DCP In Focus: January 2023

Welcome to the DCP Review of 2022

At the start of 2022, we were all optimistically looking forward to a much more positive year than we had had during the previous two years. Little did we realise the devastating impact of the war raged against the Ukraine by Russia and the ongoing mutation and spread of the Coronavirus.

However, in spite of the challenges that we faced, including not only the impact of the war, and the resurgence of Covid-19, but also the ongoing demands on the NHS, acute shortages of NHS staff, increasing inflation and the cost of living crisis, we have also seen many positive achievements.

As we begin a new year we must still look forward to the opportunities that lie ahead with renewed optimism.

At this time it is important to reflect on all that has been happening over the past 12 months. We should take time to reflect on what we have done to help increase our sense of self-awareness, to learn and to discover new ways to 'get the job done'. However, all too often due to the fast-paced lives we lead we are not always able to take the time to reflect or evaluate what we have done.

Looking back over 2022, it is indeed quite remarkable how much has been achieved across the Division of Clinical Psychology. DCP executive members as well as committee members of our nations, branches, faculties and sub-committees and many, many volunteers have given their time and worked together to address issues and concerns on behalf of all of our members.  In this review of 2022, we have included a detailed summary of the significant amount of work that has been undertaken across the DCP networks. As you will read, it is really impressive.

I would like to thank everybody who has contributed to the work of the division over the past year. There are far too many people who have been involved to name-check everyone, however I do feel I must give a special mention to Julia Faulconbridge, our DCP Communications and Publications lead, who has made a massive contribution to the work of the DCP not only over the past year but for a number of years.

As we move through 2023, I hope that everyone will continue to support the work of the DCP to ensure that we are able to address the many key issues that impact on our profession and provide support to all our members in the important work they do as clinical psychologists across the UK.

So thank you everybody for your contribution - we could not do this without you!

- Dr Roman Raczka

Workstreams and sub-committees

The DCP has a number of ongoing workstreams, often led by sub-committees made up of divison members, which focus on clinical psychology's contribution to a relevant subject, such as the climate emergency, workforce and training issues, and producing publications for members. Each has given us a short update on their work during 2022, including links for further reading and documents we've released during the year.

Climate and environment

The climate and ecological crisis, deeply interlinked with all aspects of justice and wellbeing, is still not at the top of political and professional agendas, and yet it must be at the heart of all we do as it represents a sea change in the world as we know it.

We have taken some small actions as a professional body, but there is so much more we should be doing, since tackling the crisis requires a deep and fundamental shift in mindset at every level, from personal to cultural, spiritual and political. 

There are many members of the DCP actively engaged with work on the climate crisis, both personally and professionally, and we are keen to link up with them so we can have a more coordinated effort. With Southampton trainee Georgia King, we write a monthly update to DCP in Focus, linked to our website.

We've published and presented workshops on the relevance of the Power Threat Meaning Framework to the climate crisis, and we contributed to a joint presentation with psychiatry colleagues on the mental health impact of the climate crisis at the 8th Annual Forum for the Accreditation Programme for Psychological Therapies Services on 2 December 2022.

The Group of Trainers in Clinical Psychology Planetary Health Sub-committee is exploring the application of the Planetary Health Alliance Curriculum Framework for training, and various programmes are including psychological aspects of climate in teaching, practice and research activities.

The BPS is setting up a Climate and Environment Action Coordinating Group with representation from all parts of the society, including the DCP, which is establishing a group to work alongside it. These will now be our main routes of influence on climate action within our profession, but all parts of the DCP need to play their part and we know there are many who are already engaged in this work.

- Ryan Kemp

Communications

Led by the communications sub-committee, we continued to develop and grow our communications output throughout the year. This included eight editions of our DCP in Focus newsletter, twelve new issues of Clinical Psychology Forum, three editions of our Covid-19 bulletin and dozens of newsletters and publications by our networks and branches.

We also saw DCP members quoted in the local and national media on a range of current issues, including the cost of living crisis, universal credit, NHS workforce issues and psychologists' mental health. BPS staff provided media training for members of the Executive and our network chairs to increase the confidence of people to respond to media opportunities.

The sub-committee also led on a suite of resources aimed at welcoming new trainees during the autumn, which included a video on the benefits of DCP membership for trainees, starring Bradley Powell and Dr Litza Krause (click the image below to view).

There has been significant work, which is still ongoing, to transfer the contents of the old website into the new one and to develop it into an accessible and useful part of the DCP's work.

We have had so much support from all our colleagues in the BPS communications directorate, and I wish to acknowledge their invaluable contributions.

- Julia Faulconbridge

 

Covid-19

The DCP continued to respond to the pandemic over the year across three priority areas. The first was staff wellbeing, both for psychologists and services being provided for others across the NHS. We also covered Long Covid, looking at the research and at the contribution of psychology for people suffering from these lasting effects. Finally, we looked at the impact on training and trainees.

