DCP In Focus: December 2024

Welcome to the last DCP in Focus for 2024. This is another full edition with some important updates from our chair, Kalpita Kunde and news of exciting projects and events.

We send Season's Greetings to all our members and wish you all a happy New Year!

Julia Faulconbridge

DCP communications and publications lead

An update from DCP chair, Kalpita Kunde - An update on recompense 

Recompense is a method of compensating members of network committees for their time in carrying out their responsibilities as office holders. It's used by five Divisions, with the DCP making the majority of payments. In March 2024, the Board of Trustees reviewed the policy on recompense and indicated their desire to move away from payments for holding office and introduce a new approach to make payments for 'work commissioned from members…. on a task/project basis, with measurable outcomes and that require specialist psychological input'.

Over the summer, members of the DCP and representatives from other networks have been working with BPS teams to design a new process to replace recompense. This focuses on payments for delivering activities from our annual activity plans and is open to all members of the network, not just office holders. The new approach was agreed by the Board of Trustees in October and the member networks team will be working with DCP over the next few months to begin the transition to the new process. Anyone currently receiving recompense under a contract for services will be transitioned when that contract comes to an end.

Through this work, we built a strong working relationship with colleagues from other networks and the BPS, and we are pleased that the new payment for activities process will open opportunities for all members involved in delivering work for the DCP in the future.

Relaunch of the DCP Strategy 2025- 2028

The DCP have had extensive consultations with our networks to co-design our strategic priorities and goals. The document has been reworked and revised, so that it's aligned with the wider BPS strategic goals, ambitions and values. We aim to complete the final draft by early 2025 and will share it with our wider membership for consultation.

The strategy document is informed by our key professional body functions:

• What we stand for as a profession
• The value we bring
• Key functions of influencing, promoting and sharing best practice, protecting the public and our colleagues, being more visible to our members and supporting our colleagues from across all career stages, including those in training and pre training.

You can look out for the draft strategy document in the New Year. We hope to hear from as many members as possible during the consultation period, so we can make sure that a range of experiences and expertise are reflected in the final strategy.

Upcoming events

The Gathering – Shifting from climate change mitigation to climate change adaptation

Date: 26 February, 10am - 4.30pm

Location: St Werburghs Community Centre, Horley Road, St Werburghs, Bristol

Price: From £5

A joint event from the DCP South West Branch and the BPS South West Branch, this event will bring together leading voices in the climate change adaptation space and offer an opportunity to:

• Explore the results of our community consultation exercise 
• Learn from the latest research on climate change adaptation
• Discuss the role of psychologists in supporting individuals and communities to psychologically adapt to climate change
• Network and learn from colleagues working in other psychology disciplines

You can book your tickets on the BPS website and email the South West branch if you have any questions about attending the event.

Faculty for People with Intellectual Disabilities Conference 2025

Date and time: 12 - 13 May 2025

Location: Hilton Cardiff, Kingsway, Cardiff, CF10 3HH

Price: From £132

Tickets are now available for the FPID Advancing Conference! There's also still plenty of time left to send a submission in for the conference. The faculty are looking submissions that explore the multifaceted nature of two themes:

• Working with systems
• Research to practise links-bridging the gap

You can see a helpful list of example topics for submissions on the event webpage and book to attend the conference.

Take part in a music-based project for South Asian Heritage Month 2025

The DCP's EDI sub-committee is working with the BPS and its EDI team to offer an exciting opportunity for members to get involved in a humanitarian project using a peace song by Bangladeshi poet Rabindranath Tagore. 

The project highlights the impact of political violence throughout the world and hopes to send a humanitarian message for peace and unity. With the help of creative director, Mark Smulian, music producer, Kiran Thakrar and film director Kayser Foyz, the project aims to produce a music video using suitable footage of political violence combined with images of hope and peace for all. 

The project is expected to end in August 2025 with a roundtable discussion which will include hearing from some of those involved about their experience of engaging in this project. Implications for the role of psychologists in supporting individuals, communities and the wider workforce impacted directedly or vicariously by political violence will also be discussed.

We are now looking to recruit up to 15 volunteers to take part in the group chorus singing in Bengali which will include six online evening singing lessons (taking place February - March 2025) and a full day recording in a London-based music studio in April 2025.

You can find out more about the project by watching the short introduction video from Mark, the project's creative director. If you would like to know more please contact Sidrah Muntaha, DCP's EDI Lead on mailto:[email protected]

News

Clinical Associate in Psychology Working Group

Although reasonably new to the workforce in some parts of the UK, Clinical Associates in Psychology (CAPs) have been an established part of the workforce in Scotland and are now part of the workforce in England and Wales. There's also consideration around CAPs joining the workforce in Northern Ireland.

We want to make the DCP a welcoming place for all psychological professionals, and we've started to think about how we can make the DCP a place CAPs want to join. We're setting up a Task and Finish Group with representatives from the DCP Executive Committee, and we hope to gain representation from practicing CAPs, CAPs in training, CAPs Supervisors and CAPs trainers across all Four Nations. 

