a special focus on all of our Communities of Practice across the North West.
Communities of Practice offer a number of benefits to their members including:
Knowledge sharing, peer learning and innovation
Professional development
Enhanced problem solving
Development of a collective voice
Increased engagement and motivation
All Community of Practice Chairs also gain a seat at the PPN NW Workforce Council.
Whilst reading through the updates below, if you have ideas about setting up or becoming part of a new Community of Practice please do get in touch with us at england.ppn.northwest@nhs.net
Anti Racism Community of Practice
We recently launched the Anti-Racism Community of Practice. Alongside establishing a Steering Group, two Special Interest groups have been formed to focus on Language and Curriculum Reform.
Members have been assigned roles however, there is still availability to take part!
We are looking for members to have an active role with opportunities for further learning for all. If you are interested you can join the Anti Racism CoP here.
Counselling Community of Practice
We recently re-launched the Counselling Community of Practice earlier this month, including a Counselling focused Change NHS workshop, submitted to the recently closed public consultation to inform the forthcoming NHS 10 Year Plan.
The aims of the Community of Practice are to promote the contribution of the counselling profession to NHS patients, to encourage networking and the development of professional leadership, and to support continuation of professional development for all counsellors.
If you’d like to get involved, you can join the Counselling CoP here.
Psychological Practitioner Community of Practice
The Psychological Practitioner Community of Practice has been established to ensure that psychological practitioners have solidarity and recognition as new psychological professions, and to enable appropriate representation of the psychological practitioner voices in other forums.
It is a really valuable peer support and opportunity to share learning across different Practitioner roles.
The group is open to all trainee, qualified, and senior PWPs, CYWPs, EMHPs, and MHWPs, and provides a central hub of resources as well as an online forum. The forum can be used to network with other psychological practitioners, share skills and knowledge, and as a tool to solicit opinion across the workforce to help shape policy and inform psychological practitioner representation.
The Community is open to all practitioners especially those keen to develop leadership skills through Chair or co-Chair roles.
There will also be a face to face meeting in the Manchester area on Thursday 20th June - watch this space for further details. You can join the Psychological Practitioner CoP here.
Psychological Practice in Physical Healthcare Community of Practice
The Physical Health Community of Practice has been established to ensure that psychological professionals working in Physical Health have a forum for discussion, development, and to enable appropriate representation of the psychological practitioner voices in other forums.
A special interest group around weight management has recently been established, with the next meeting scheduled for the 8th April.
There is also a set of Peer Learning Sessions available to members, with further events to be scheduled in November and December 2025.
If you’d like to get involved, join the Psychological Practice in Physical Healthcare CoP here.
New clinical guidance on gambling-related harms
NICE have published their first clinical guidance on identifying, assessing and treating gambling-related harms. It recommends health and social care practitioners should consider asking about gambling in various situations – such as during a health check or in contacts with social services.
Publication of this guideline comes as NHS England continues to expand its gambling support services. Fifteen specialist clinics are now operational across the country - 7 of which opened in 2024.
You can find the guidance here.
NICE Committee Vacancy
The NICE scope consultation for violence and aggression has started today. The scope and EHIA is on their website with details of the consultation here.
NICE have also gone live with the recruitment advert for professional members, details of which can be viewed on their website. Vacancies are also open to patients, service users, carers, and lay people here.
The closing date for the consultation and recruitment window is the 3rd March 2025. NICE has emailed stakeholders informing them they are recruiting to this committee, but please do inform any networks or interested parties that you are aware of.
NHS England publishes new priorities and operational planning guidance
NHS England has published their priorities and operational planning guidance for 2025/26.
The guidance maintains the Mental Health Investment Standard (MHIS), aiming to increase the level of investment in mental health services by Integrated Care Boards, as well as reducing inequalities in access to children and young people’s mental health services, and expanding mental health support teams, consistent with the government’s aim of reaching 100% coverage by 2029/30. You can read the guidance in full on their website.
New report from the King’s Fund
A report was released on Monday 17th February from the King’s Fund, Healthwatch England and National Voices, and reminds us that waiting times are only part of the equation when it comes to how people experience NHS care.
Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week
Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week (ASAW) is this week!