Three Covid Bulletins were produced over the year, and we also contributed to parliamentary work on ME/CFS and Long Covid. A symposium was held at the DCP conference on Long Covid, featuring speakers with lived experience and those providing services. The presentations can be seen on our website.

- Julia Faulconbridge

Digital health

The sub-committee has had a busy year. We have launched our free e-learning package 'Developing competencies for digital clinical practice', which can be accessed for free on BPS Learn. 

In collaboration with DCP London, in May we delivered our second online conference, entitled 'Developing your Digital Practice Skills', with some great speakers focussing on innovative approaches to digital delivery of psychological care, including the use of virtual reality.

We have prepared a number of publications and conference presentations to disseminate good practice - our strategic focus this year has been on digital exclusion and we are currently preparing a position paper on this. Strategically, we have also been working with Health Education England, IAPT and the BPS and have ensured that digital skills training for all psychological practitioners is required in their pre-registration training. Alongside the BPS website, we also promote our work and share resources as Digital Health Skills.

We would love to increase the membership and diversity of the committee this year, so do contact the chair Helen Pote if you have some expertise in digital practice (professionally or as a service user).

- Helen Pote

Events

Along with our branches and faculties, the DCP ran dozens of events last year, ranging from our virtual annual conference in October to online networking events and professional development webinars for the various specialism within our membership. We saw well over 1,000 people attend DCP events across the year.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

The DCP has been committed to developing and strengthening its framework around equality, diversity and inclusion across all areas of clinical practice, including the wider training curriculum. Following recommendations made by the EDI and Anti-Racism Task and Finish group, a new elected EDI Lead role was created to form part of the executive committee.

Sidrah Muntaha has been appointed to take up this role, and part of the current strategy will be around developing a shared vision through consultation with members across the networks, recruiting an EDI sub-committee to pull together the work carried out so far, but to also take forward recommendations made by the Task and Finish group, the Minorities Group and the Pre-Qualification Group.

Plans for the next year include developing a core group of sub-committee members representing an intersectionality approach to EDI, but simultaneously recognising the specific needs of marginalised groups that are under-represented within the profession. DCP members are invited to apply for a sub-committee role position through expressions of interest via the BPS website.

So far, there has been very positive feedback from members (and non-members) currently within the profession as well as clinical psychologists involved in EDI projects locally. We hope that through active engagement with our members, the sub-committee will offer further richness to our current thinking about EDI and enable long term, sustained change to occur in systems and processes which can lead to overt and covert discrimination within the profession.

We therefore welcome those at various points in their career and with a passion for EDI to apply for committee membership, and to contribute towards our vision for a fairer and more inclusive culture of practice for all within clinical psychology.

- Sidrah Muntaha

Experts by experience

Jo Hemmingfield stepped down as experts by experience lead in December after many years working with the DCP to ensure that the voice of people with lived experience is listened to and our work is co-produced.

Jo's work has been so important and influential in the DCP and BPS over many years.  We have all learned so much from Jo and greatly appreciated her suggestions, guidance and challenges. We are all sorry that she will be leaving and she will certainly be greatly missed.

At our recent annual conference, Jo led the celebration of 20 years of the DCP working alongside people with lived experience with a presentation on 'Highlights of 20 years of EbE involvement in the DCP'. Jo has been crucial in the development of the BPS EbE framework.

I am delighted to announce that we will be honouring Jo's work as an expert by experience/lived experience practitioner with an award for her 'Outstanding contribution to the DCP on behalf of lived experience practitioners'.

Special thanks also go to Simon Mudie for his important work as an expert by experience. Simon has been a lived experience practitioner for the DCP for many years, and been a very committed and knowledgeable colleague across a wide range of meetings, in a number of settings and in many roles for many years.  

His insight and views from an EbE perspective, as well as his broader views and opinions, have been extremely beneficial and he will be greatly missed.  In honour of his work the DCP has made a special award for his 'Contribution to the DCP on behalf of lived experience practitioners'.

 We are currently exploring future structures of EbE work going forward.

- Roman Raczka

Finance

We do not yet have the end of year figures for 2022, but I am able to tell you some key points about DCP finances. Our income was down on 2021 and this reflects some reduction in member numbers as well as changes in our membership categories. However, our spending was also reduced.

In 2020/21 we had planned to reduce the number of face-to-face meetings, and this was of course greatly accelerated by the impact of the pandemic. Although there has been some return to these meetings, they are still the minority and, as a result, our spending is still reduced compared to pre-pandemic levels.

