Written evidence submitted by The Recovery and Well-being Academy on behalf of Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust (CMH0083)

Evidence for the inquiry into community mental health services 2025

The Recovery and Wellbeing Academy (RAWA) was established in Coventry and Warwickshire in 2016. It is linked with Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust (CWPT) and Coventry and Warwickshire Mind (now known as Coventry, Warwickshire and Worcestershire Mind), who are commissioned by Coventry City Council and Warwickshire County Council. This document has been produced by tutors who work for Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust (CWPT).

The aim of RAWA is to deliver free courses on health and wellbeing to the people who live in Coventry and Warwickshire, including staff, patients, carers, friends and families.

RAWA delivers psycho-educational courses focussing on personal recovery goals, which range from information on different diagnoses, to practising psychological skills to aid wellbeing, and how to look after yourself and support others. In 2024 there were 599 sessions delivered and there were just under 4000 enrolments across Coventry and Warwickshire.

The courses are designed to empower people to take control of their recovery or prevent/manage ill-health. The courses provide information on possible treatment pathways and describe some reasoning behind the treatments. RAWA tutors do not offer treatment or therapy, the courses aim to help people understand why they are being asked to consider certain treatment pathways, why there may be side effects, and what they can do about it. Discussions are had around why therapists talk about some therapies, such as why they may focus on breathing or certain skills, as we discuss the science behind it.

The work of RAWA  aims to contribute to and encourage integration and person-centred care, by informing the public and staff, from acute to community services.

• RAWA delivers online bitesize courses to patients on Acute wards which are designed to help them improve their wellbeing, start their recovery and encourage them to access more courses on discharge. Courses have been delivered to 11 wards across The Caludon centre and St Michaels Hospital.
• Some of the courses focus on understanding severe complex conditions such as psychosis, bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety, and trauma.
• We have general wellbeing courses to help people recovering from illness to rebuild their lives.

Coproduction – everyone contributes.

Many of the courses are co-produced, co-delivered and co-reviewed with the support of people who have specific lived and life experience around the subject.

The project begins with an idea, maybe a suggestion from a partner or a student. A meeting will then be arranged including those with experience, who have lived through the subject and those who have worked in the field. Everyone can share experiences and offer suggestions on how to build the courses. Part of the process in creating the courses is to ensure the information is up to date, correct and that relevant guidelines are followed.

Partners – experts in each field

RAWA have worked hard from inception, to cement partnership working with local agencies and organisations, and have co-produced courses with these partners. The partners then deliver the courses through the RAWA and tutors are available to support if needed. The material delivered is by the people who are most aware of the subject and quality is assured through partnership agreements, quarterly board meetings and partner review to ensure consistency and coproduction.

Staff within CWPT teams have developed courses that are delivered through RAWA including the Perinatal Team, Eating Disorders Team, and the Personality and Complex Trauma (PACT) Team, Psychological Skills Development. The Psychologists in CWPT deliver some courses and have coproduced courses such as “Trauma Awareness” and “Stress Awareness.” These courses have been written by those with lived experience of trauma and the Psychologists within relevant teams. An example of this working in excellence is the Psychological Skills Development Service and the RAWA working in coproduction to produce and deliver “Trauma Informed Care” training to healthcare staff, funded by healthcare England. This training has been purchased by other NHS Trusts and has won awards for its innovation of the subject.

This has helped to improve awareness of the impact of trauma on people throughout their lifetimes and offer some support around managing the trauma. It supports people to take responsibility and understand their own responses to the difficulties life presents to them. The RAWA team believe that all the courses enable students to gain information that is relevant to them in their personal recovery.

Peer Support Workers (PSW) and Experts by Experience (EBE)

All tutors that work for the RAWA have their own lived experience that they share within delivery of the courses. From the outset tutors at RAWA have sought the expertise of people who have bespoke lived experience to be able to contribute their unique stories to the courses’ subject matter. When CWPT started to employ Peer Support Workers (PSW), they were employed as part of the Lived Experience Workforce. PSW are now being employed by organisations across Coventry and Warwickshire and are encouraged to link together and offer each other peer support. We now have 27 PSW employed by CWPT, since 2022. As well as embedding into the various community teams, the PSW were also asked to support the tutors at RAWA.

All the PSW are offered extra training delivered through Implementing Recovery through Organisational Change (IMROC) and if they would like to deliver courses they are offered bespoke support from the RAWA tutors.

The contribution that the PSW makes has been highly valuable and the feedback from students has been positive. Helping people to feel less isolated. The PSW talk about their own experiences to help the student take away what they need from the course. Students have fed back that this makes the information easier to digest. They can see that the person talking to them has gone through the same as they have and has used strategies to get through and recover. PSW’s stories provide people with hope and ownership of their recovery.

Accessibility to all

The tutors all come from different backgrounds, we have counsellors, trainers, support workers, media consultants and occupational therapists, who all have a lot of different experiences and share, their own experience of life events that have affected their health and wellbeing and their professional experience in their own careers which offers another depth of richness to their stories.

All tutors within CWPT RAWA have completed a teaching qualification to a minimum level 3.

The tutors aim to make courses as accessible as possible.

• Courses are delivered online and face to face in the community.
• The courses range from one hour thirty to six hours.

• Students are free to come back and do the courses more than once.
• Tutors deliver an online 30-minute courses to the patients on the acute wards in Warwick and Coventry with the support of the Ward Activity Coordinators.
• A range of techniques of delivery are included to suit different learning styles, so we have videos, PowerPoints, handouts, discussions, and subtitles.
• Students can communicate as they feel comfortable in the online courses, through microphone or by chat if they prefer.
• We offer support to students to access the courses. Students can disclose any additional needs when they enrol and tutors can follow up and offer support.
• We make sure we include links to agencies and support lines that can offer extra support following on from the sessions, linking people into their community throughout Coventry and Warwickshire.
• All personal information is kept confidential in accordance with the Data Protection Act.

We recommend Recovery Colleges should be developed across NHS mental health systems to offer preventative, trauma informed and recovery focused education to people to support primary and secondary care. This

Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust https://www.covwarkpt.nhs.uk/

Recovery and Wellbeing Academy https://www.recoveryandwellbeing.co.uk/

Kerry Shildauer Recovery and Wellbeing Academy Operational lead

Jayne Clark Recovery and Wellbeing Academy Tutor

February 2025