The year ahead

I am sure that many of you will be adjusting to the demands of the latest national lockdown, potentially juggling home schooling and managing family life while continuing to work.

This is also the case for many of our staff at the BPS. We're working with them to balance these demands, and doing our best to keep up with the demand and continue to offer the best possible customer service to members, but please bear with us.

As the entire team is continuing to work from home because of the pandemic, please use email wherever possible to get in touch with us.

Understanding the pressure that lots of you are under during January, we took the decision to postpone the engagement work, focus groups and interviews that we had planned this month for the member networks review.

We'll be picking this back up in February and are looking forward to speaking to some of you about the future of our networks then – keep an eye on the website and member update over the next few months for updates on this project.

Great progress has been made with the membership grades review, with the Board of Trustees approving our consultation framework, and we will soon be contacting a handful of members representing our current grades and the different areas of the society to be involved in focus groups over the next few weeks.

The wider membership will also be consulted on any proposed changes to the grades, as we know this impacts on all of you, but some early themes and ideas include changes to make the grades more inclusive and accessible, and providing more opportunities for progression to chartership.

The review is building on what members told us during the member journey project, and we'll be launching a wider survey once clear themes and directions have emerged from the focus groups.

If you're particularly keen on being involved in the grades review, please email us for more details on when the focus groups are taking place and what member representation is still required.

Another project that will be vital to enhancing the member experience in the future has just started – we're creating a new website that will be built around your needs and deliver for members at all stages of their careers.

It's early days and we're still in the process of conducting interviews with members to get a taste of what improvements we can make, but we'll keep you updated as it progresses throughout the year.

About the author

Karen beamish is the Director of Membership and Professional Development at the British Psychological Society.