There are a number of key areas of spending for us:

• Reimbursement for some of the time that members of the executive (which includes the four nation chairs), and chairs of our faculties and England branches spend on carrying out the work of the DCP - this is either paid to employers, or to the individuals if they are self-employed
• Annual funding allocations for all our networks and sub-committees, for them to use on carrying out their business for the year
• Funding for CPD, webinars, annual conference
• Funding for publications and Clinical Psychology Forum
• Payments to the BPS for the provision of their administrative and wider support for DCP work

There is a monthly finance sub-committee meeting which monitors our finances and considers requests for funding.

Some of the outputs from the spending can be seen in the rest of this review, and there will be a full financial statement at the AGM in March.

- Simon Gelsthorpe

Group of Trainers in Clinical Psychology

Our GTiCP continues to work to support clinical training programmes across the UK, with co-chairs Anna and Annette regularly meeting with colleagues and stakeholders in the DCP, BPS, ACP-UK and Health Education England.

English courses have completed the retendering process with HEE and are set to expand over the next two years, with courses in the other three nations facing their own retendering processes in the near future.

 

Each course in England started equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives, with specific HEE funding given for 18 months – courses have also been able to bid for further HEE funding to support EDI initiatives so that mentoring schemes and other outreach can continue.

Our anti-racism group held an online showcase event, which was a celebration of the various EDI initiatives going on across the country. This was a fantastic opportunity to share ideas and hold the training community accountable for its EDI work.

Important work continued in the GTiCP sub-groups, with the planetary health sub-group putting forward suggested competencies for clinical psychology training, a sub-group of tutors and experts-by-experience addressing trainee support, and the research tutor sub-group building capacity in and a repository of external examiners.

Courses are managing the impact of the expansion of training places, which has led to an increased need for placement and research supervisors. This is a short-term bottleneck that has created difficulties for services, particularly with the impact of Covid-19 at the same time.

- Annette Schlösser and Anna Daiches

Mentoring

The Clinical Psychologists as Leaders scheme, a key initiative by the Leadership and Management Faculty, continues to thrive. The project was set up in 2018 in order to understand and increase effective and strategic leadership activity for clinical psychologists across the career span. Alongside mentoring, the programme offers access to online resource, links to online leadership learning opportunities, and an online seminar addressing advocacy. Following the project evaluation in 2020, the scheme has continued to expand.

There have now been 91 applicants from mentees, and multiple other expressions of interest, especially from student/pre-qualified members who are not covered by the scheme. A number of new mentors have also been added. Feedback received continues to be positive, and a planned move to the new BPS platform should allow us to expand the programme and promote it more widely.

- Timothy Cate and Amra Rao

Minorities Group

Over the last year we have run our interview and application event online. These have been well attended by aspiring psychologists who hold a marginalised/minoritised identity. Alongside these, we have our Twitter application initiatives which matches trainee or qualified psychologists with an aspiring psychologist (who hold marginalised identities) in order to read application drafts or do mock interviews.  

We want to say thank you to all those who volunteer their time as this couldn't be done without the support of our trainee and qualified peers. We have also attended a number of meetings, including GTiCP, over the last year. As we move away from Covid we are hoping to resume more face-to-face community spaces again.

- Camilla Hogg and Runa Dawood

Power Threat Meaning Framework

The PTMF continues to develop and to be well-received, and is supported by the work of the DCP's dedicated sub-committee. It generates important questions about mental health assumptions and practices that resonate with people providing and using services. More broadly, it helps to inform how systems and services need to change in order to promote wellbeing and social justice.

Across the year, it was presented in diverse settings including academia, health and the voluntary sector, both formally and informally across the UK and internationally. Conference presentations and training took place in person in Lithuania, Canada, Norway, the United States and Denmark. Online sessions took place in the UK, Spain, Brazil, Australia, Greece, the United States, and Ireland.

The PTMF is currently being translated into Danish, Norwegian, Japanese and Swedish, to add to the Italian translation of the straight-talking introduction.

In the UK, it was presented at the Royal College of Psychiatrists' conference on spirituality, and DCP and ACP-UK webinars were organised to introduce the PTMF and how its principles can be applied, for example when considering racism in training, work with peers, enriching formulations and promoting safer and more effective interventions with inpatients.

The Educational Psychologists Special Interest Group on the PTMF was also formed and continues to meet and give presentations on its use of the framework.

- Jan Bostock

Pre-qualification Group

The DCP PQG represents pre-qualified clinical psychologists and DCP members. It produces the Alternative Handbook each year to advise prospective trainees on the various courses, and we've already had more than 1,000 downloads of the 2023 edition. We also held a virtual networking event to support DClinPsy applications, and supported national aspiring psychologist groups by attending talks.

The PQG was represented at the DCP annual conference, and continues to liaise with the DCP executive, faculties and groups to make sure that the voice of pre-qualified clinical psychologists is heard. Vacancies are available on our committee for anyone who would be interested in getting involved.

