The AiMH UK Infant Mental HealthCompetency Framework (IMHCF)

The Infant Mental Health Competency Framework (IMHCF) was created by AiMH UK and in partnership with the International Training School for Infancy and Early Years. It has been informed by research, theory, and evidence-based practice, and designed to standardize competencies for infant mental health practice, and to raise standards of care for families by supporting all students and staff to optimize their learning skills.

Competencies are the skills, knowledge and behaviours that enable both trainee and trained practitioners to deliver high quality care and the continuous improvement to services.

The IMHCF aims to:

    • help us to maintain an infant mental health frame of mind, thereby enabling us as practitioners to consider both the perspective of the baby (including the non-verbal infant) and that of the parent. This helps perinatal and IMH students and Practitioners to recognise the parent-infant (P-I) relationship as a dynamic system, and to be able to promote it.
    • helps to ensure the workforce is suitably skilled to identify need and provide support to parent/s/caregiver who are pregnant or have a baby; and to both promote the mental health of the baby and provide access to appropriate evidence-based treatment where there are problems, as outlined in the Healthy Child Programme (DH, 2009;2014)
Download the full IMHCF

The AiMH UK Infant Mental HealthCPD Programme (IMHCPD)

Since its launch in the House of Commons in May 2019, the IMHCF has been streamlined and reorganised into 3 new IMH CPD Portfolio Levels. The AiMH UK IMH CPD Programme provides an online space where registered participants, both student and Practitioner, can document and keep records of self-assessment, reflection, and practice mapped against the IMHCF.

If you are a student or practitioner who works with infants in a childcare setting, or who work with the parent-infant dyad under supervision, Level 1 is for you. You may be a nursery assistant or a childcare worker, for example.

Register here

If you are a student or a regulated practitioner who works autonomously with the parent-infant dyad, supported by supervision, Level 2 is for you. You may be a Health Visitor, Psychologist, Social Worker or Parent-Infant Psychotherapist, for example.

Register here

You should be creating a Level 3 IMH Portfolio if you are a regulated practitioner who delivers specialist services to parents and infants with, for example, responsibility for managing a specialist team, providing training and supervision of other practitioners; and informing and implementing service development, protocols and policies at organisational and regional levels.

Register here

User-friendly

Once registered on to the AiMH UK IMH CPD Programme, you will have access to your own online space where you can begin to build your own IMH Portfolio. We use a digital platform called Moodle, which stands for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. This is a user-friendly system that many training providers and educational establishments use. It also allows you to store certificates, and a record your CPD Hours to include courses and events you have attended.

Attain entry onto the UK IMH Recognition Register (IMHRR)

Entry on to the IMHRR is gained through successful completion of the IMH CPD Programme. Practitioners are required to document their infant mental health knowledge, skills and working practice against the AiMH UK IMH Competency Framework (IMHCF) and create a IMH Portfolio.

Once completed, an assessor will review your IMH Portfolio submission and provide feedback. After a successful review, your name will be added to the IMHRR*, providing recognition of your infant mental health skills, knowledge and working practices.**

*Participants can choose whether their name is displayed on the IMHRR.   ** Fee may apply