Inviting fresh perspectives
Following on from last month’s advert for a new Chair of the Board of Trustees, we are now in the process of recruiting the three appointed trustees into the positions that were created following the successful member vote earlier this year.
25 October 2022
By Sarb Bajwa
Traditionally, our Board of Trustees has almost exclusively been made up of members, who bring the in-depth knowledge of the organisation and psychology that is needed to make big decisions about the society's future.
Unlike many similar organisations, however, we have not recruited externally for trustees, and we haven't specifically looked for people with expertise in areas which are crucial to the organisation's success but not necessarily directly related to psychology.
The three new trustees will bring this experience and knowledge, with each one having skills in a particular area. Psychology and psychological understanding will remain critical to the board, and central to the organisation's work.
We know that we have a diverse skill-set within our membership, but also that many external people will have the right things to bring to the table, so the new roles are available for applications from within and outside of the society.
This gives us the potential opportunity to bring in fresh perspectives and different experiences from outside of the society, and is normal practice in a lot of professional bodies similar to ourselves.
If you have the right skills and experience to fill one of these roles, we would love to hear from you – applications are open until 20 November, and more information is available on our website.
In other society governance news, we're looking forward to welcoming representatives of our member networks for the first in-person meeting of the BPS Senate held for 12 months.
Senate has been meeting virtually during the interim period, but it is always nice to catch up face-to-face, with lots of important items on the agenda.
Finally, I want to draw your attention to some recent work that we have been doing with the Health and Care Professions Council, helping its staff to better understand the work of psychologists, and the nuances that exist between the different protected titles that are registered with the HCPC.
These 'lunch and learn' sessions got off to a good start recently, and will continue as a series through until March 2023. I hope that this will help to reduce any frustrations that our members have in their interactions with the HCPC.
Read more in a blog about this work by Tony Lavender and Nigel Atter from the working group.