We planned an event in January 2023 along with DCP England on supervision and leadership, and our pre-recorded video to help with interview preparation has had nearly 2,000 views. You can watch it by clicking on the image below.

- Katie Knott

Public affairs

The DCP has worked closely with the BPS's public affairs teams on a number of areas:

• Campaigns on topics such as poverty, universal credit, and access to therapeutic notes in cases of rape and serious sexual assault
• Writing briefing documents for lawmakers and policy makers on these and other topics
• Responding to consultations, including on primary care services, service specification for new gender dysphoria services, NHS workforce and the proposed HCPC fee increase
• Worked with the Royal College of Psychiatrists to produce a leaflet for people taking in refugee families, which is due for publication
• Engaging with government departments, such as the National Audit Office in the production of its recent report

- Julia Faulconbridge

Publications

The DCP published a number of new documents during 2022, ranging from our alternative handbook for prospective clinical psychology trainees to guidance on a number of issues for practising clinical psychologists. You can view our publications for the year at the links below:

• Clinical Psychology in Primary Care – this new report focuses on the value that clinical psychologists can bring to primary care settings.
• Alternative Handbook 2023 – produced by our Pre-Qualification Group, this guide helps to navigate prospective clinical psychology trainees through the various courses available.
• Guide to Psychosocial Interventions in Dementia (2nd edition) – developed by our Faculty for the Psychology of Older People, this guide presents psychosocial intervention options for people in the early stages of dementia.
• Needle Phobia – this guidance, split into four, gives support to children and young people who are afraid of needles.
• Mindfulness-based approaches – this guidance is for psychologists who want to learn more about mindfulness and its potential applications.

Alongside our publications, the DCP continues to publish Clinical Psychology Forum on a monthly basis, free for members to read online. We published 11 issues during 2022, including six special issues on topics ranging from trauma-informed care to public health and prevention. Overall we saw 120 papers submitted and reviewed during the year.

- Julia Faulconbridge

Public health and prevention

During 2022, the sub-committee worked on two main areas. The first was bringing together the expertise that already existed in the division in public health and prevention, and making this available to a wide audience. We did this through the publication of a two-part special issue of Clinical Psychology Forum, with two editorials providing an overview of the work of the committee, along with 22 papers and also book reviews.

Taking forward our work exploring the different models of training in prevention and public health, community psychology and its relevance to areas of concern like the climate and environmental crisis, a joint workshop was held with MAC-UK and a document is being prepared with recommendations and ideas for placements, research, and academic approaches for clinical psychology courses to consider.

In addition the group had been hosting work on the climate and environmental crisis, and during the course of the year the BPS has formed a new organisational framework for this work and as part of this the DCP is establishing a new group, which will take forward the work that the sub-committee had started.

- Tony Wainwright and Richard Pemberton

Workforce and training

A survey of the psychological workforce in physical healthcare has been completed with a good response rate. We are in the process of analysing the data. Highlights include what looks like a doubling of the workforce since 2015, and a much higher proportion of psychological professionals who are directly employed by acute trusts as opposed to mental health trusts in England.

The physical healthcare group are also producing a document providing guidance for employing psychologists in physical healthcare settings.This guidance is being produced because much of the growth in psychological provision in physical healthcare has been organic, strategically uncoordinated, developing from local demand and sometimes starting with local funding or arising from successful pilot studies. Employment structures sometimes mirror these ad hoc circumstances.  

Within psychology, the workforce growth in this area could benefit from more coordination around workforce planning, clinical governance frameworks, recruitment, and training.

The workforce and training group has lobbied for an increase in commissions across three of the four home nations. There has been a steady increase over the last few years and for 2022/23 numbers in Scotland have increased to 83, in England to 1065, in Wales to 36 and in Northern Ireland they have remained at 21. It is perhaps of interest to look at how this translates to training places per 100,000 population across the home nations contained in the following table.

Tony Lavender (working group chair) and Nigel Atter (BPS staff) have continued to meet with the HCPC and the Professional Standards Authority (the regulator). They have written a blog update which can be read online.

We are providing induction sessions to HCPC staff to familiarise with the training and working contexts of each type of Practitioner Psychologist. Tony has provided a session on clinical psychology. A joint BPS/HCPC Webinar on supervision took place in November. We are meeting with the HCPC lead for Partners (registrants who help with course approval, registration of individuals and fitness to practise processes) to better understand the roles so that we can share with members. We have also helped members with registration and Fitness to Practice issues. See the blog for more detail. The BPS response has not supported the HCPC consultation proposals to raise registration fees by just short of £20 a year.

