On-demand webinar

What's on your mind? The impact of cognitive insight on mental health

Name: What's on your mind? The impact of cognitive insight on mental health
Start: 2020-10-27T00:00:00.000Z

Dr Louise Karwowski and Remploy's Chris Kingsbury on how unidentified learning needs can affect learners' mental health, and how to support them. Recorded in 2020.

Recorded · 27 October 2020

This is an older recording. Some of it is out of date: see what's still relevant and what has changed.

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What's on your mind? The impact of cognitive insight on mental health

Speakers

Dr Louise Karwowski
Former VP Neuro-inclusion Training, Cognassist
Chris Kingsbury
National Partnerships Manager, Access to Work Mental Health Support Service, Remploy

What’s on your mind?

How can we support people during their learning journey and make real, long-term improvements to their mental health? Dr Louise Karwowski looks at how identifying learning needs early can reduce stress and anxiety, and Chris Kingsbury of Remploy explains the support that was available to people in work.

This recording includes discussion of self-harm and suicide.

What we cover

How early identification of learning difficulties can help reduce stress and anxiety
How specific cognitive needs can relate to learners' wellbeing
The impact of personalised learning strategies on learner achievement
The support Remploy offered people in work in 2020

For a more recent look at this subject, watch Cognition and mental health, recorded in 2024.

Watch the recording

Recorded October 2020 · reviewed October 2026

What's still relevant

Why unidentified cognitive needs can add stress, frustration and anxiety, and why early identification gives learners a starting point to talk about their needs.
Two worked examples, executive function and non-verbal memory, with practical ways to support each learner.
Why to talk to learners early about past support and reasonable adjustments, including for end-point assessment.
Simple teaching tweaks for every learner: regular recaps, handouts, voice recordings and mind mapping.

What's out of date

How the assessment works (from 5:26). It describes eight tasks, one per cognitive domain, taking thirty minutes, with a score of 85 or below marking a need. Now: The assessment measures nine cognitive domains grouped into three indexes, and a score of 84 or below falls in the below-average range: a signal for a tutor's judgement, not a diagnosis.
Learners assessed (from 12:56). It says over 45,000 learners have been assessed, with approximately thirty percent identified with a need. Now: More than 400,000 learners have been assessed across FE, apprenticeships and adult skills, and approximately 1 in 3 learners we assess in FE and apprenticeships may have a cognitive barrier that warrants support.
Non-verbal memory (from 15:30). It describes non-verbal memory as to do with how we appear and interpreting social cues. Now: Non-verbal memory is the ability to remember images, patterns and locations.
Funding and the apprenticeship bodies (from 51:57). It points to learning support funding and to reasonable adjustment guidance on the Institute for Apprenticeships' website. Now: Apprenticeship funding rules are now set by DWP, the ESFA closed in March 2025, and IfATE was abolished in June 2025, its functions moving to Skills England.
Remploy's support service (from 23:45). It describes Remploy's Access to Work Mental Health Support Service as it was run in 2020. Now: This has changed since the recording; check current guidance.