It is an annual, international event meant to spread awareness and acceptance of aromantic spectrum identities and the issues we face, as well as making more people aware of aromanticism while celebrating it. You can find out more here.
Aromanticism is a romantic orientation, which describes people whose experience of romance is disconnected from normative societal expectations, often due to experiencing little to no romantic attraction, or sometimes feeling repulsed by romance or being uninterested in romantic relationships.
You can learn about what it means to be aromantic by checking out FAQs, personal testimonies, essay collections, and more from the aro community partners which can be found here.
NHS ConfedExpo 2025
NHS ConfedExpo 2025 is scheduled for Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th June at Manchester Central
Book your pass today to join over 5,000 leaders, professionals and sector partners to collaborate, share insights and develop innovative solutions to deliver high quality care for all.
Hear from inspiring thought-leaders, share learnings in interactive workshops and discover the latest tech and innovations that will leave you inspired with new ideas to help transform health and care in your local area.
NHS, local authority and wider public sector staff are eligible for a free ticket.
Maternal Mental Health Services (MMHS) Workshop: Workforce and Staff Development
To support implementation of Maternal Mental Health Services (MMHS), NHS England will be hosting a workshop - MMHS Workshop: Learning from the ESMI-III study (phase 2) on Tuesday 25th March.
This will be the fourth in a series of workshops to share the learning from the ESMI-III (phase 2) study, with specific focus on Supporting workforce development and staff training in Maternal Mental Health Services and Maternity. You can register for the workshop here.
You will need to register for the workshops to receive an invite.
The workshops will be recorded and available on the PMH workspace on the FutureNHS collaboration platform.
Enquiries and questions to ENGLAND.PerinatalMH@nhs.net.
BACP half-day online CPD event
BACP is hosting a half-day online CPD event for practitioners delivering PCE-CfD in NHS Talking Therapies services. Taking place on the 5th March 2025, beginning at 9:30am and finishing around 1pm.
Registration for the event is free for BACP members, with a charge for non-members. Content is available to access on demand if you're unable to join live on the day.
The event’s content has been designed in collaboration with practitioners and will be delivered by trainers from the PCE-CfD training centres. Workshops will include:
Working with shame and low-esteem from a PCE-CfD approach
Adapting PCE-CfD for neurodiverse service users
Working with trauma and the PCE-CfD approach.
It is hoped the event will help practitioners develop a richer and deeper understanding of delivering PCE-CfD within NHS Talking Therapies services to a diverse range of service users.
Are you a member of one of our Communities of Practice?
By receiving this email you are a confirmed member of the PPN NW; however, have you considered joining one of our Communities of Practice (CoP)? Please see links below for information on how to join one of our CoPs:
PPN NW Mailing List Review
The Psychological Professions Network depends on the engagement of its members. To do this we need to ensure we have an accurate and up to date register and mailing list to enable us to keep you regularly updated with events, policy changes, projects and more.
Due to an error on our website registration form, a number of people who have created PPN NW accounts have automatically been opted out of communications and, therefore, are not receiving professional updates or event opportunities – effectively negating any benefit of being a member! We are therefore in the process of opting all of these members back into communications. Please do email us if you wish to remain opted out of communications.
What are we asking you to do?
Being a member of our PPN NW Mailing List allows us to invite you to bespoke Community of Practice events and workshops, receive our newsletter.
We will not share your information with any third parties or send you any promotional emails that are not connected to delivering psychological health and wellbeing within an NHS-commission space.
Please email the PPN NW at england.ppn.northwest@nhs.net if you wish to be removed from the PPN NW Mailing List.
You can update your own details, for both Membership and Communications Preferences, at any time by visiting the website here, this includes your profile with your most recent job title, professional role, banding and ICB etc.
Share Your News!
Please email the PPN-NW team at england.ppn.northwest@nhs.net if you have an update from your work or local network that you would like featured in one of our upcoming newsletters. We want to boost important events and developments from around our region, so let us know what’s going on where you are!
Interested in joining the PPN?
Anyone can join the Psychological Professions Network! Whether you are a member of one of the psychological professions, another professional of any discipline, an aspiring psychological professional, or a member of the public, you can sign up and join us for free.