We are delighted that, after lobbying and advising over many years for a national position, Dr Adrian Whittington was appointed as national clinical lead for psychological professions at NHS England and Health Education England. Adrian took up the role from 1 October 2022. It is also of note that Lynne Taylor has held a similar position as psychology advisor to the Scottish government for some time, We will continue to push for similar roles to be developed in Wales and Northern Ireland.

The DCP worked with the BPS to provide evidence to the Health Select Committee about the staffing issues facing the NHS. Many of the issues raised by the BPS were taken up in the report including the impact of down-banding and staff wellbeing on retention. You can read the BPS statement on its website.

There has been an increase in the non-medical placement tariff in England to £5000 per year for full time trainees (pro rata). Money has come from the medical tariff. There is work on the scope of this tariff and the development of a rationale for application to other psychological professions. Within trusts it is variable about whether heads of service know how the money is distributed and we will lobby for the development of guidance so that there is benefit to psychology services.

The BPS Practice Board agreed with a DCP proposal that a new document 'Job planning guidance for practitioner psychologists in the NHS and social care' should be developed. A cross-divisional group chaired by Tony Lavender is meeting to take this forward. The development is progressing well and second draft of the document is being considered by the group in January 2023. We have had much help and advice from services and will take to the Practice Board before going out for full consultation in the first half of next year.

- Tony Lavender

Wellbeing Matters

The DCP 'Resetting the balance' project is jointly led by the DCP Leadership and Management Faculty and the New Savoy Conference. Since its inception the project has set out a number of key initiatives including a wellbeing charter, a collaborative learning network, wellbeing surveys and various national roundtable events. An Impact statement, 'Building a culture of care - what good looks like' was launched in 2021 with various follow up activities in 2022 to consider its recommendation. 

The sixth psychological professional wellbeing survey was conducted from May to July 2021, followed by a series of focus groups with frontline practitioners together with senior staff in 2022. Findings of these wellbeing surveys continue to be concerning, requiring a strategic approach to ongoing investment in supporting the wellbeing of psychological professionals. 

A key message centres around the importance of good leadership and management to foster meaningful engagement with staff, good clinical supervision, proper consideration of resources required, flexible practices, autonomous decision making and staff wellbeing and retention. The impact of the pandemic was noted to require attention as it has exacerbated many issues such as staff sickness, demand and resource imbalance, burn out, moral injury and racial and social inequalities at work. 

The key messages from the focus groups and 2021 survey have been disseminated to stakeholders, including the professional organisations. It is acknowledged that it is a complex issue and that we need to encourage a system-wide approach to unlock the barriers to improved mental health at work. The active phase of the project finished in December 2022.

- Amra Rao

Nations

The division does work across the four nations, led by our nation committees for each. They've given us a short update on their work from last year.

England

I am pleased to say that some of our active England branches are very much engaged, highly productive and proactive, despite having some setbacks in 2021 due to the pandemic. As a relatively new committee we are working very well as a group.

We started the year with a highly productive away day that was very well received. It helped to bring people together virtually and gave everyone the opportunity to get to know each other, and share ideas and thoughts around setting goals for the committee that were aligned with the wider BPS goals and priorities for the year. We have worked hard as a group and shown high levels of commitment in to implementing and delivering on some of those goals.

- Kalpita Kunde

Northern Ireland

DCPNI continues to be fully engaged with the Department of Health NI in relation to the implementation of the 10-year Mental Health Strategy. The chair of DCPNI sits on the Strategy Oversight Board and has been able to ensure clinical psychologists are included in the numerous working groups, such as Adult Mental health Early Interventions group, Mental Health Outcomes Framework, steering committee and the NI Mental Health services workforce review.

Outside of mental health, clinical psychologists have been integral to other major developments including the NI Cancer Strategy and the ICS on Talking Therapies in Primary Care. All of these collaborations have highlighted the need for increased commissioning of training places in clinical psychology, as well as the imperative to develop new graduate psychology roles within the HSC.

Considerable efforts have been ongoing to ensure the establishment of a chief psychological officer for Northern Ireland. We are delighted that Professor Tony Lavender has been commissioned by the Department of Health to scope the need for a such a role in Ireland and to advise on where it might best be placed with the DoH. Prof Lavender recently met numerous DoH officials, Heads of Service, and reps from NI universities. His final report has now been shared with the Department of Health. We will anxiously await the response from the Department on next steps.

With the DCP-UK executive team, DCPNI continues to play an important role in contributing to BPS policy and ensuring that we can badge and endorse the work of local clinical psychologists. One example of this is the excellent briefing paper prepared by our neuropsychology colleagues, which we supported with the ACP – 'Delivering psychological care to stroke survivors in Northern Ireland'.

Finally, much planning went into our in-person two-day conference in November 2022. Under the theme 'Creating Psychological Safety in Changing Times: Connecting & Imagining,' we had a number of important keynote speakers such as permanent secretaries for Health and the Office of the First and deputy first ministers, alongside the commissioners for older people and for children and young people.

