Children’s mental health service wins national award

Lincoln Core CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service), a team provided by Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT), has been crowned Psychiatric Team of the Year: Children and Adolescents in the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) Awards.

RCPsych is the professional medical body responsible for supporting psychiatrists throughout their careers from training through to retirement, and in setting and raising standards of psychiatry in the United Kingdom.

The RCPsych Awards mark the highest level of achievement within psychiatry and are designed to recognise and reward excellent practice in the field of mental health.

Dr Walid Sorour, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, attended the awards ceremony with four other team members, which took place in London on Wednesday 8 November.

Speaking about the team’s win, he said: “It’s an honour to have taken part in representing the whole team at the awards ceremony and we’re delighted to have been recognised for our work.”

Lincoln Core CAMHS works with children and young people (that have been identified as potentially having moderate to severe mental health needs) and their parents and carers.

Since January 2022, the team has undertaken a project to transform the service using a collaborative, developmental approach, empowering team members and enabling the delivery of better outcomes.

Feedback from the judges was that they were impressed with the quality improvement approach the team has used to improve the team culture and functioning, with clear improvements in the quality of service delivered, the morale and competence of team members and workforce retention.

Amy Butler, Head of Children and Young People Services at LPFT, added: “I am beyond proud of this achievement for our Lincoln CAMHS team.

“Our services work hard every day to continuously improve and make a difference and this award is great recognition for one of the teams who are working creatively to get better outcomes for children, young people and their families.”

You can find out more about the team at www.lpft.nhs.uk/corecamhs.