DCP In Focus: January 2025

Welcome to our first edition of 2025, we hope you find the updates and information useful. Following a decision late last year to issue the Workforce and Training Update as a separate newsletter, this will be in your inbox on 27 January.

There will not be an edition in February as we will be publishing our DCP Review of 2024 summarising all the work that DCP networks have done for our members and the wider public over the last year.

Over the course of 2024, colleagues from a range of DCP networks and the BPS have worked together to develop an exciting programme of CPD which supports clinical psychologists in their transition to their first qualified role following training. 

Based on consultations with trainees, early career colleagues and service leads, a set of eight key topics will be covered in a range of webinars and action learning sets over the course of two years. The final stages of planning are underway, with tutor recruitment nearly complete, the eLearning platform being built by BPS Learn, and hopefully a launch of the programme for sign up soon.

As always, any comments and feedback are welcome.

Julia Faulconbridge

DCP communications and publications lead

Congratulations to our DCP award winners

We're delighted to announce the winners of three awards; the Monte Shapiro Award, the May Davidson Award and the Trainee Research Excellence Award.

The Monte Shapiro Lifetime Achievement Award 2024 winners are:

• Professor Mike Slade
• Professor Paul Chadwick

You can find out about the award winners and read their impressive biographies on the DCP website.

The May Davidson Award 2024 winners are:

• Dr Faye Nikopaschos
• Dr Sarah Parry

Both award winners have made incredible contributions in their teams and this award recognises the impact they've made on their area of psychology.  

The Trainee Research Excellence Award 2024 winners are:

• Dr Daniel Edge
• Dr Tom Cawthorne

This award recognises the great starts they've had in their careers and we look forward to hearing about more about their work in the future.

An update from the DCP chair, Kalpita Kunde

I'd like to wish all a peaceful and healthy 2025. As we move forward into another year, it's a time to reflect on what we've been doing and make plans for what we would like to achieve over this year. Our next representative assembly plans for January will be an in-person event at our London BPS office, where we will review and plan a number of strategic DCP priorities across the four nations and networks for action including:

• Improving membership engagement, retention and recruitment
• Working with experts by experience and co-production
• Streamlining structures and processes across the branches particularly across the England branches
• Improving our presence with event planning, social media and communications profiles
• Early career CPD development project
• Equality, diversity, inclusion and antiracism
• Climate and the Environmental Crisis
• Public health and prevention
• Workforce and training

The Division continues to influence and shape key areas that I've included updates on in previous Chair's columns.

Framework and governance processes

Co-production and expert by experience involvement will see the formal framework and governance processes finalised, which will support our work and provide clarity and equity for everyone involved.

Key aspects included in the guidance and framework will be around long-term involvement or engagement in projects, and contracts for services including:

Clearly defined roles and responsibilities, tenure (period of contract), time frame, value of the contract i.e. if it is a one-year advisory role, a maximum value against types of engagement should be established

Types of activities and the expectation around links with the organisation, networks and the extent of the role in terms of representation and use of influence

• Deliverables/impact where appropriate
• Financial and expenses arrangements
• Current committee vacancies 

The links below are for all the current vacancies across the DCP Networks. Please contact Makinder Chahal on Member Network Services at [email protected] for expressions of interest or if you have any further queries.

• DCP Exec: Membership and CPD Lead
• DCP Exec: Finance Lead
• DCP Exec: EDI Co-Lead
• DCP North East: Appointed Committee Members
• DCP Faculty of Addictions: Chair
• DCP Faculty for HIV & Sexual Health: Chair
• DCP Faculty of Psychosis and Complex Mental Health: Chair
• DCP Faculty for Eating Disorders: Appointed Committee Members
• DCP South West: Appointed Committee Members
• DCP London: Appointed Committee Members
• DCP South East: Appointed Committee Members

New issue of Bulletin from FPID

The DCP Faculty for People with Intellectual Disabilities (FPID) are pleased to announce that the latest edition of the Bulletin is now available and free to download.

This special issue focuses on training and workforce issues in the intellectual disability specialism and contains numerous articles from psychologists at different stages of their careers. We encourage aspiring psychologists who are considering joining the specialism to familiarise themselves with the Bulletin. It's also relevant for those working in with other client groups where there may be challenges with recruitment.