- Nichola Rooney

Scotland

The past 12 months has seen a number of important mental health reviews taking place within Scotland, including the Mental Health Law Review, which is looking not only at the Scottish Mental Health Act but also the acts relating to capacity and the protection of vulnerable adults within Scotland, as well as the Barren Report into Forensic Services.

Members of the committee have ensured that the views of clinical psychologists have been represented within these reviews. In addition to this, committee members have continued to engage with key partners, including the Scottish Mental Health Partnership, Heads of Psychology Group, Mental Welfare Commission and third sector groups. Alongside other organisations involved, the committee was pleased to be able to attend an event at the Scottish Parliament to discuss with MSPs psychology's role in mental health and wellbeing.

In September, the Scottish Government is publishing its updated Suicide Prevention Strategy for Scotland and we were pleased to be able to offer an open online session with Professor Rory O'Connor regarding suicide prevention.  

- Adrian Ierna

Wales

2022 has been a year of reinvigoration for DCP Wales. We have been working behind the scenes to re-establish the committee and make plans for 2023.

Our EbE rep has left the committee, but we are working with the other devolved nations to look at how we make the best use of EbE experience within the committee and as a resource for the membership.

In November 2022, were invited to be part of a drop in session for members of the Senedd at the Royal College Mental Health Expert Advisory Group for Wales at the Welsh Parliament. We had some very interesting discussions about workforce challenges and the importance of clinical psychologists as part of an AHP workforce across settings in NHS Wales.

We continue to link in with the DClinPsy training courses in North and South Wales, and have been pleased to support the development of the first cohort of CAAPs in Wales.

We have been part of BPS Wales' planning for the annual Festival of Psychology which is scheduled for the spring and will bring clinical practice to life for our undergraduate members.

We have also plans in place to jointly host a CPD event with DFP Wales and other colleagues to hear about the fantastic work of the Gwent Attachment Service in how they have developed a highly effective service that has such a broad impact and influence.

We have continued to develop helpful relationships with other partners in Wales including third sector organisations, such as Platfform.

- Bethan Phillips

Faculties

Our faculties focus on specific areas of clinical psychology practice and are led by their own chairs and committees - if you're interested in getting involved, DCP members can join as many as they wish.

Addictions

It is an exciting time for the Faculty of Addictions, and there has been greater investment in our sector in recent years than for a long time. The implementation of the recommendations from Dame Carol Black's review of drugs, development of new NHS gambling harms services and delivery of the 2021 Drug Strategy 'From Harm to Hope' will be key in shaping addictions services of the future. We also look forward to the publication of new alcohol practice guidelines in 2023.

The faculty held a very successful webinar in October this year focusing on the implications of the Drug Strategy for practitioner psychologists. The speaker, Pete Burkinshaw from OHID, gave a fantastic presentation and it was wonderful to see the Zoom chat so active with questions and comments.

- Sarah Stacey

Children, Young People and their Families

2022 saw the faculty focus on influencing policy and strategy, with committee members attending a number of high profile events on a range of topics such as suicide prevention, children and young people's mental health, and mental health in paediatric settings. 

We spoke at a number of APPGs, the Westminster Education Forum and sat on task and finish groups for child mental health. Committee chair Helen Griffiths has continued to develop links with NHS England and other key stakeholders such as RCPsych and RCPCH to advocate for timely and effective services. We disseminated our work through a bi-monthly newsletter.

We also resumed face-to-face committee strategy meetings which has brought renewed energy to the committee – our theme for 2023 is 'Hear Me, Don't Blame Me', and will feature a special edition of the Child and Family Review publication and a conference later in the year. We are actively looking to recruit to committee places and to extend our network of members who may not feel able to join the committee but would like to be more involved in policy, strategy and publications.

- Helen Griffiths

Clinical Health Psychology

The faculty committee continued to meet virtually during 2022 and has focused on a number of areas of work including developing a communications strategy, offering a free online CPD event to members, forming a task and finish group on trauma in physical health (paper to be published 2023), working in collaboration with the Faculty for People with Intellectual Disabilities, and supporting the physical health needs of people with learning disability (guidelines to be published 2023).

We represent the BPS on the Community Rehabilitation Alliance, which formed in 2019 and is focused on resourcing and transforming community rehabilitation provision – the BPS is one of 24 charities, trade unions and professional bodies on it.

We also facilitated BPS endorsement of standards for psychological care across obesity, renal and cardiology specialisms, worked with the DCP physical health and workforce and training task and finish group. 2022 saw a significant increase in membership by 42 per cent, and a new business plan is in preparation.

