Our achievements

Posted on 17 Dec 2021

We are very proud of our Nottingham Centre for Mindfulness Team after the Centre was accredited by the British Association of Mindfulness-based Approaches (BAMBA).

The Centre has become one of the first Health Education England (HEE) and NHS England and Improvement, recognised and accredited training sites, to deliver mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT) in psychological therapy services (IAPT) in the UK. 

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has a promising evidence base for a wide range of physical, emotional and mental health problems and is recommended as a treatment for depression in NICE Guidelines (2004, 2009). Despite this, it remains difficult for many people to access in the UK.

Dr Julie Attfield, Executive Director of Mental Health said:

“I am delighted that the Nottingham Centre for Mindfulness has become one of the first to be accredited in the UK. The team work extremely hard to ultimately ensure that MBCT is available to as many people as possible who are accessing primary mental health services. Anything we can do to ensure more people have access to this treatment is important, and for the Centre to be formally recognised is fantastic. Well done to the team.”

Nottingham Centre for Mindfulness is part of a collaboration of four NHS-based mindfulness centres in the UK (Sussex Trust, Exeter Mindfulness centre, North East Mindfulness centre and Nottingham). This collaboration provides MBCT training to IAPT services across England, as commissioned by Health Education England annually, in an attempt to make MBCT more available to people accessing primary mental health services in the country.

This initiative was born out of the recognition that whilst MBCT is recommended in NICE guidelines and popular with patients, access to the intervention is limited due to low numbers of therapists working in healthcare services. The Trust is regarded as an exemplar nationally for its NHS-based mindfulness services and clinical training

Health Education England and NHS England recently recognised BAMBA as the accrediting body for Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy training. Following this the collaboration applied to have our IAPT training accredited. This process involved submitting evidence of competence of teachers, trainers and governance processes for example. It also included a site visit by two assessors from BAMBA who met with Trust trainers and students to evaluate training quality.

As a consequence, Nottingham Centre for Mindfulness and its three national training partners now provide the first HEE/NHS England and Improvement BAMBA accredited MBCT training in the UK.