EMERGE Leeds: Complex Emotional Needs Service

Emerge Leeds continues to offer Multiagency Knowledge and Understanding Framework (KUF) training to staff working in relevant Trust services.

• About KUF training
• Preparing yourself
• Training structure

About KUF training

The Personality Disorder Service at LYPFT have been offering KUF Training to NHS and Third Sector staff since it was first introduced in 2009. It is co-produced and co-delivered by ‘expert by occupation’ facilitators from Emerge Leeds and ‘expert by lived experience’ facilitators. We are offering 13 online cohorts across 2025-2026. Each cohort consist of three full days of experiential training where participants explore national and international information from the field of personality disorder alongside skillfully applied firsthand lived experience and perspectives on accessing services. KUF is considered one of the most radical and unique training programmes on complex emotional needs, partly due to its emphasis on co-production.

KUF was developed as a national training tool designed for staff working in multiagency settings, including mental health, social care and housing services. It aims to equip participants with the confidence and skills to work effectively with service users who have been diagnosed or labelled with ‘personality disorder’ or complex emotional needs.

Spaces are extremely limited. Please speak to your service lead about eligibility and how to apply. If you have any questions or require further information on the KUF personality disorder training, please email the KUF training inbox.

Read Multiagency KUF Training Shows Strong Impact in 2024-2025 Annual Review to learn more.

Preparing yourself

KUF training focuses on traumatic themes. In light of this, and in acknowledgement of the potential for participants to connect personally with the themes, we ask that you mentally and emotionally prepare yourself for the content. The main themes for each day are listed below. Our facilitators set out to create a psychologically safe learning environment to support your learning.

Training structure

Day one

• Stigma and assumptions
• Personality and unified model of development
• Attachment
• Adversity, trauma, and trauma responses
• Power threat meaning framework

Day two

• Conscious and unconscious experiences
• Internal working models and views of the world
• Reactions and responses
• Self-harm
• Formulation

Day three

• Emotional containment
• Factors influencing relationships
• Interpersonal dynamics
• Healthy organisations and thinking spaces
• Embedding learning into practice

KUF training is currently delivered online. Participants are required to complete all three days between the hours of 9am – 5pm.