NHS Education for Scotland is offering five funded places* for our course: Psychoanalytic Observation & Reflective Practice: Therapeutic work with Children & Young People (TWCYP).

Read more below and note the application deadline is 9am on Monday 8 September.

*Please note that this is open to new students to the course only.

What is the planned course? 

Psychoanalytic Observation and Reflective Practice: Therapeutic Work with Children and Young People (TWCYP) - a Postgraduate Diploma level educational programme run by Human Development Scotland (HDS), informed by Psychoanalytic theory, with a focus on infant and child observation, reflective practice and clinical discussion for therapeutic working with infants, children and young people. 

There will be five funded places available on the programme. The impetus for this development is grounded in NES’ commitment to provide relevant training for the Infant, Children and Young People’s mental health workforce across all four types of practice, as captured within the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Curricular Framework and the Children and young people's mental health and wellbeing : a knowledge and skills framework for the Scottish workforce. Those practitioners working with infants, children and families at the Specialist level need a deep understanding of the development of positive mental health, the pivotal role of the parent-child relationship and the ways in which they as professionals might support healthy child and family development. 

What will the course cover?

The course will cover a range of relevant topics, including:

• Infant & child observation and development
• Reflective practice
• Psychoanalytic theories and models and their application in therapeutic work and systems
• Understanding and interpreting evidence and data

Content will be delivered through seminars and small study groups in a hybrid model (in-person and online).

To find out more about the course, please click here.

Who is the course targeted at?

The course is targeted at practitioners within specialist services which hold the mental health and wellbeing of infants, children and their families at their core. It is hoped that this would include a combination of NHS and non-NHS practitioners, including those drawn from Paediatric settings, Health Visiting, CAMHS, community parent infant teams, community perinatal teams, inpatient perinatal mother and baby units, Social Care, Education and Third Sector Organisations. 

What will be involved for the individual and service?

It is intended that the selected practitioners will complete the course part-time over a 2-year period, from October 2025 – August 2027. Practitioners will continue with their clinical roles alongside the training, to ensure that they can assimilate their learning with their practice. Practitioners will be required to attend seminars and study groups one day per week. 

Practitioners will also require one day of protected time per week to carry out observations and engage with the academic aspects of the course such as relevant reading. 

How to apply

The deadline for applications is 9am on Monday 8 September, with online interviews taking place on 10 and 11 September. 

Download the application form in MS Word to complete it and email it to us.

If you have further questions about the course, please contact HDS at: [email protected] or call 0141 331 2419.