We will soon be sending out an invitation to join the Task and Finish Group, along with terms of reference for the group. We hope people will consider joining the group to shape the DCP offer for CAPs.

Recognising Disability History Month 2024

14 November – 20 December marks Disability History Month 2024, a period dedicated to recognising the achievements, impacts and rights of people with disabilities.

This year, the theme is Disability, Livelihood and Employment; a pertinent theme as recent government data has shown that there is still a lot that needs to be done to ensure people with disabilities have equal employment opportunities.

To mark Disability History Month, DCP member Dr Sophie Doswell has written a blog highlighting the stark difference in employment rate between disabled and non-disabled people and why more research is needed to understand the experiences of disabled psychologists.

Committee vacancies

The DCP committee are currently recruiting for two positions. These are great opportunities to get involved in shaping the network and helping members get as much out of the DCP as possible.

DCP Committee: Membership and CPD lead. A great opportunity to develop exciting and engaging CPD and activities for members. Apply here.

DCP Committee: Finance lead. We're looking for someone with experience in finance planning and chairing meetings to manage the committee's budget. Apply here.

Celebrating the success of the BPS Careers Festival

Last month, over 2,500 attendees enjoyed an exciting and varied Careers Festival programme, which highlighted the vast array of psychology career routes. Thank you to everyone who attended, presented at a session, and helped to spread the word about the Careers Festival. There were some wonderful presentations from DCP members, who gave aspiring clinical psychologists an insight into their roles, including:

• Dr Helen Coote, who gave attendees an invaluable insight into what a week working as a clinical psychologist looks like
• Dr Jo Jordan, who hosted a presentation on the route into clinical psychology which led her to her current role at Tees Esk & Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust
• Dr Sarah Stacey and Callum Gray, who led a talk about what it's like to work in addiction services, including the most rewarding part of their roles
• Dr Nicky Hartigan who led a session demystifying the application process for clinical psychology training

These sessions will have been an extremely helpful guide for anyone interested in or considering a career in clinical psychology. Everyone who bought a festival ticket will be able to watch recordings of the sessions soon via BPS Learn.

DCP-S Review of the Year

2024 has been a really busy year for the DCP-S committee. We've responded to various Scottish Government consultations, and a particular focus this year has been ensuring the views of our members have been represented within the Scottish Mental Health Law Review and the Learning Disability and Neurodiversity Bill.

We have also linked in regularly with Directors of Psychology in Scotland, the Psychology Professional Advisor, NHS Education for Scotland and many other key stakeholders. With our Senior Policy Advisor June Deasy, we have a BPS Scotland wide policy group.

We're very proud of our Scottish edition of Clinical Psychology Forum that members can download for free from BPS Explore. This issue is a great overview of all the innovative work happening across services in Scotland. The committee continues to be very active, and we hope to continue this into 2025 and keep making sure to represent our members and the profession in Scotland.

Holistic faculty strategy day 

The Holistic Faculty Committee members met for a strategy day earlier this year.

The committee discussed issues around recruitment and engagement with the group and changes to the BPS committee rules which mean we will need to have clear succession plans in place in the future. The committee is very welcoming and friendly, and is always looking for new members. If you are interested in joining, please get in touch.

Our theme for next year will be 'Safe Conversations', with more joint events with other faculties and groups within the DCP and BPS. We would also like to create stronger links with training courses. We will also explore the possibility of using podcasts as well as newsletters, network meetings and webinars to reach our members.

An update from the Children, Young People and their Families faculty 

Our 2024 theme "From shallow roots to developing fruits: working together to help children and families without permanent homes thrive and grow" has successfully culminated in the publication of our annual journal and conference during November.

Our journal, The Child and Family Clinical Psychology Review has nine papers written by clinical psychologists and other professionals working with babies, children, young people and families and experts by experience.

The groups and settings represented include infant mental health, kinship care, children in care, care leavers, inpatient CAMHS, unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people, substance use CAMHS, ADHD and physical health.

Our face-to-face conference at the BPS London office was well received and had a diverse line up of speakers and presentations from clinical psychologists and other professionals working with children in care, unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, young people facing homelessness, Gypsy, Roma and traveller communities and children separated from their families due to hospitalisation. 

We were also pleased to present a podcast made for the conference by Care Leavers Connected, a project of the Care Leaver's Association, in which young people shared their experiences of being in care, with particular reference to our theme. We will shortly be planning our theme for next year and would welcome ideas from our members. 

We're also looking for additional committee members for 2024. The experience of being part of the committee can be very rewarding personally and professionally. Here's what a couple of our committee members have said:

"I have really valued connecting with other clinical psychologists working in different geographical areas and different specialties from myself, and being involved in many interesting pieces of work within the CYPF Faculty, DCP and BPS. It has given me a wider perspective to bring to my day job which has been incredibly helpful and contributed to my development."

If you are interested in joining the CYPF faculty committee and have further questions please feel free to contact our chair, Rachel Bradley, by emailing mailto:[email protected]

The link for applications can be found here.