As part of NAPICU’s ambitious plan to improve the generation of practice-based evidence and innovation and drive forward the quality of CAMHS inpatient and acute care provision, we are delivering the second in a series of events, developing a national community of practice forum to respond to the challenges facing children and young people who are experiencing acute and complex mental health needs.

Increasing demand for mental-health care for children and young people has come with a subsequent increase in referrals to psychiatric inpatient care (Buckingham, 2025). The NHS England Children and Young People’s Inpatient Mental Health Service Transformation Taskforce continue to work with regional and local commissioners and service providers to improve expereince, quality and outcomes for children, however, the research evidence upon which which to base this work remains desperately lacking.

Led by a collaboration between NAPICU and The University of Salford, the CAMHS Landscape Study is the first of its kind national mapping research study, designed in partnership with young people, families and professionals, aiming to address this evidence gap.

In this highly timely and exciting event we will be sharing a first look at the results and key points of learning from the national survey and from stakeholder involvement. The event will feature a series of informative and insightful plenary presentations, sharing learning and insights, including:

• Understanding of the current national picture in Children and young people’s inpatient services (CYPIMHS), and the developing alternatives to hopsital admission, including workforce, governance, models of care and clinical practice delivery, education and recovery.
• Key strengths, challenges, and opportunities
• Sharing good practices and innovations in operation

Highly relevent to commissioners, policy makers, service providers, professionals, researchers and academics working in the field of children and young people’s mental health care, it will provide the setting for professional networking and interprofessional discussion, to progress the national discussion about how best to:

• improve the experiences of children and young people experiencing acute, serious and complex mental health problems.
• build future programmes of interprofessional research in partnership with young people and families, to support service improvement, quality governance, and benchmarking can be built.