- Becky Houghton

Eating disorders

We ran two successful CPD events this year - an online event in March 2022 with Glenn Waller on CBT-T for non-underweight eating disorders and a three day face-to-face event in November 2022, where we welcomed back Ken Goss to provide further advanced training on Compassion Focused Therapy for Eating Disorders. We are planning a further online event for Spring 2023 on ARFID, which will be a co-produced event.

Our current good practice guidance for those working with eating disorders was published and promoted last year. One of our current committee members, Caroline Foster, supported the project and it was co-produced by a working group inclusive of experts by experience and relevant partnership organisations.

Forensic Clinical Psychology

The last 12 months have been an interesting time for the faculty. We met in Bristol in May and in Harrogate in November. The May event was organised by Dr Andrew Newman and it focused on domestic violence. The event attracted some high calibre speakers across different disciplines and a combination of academic and clinical perspectives. The Harrogate event looked at the use of risk assessment, including the use of the Power-Threat Meaning Framework in forensic settings. There was interesting and stimulating debate and discussion. 

The face-to-face events continue to be a good opportunity for colleagues to connect and network. Risk assessment of people with a history of violence continues to be a highly political subject and there continues to be a very high level of scrutiny on risk assessment and people moving back to the community. This includes discussions relating to striking the balance between public protection and the rehabilitation of the individual and how this work is documented and communicated.

The AGM elected Paul Brodrick as the new faculty Chair. Both events had lower than anticipated attendance from faculty members. The faculty is concerned about the lack of attendance, which has significantly reduced from previous years. We are urgently working with member networks to establish how attendance can be improved.

- Paul Broderick

Holistic Psychology

The faculty has continued to hold regular committee meetings using Zoom. We are pleased to announce that the mindfulness guidelines initiated by the Committee and edited by committee member Stuart Whomsley have finally been issued. 

We have also hosted a symposium as part of the DCP conference, exploring the benefits of working outdoors and of combining learning from yoga with clinical psychology. We also ran two online networking events.

- Jane Street

Leadership and management

The faculty's key initiatives include its mentoring and resetting the balance on wellbeing programmes to support the profession. 2022 marked the faculty's 20-year anniversary. A number of activities were organised to celebrate as well as develop a strategy going forward to embrace the current context. An event with key figures involved in developing the faculty was organised in Edinburgh in July 2022 to begin such conversations.

A symposium was set up on 'Reimaging leadership and our institutions - From emergent challenges to co-creating our future' at the DCP conference in October 2022. The key areas addressed were 'Lessons from history – how this informs the future strategy', 'Looking at connectivity and human factor and support in leadership', and 'Wellbeing at the workplace'.

The results of the 2021 Psychological Wellbeing practitioner survey and focus groups were presented, which have continued to raise concerns about wellbeing and mental health at work. A question was put to the participants - 'do we need a new leadership paradigm?', and a special issue of Clinical Psychology Forum is due to be published in 2023 addressing potential solutions.

- Amra Rao and Patrick Roycroft

Oncology and Palliative Care

The faculty has focused on trying to increase our influence on policy-making during 2022, reaching out to external organisations to raise the profile of clinical psychology in cancer and palliative care.

Macmillan is investing £15 million in new psychological therapy posts in cancer across the UK, many of which will be clinical psychologists, with significant involvement from the faculty.

Committee members have advised cancer charities producing guidance on best practice in psychological care, including Hilly Webb-Peploe assisting the Pelvic Radiation Disease Association and Alex King assisting Pancreatic Cancer UK. Helen Moffatt has co-authored prehab guidance for NHS Scotland.

The faculty has almost completed its work on new competency guidance for level four psychological work in cancer and palliative care, which will be available soon.

- Mike Rennoldson

People with Intellectual Disabilities

The FPID committee has continued to meet virtually this year, and we have been pleased to welcome new members and continue to evolve, adding new positions to support the exciting work happening. We were very sad to lose our long term treasurer, Gemma Gray, and Faculty members wrote an obituary to Gemma published in The Psychologist.

We are delighted that as a faculty we have grown this year and we have continued to offer learning opportunities to members including a successful conference on physical health and equality, diversity and inclusion. We have continued to publish our journal The Bulletin three times a year including a special edition focused on reducing restrictive practice. We are proud of a project employing people with learning disability to be reviewers for The Bulletin and we are writing up our experiences with our reviewers to share with members. We have also been sending a newsletter so we can provide more up to date information to members.

We have been working on developing guidance for members and hope to publish Physical Health guidance soon. We are also reviewing the Commissioning guidance and are supporting members developing guidance around Long-Term Segregation alongside the Royal College of Psychiatry.

FPID has continued to make links and influence policy, for example attending the Learning Disability Professional Senate, meeting with the Royal College of Psychiatry and inputting into BPS feedback regarding the Down Syndrome Act and National Disability Strategy.

Finally, we are keen to share our love of working in this area, and have produced one video where psychologists talk about their work and are developing a second where people with learning disability talk about their experiences of working with a psychologist. Promoting these and the physical health guidelines will be a priority for next year, along with a greater focus on research.

- Sophie Doswell

Perinatal Psychology

Perinatal mental health services continue to develop across all UK nations, serving women, birthing people and families where there are mental health problems in the context of pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period. This includes perinatal community mental health services and inpatient mother and baby units, as well as related services in maternity and neonatology.

There have been multiple important policy and strategic developments over the last year, including the publication of Royal College of Psychiatrists' CR232 Perinatal Mental Health Services Recommendations, the IAPT Perinatal Competency Framework, the Scottish Perinatal Mental Health Care Pathways, new Perinatal Mental Health Psychological Therapies Implementation Guidance from NHS England and publication of 'Psychology Staffing on the Neonatal Unit: Recommendations for Psychological Provision' endorsed by the BPS.

The faculty has fed into these developments via various Expert Reference Groups, working groups and consultations. Faculty members benefit from regular newsletter updates which include the latest perinatal mental health resources. In the past year, we have run two successful webinars about Working Psychologically in Neonatal Units and Perinatal Loss and Trauma.

The faculty has now established an Early Career Group for those working in and interested in perinatal psychology. This includes assistant psychologists, trainees, PWPs and those newly qualified in the field.

As a faculty we remain committed to bringing an inclusive and values-based approach to all of our work on behalf of the BPS. We are very pleased that we now have a specific committee member role for equality, diversity and inclusion, which will support us in ensuring that we take an inclusive approach across all our work.

- Rachel Mycroft

Psychology of Older People

FPOP has continued in 2022 to deliver high quality and regular CPD to members in multiple ways. Firstly, our FPOP Bulletin continues to be published quarterly, showcasing clinical, academic and co-produced articles about working psychologically with older people. It also includes special editions focusing on areas of interest such as mild cognitive impairment or behaviours that challenge. The latest October 2022 edition highlights presentations made at the June conference with a focus on intersectionality and guest edited by our Yorkshire and Humber geographical group.

Secondly, FPOP has successfully organised and presented a series of webinars for members, offered free for many, on key areas of psychological therapy with older people and on professional practice issues. Very high numbers of attendees registered to hear about working with suicide in older people (Polly Kaiser), working with psychosis (Becci Dow), working with complex emotional needs (Kathryn Dykes) as well as structured clinical management, working with eating disorders, recruitment and retention in OA psychology and DBT. All webinars were coordinated and often delivered by Natasha Lord and assisted by Katharina Reichelt.

Thirdly, FPOP has seen the publication of a series of important documents, including the update to the guidance on psychosocial interventions with dementia and a highly influential document published via the NHS Futures platform on working with older people with complex emotional needs. This links to work completed by FPOP with the national expert reference groups for older people and partner organisations such as the Alzheimer's Society.

Finally, FPOP continues to function through a network of geographical groups, each meeting regularly and supporting members through regional CPD events and meetings. Often the regional group offers a network to the local clinical psychology training courses about placement and teaching and all are working hard to emphasise the critical need for trainees to gain quality experience in working with older people during training.

- Becci Dow

Psychosis and Complex Mental Health

Our 2022 annual conference focused on staff wellbeing, given the tremendous pressures on staff over the pandemic and since. We were fortunate to have Natalie Kemp speak on 'Breakdown as systemic intervention'. Claire Hepworth spoke on supporting staff to draw on DBT principles to facilitate their own and colleagues' mental health. The strong turnout and lively discussion highlighted the need for us to focus on the wellbeing of our members over the longer term.

In November, we were very pleased to host a talk by Professor Colin DeYoung on 'Psychopathology from a cybernetic perspective: Understanding the roots of mental health in personality and self-regulation.' Colin is a leading personality researcher and critic of standard psychiatric diagnostic systems. His work focuses on developing a system for characterizing clinical presentations of mental health problems grounded in psychological science. This was a fascinating talk on understanding mental health and psychopathology in terms of personality and self-regulation processes.

- Jo Allen and Katherine Newman-Taylor

Sexual Health and HIV

This year the faculty has continued to work on The Standards for Psychological Care in HIV (BHIVA guidance endorsed by BPS), as well as moving forward with the Chemsex Briefing paper – now out for consultation.

We have contributed to the Welsh National HIV Action Plan and made suggestions around psychological care provided in services, as well as commenting on government consultation around conversion therapy. We have also contributed to the health psychology contribution on the 10 year Mental Health Strategy.

Committee members have also continued to contribute to relevant publications, including a book chapter on compassion focused approaches in HIV care. We ended the year with an online training session on working with psychosexual problems.

- ​​​​​​​Jane Vospe