EDI update - South Asian Heritage Month 2025

The DCP's EDI sub-committee still has some spaces left for volunteers who would like to take part in a humanitarian project using a peace song by Bangladeshi poet Rabindranath Tagore.

Volunteers will take part in singing the song's chorus in Bengali in a group and will have a series of singing lessons to help them to learn the chorus. There are six online evening singing lessons (taking place February - March 2025) and the project will culminate in 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.

| News

Events from the Faculty of Psychosis and Complex Mental Health

Join the faculty for two online New Year events on 'What's happening in psychosis and complex mental health?'

Event: Making sense of national developments in England and Scotland

Date and time: Wednesday 29 January 2025, 9.15am - 12pm

Dr Lynne Taylor, Principal Psychology Advisor for the Scottish government, and Dr Alison Brabban, National Clinical Advisor to Adult Mental Programme at NHS England, will discuss national developments in Scotland and England, followed by a discussion and Q&A session. 

Book your ticket

Event: A critical take on current provision and approaches

Date and time: Wednesday 19 February 2025, 1.15pm - 4pm

Dr Anne Cooke, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and lead author of Understanding Psychosis, and Dr Keir Harding and Hollie Berrigan, co-leads for BEAM Consultancy, will take a critical approach to current mental health provision and approaches.

Book your ticket

Both events are free of charge to PCMH members and are reduced cost for BPS members. Registration is available here.

Child & Family Clinical Psychology Review 2025 – call for papers

The DCP Faculty for Children, Young People and their Families have put a call out for papers for the next edition of their flagship journal, The Child & Family Clinical Psychology Review, which will be titled: 'What good looks like for children who may be neurodivergent'.

The upcoming issue of Child & Family Clinical Psychology Review hopes to explore a variety of ways to improve the psychological wellbeing of children and young people who are neurodivergent or where this has been queried. The faculty is interested in hearing from a range of settings and authors and encourages people to submit papers co-produced by young people or parents/carers, as well as from professionals. You can read more about how to make a submission and the theme of the issue on their microsite.

You can send a short expression of interest before writing your article and the editorial team is also happy to discuss possible submissions. Email submissions can be sent to Rachel Bradley.

New guidance on skills required to provide psychological care for adults with cancer

The DCP Oncology and Palliative Care Faculty Committee has published updated guidance on the competencies needed to provide Level Four psychological care for adults with cancer.

The new guidance titled, 'Competency framework for practitioner psychologists working in adult cancer care' splits out the competencies into 'skills' and 'knowledge' and is a revised version of guidance published in 2011.

Just under half of people being treated for cancer experience significant psychological distress during their treatment and a survey from Macmillan found that even 10 years after treatment, 54 per cent of cancer survivors were living with a psychological issue. Offering high-quality psychological care is a vital component of modern cancer care.

Dr Mike Rennoldson, consultant clinical psychologist and one of the lead authors on the guidelines, said:

"We want this framework to improve care for people with cancer in two ways. Firstly, supporting the professional development of psychologists working in cancer settings and secondly, by informing health policy-makers about the specialist skills and knowledge required to provide safe and effective psychological care at this level. 

"I would like to thank past members of the faculty of oncology and palliative care committee, and Alex King in particular, for their help putting the framework together."

The competency framework can be downloaded via BPS Explore.

DCP Faculty for the Psychology of Older People update

Annual conference

This year, we return to an in-person conference, which will be held at the Double Tree by Hilton Lincoln over two days. The conference focuses on developments in the field of older adult mental health and dementia.

Previous conferences have covered work in inpatient services, community transformation and psychological therapies as well as sharing service updates. These themes are relevant across the lifespan, where we can think about adaptations as well as systemic ways of working.

You can follow the link to sign up and submit an article or presentation for the conference.

FPOP Inpatient Workstream: Mapping the psychological inpatient provision

The FPOP inpatient workstream recently undertook a survey looking at psychological provision in older adult mental health and dementia wards across the country. The response rate was 63 per cent and allowed us to gain a better understanding of the spread of provisions across services. 

Initial data shows wide variation in provision, a lack of psychology leadership within inpatient services and requests for more support for band 8a psychologists. Work is happening to pull this document into a brief summary report which will be out later in the year.

FPOP Autism Workstream: Publications

The FPOP Autism workstream continues to highlight the needs of autistic older people and what services need to be considered when developing pathways, interventions and how their services are set up. Some recent publications include:

Hayter, A. (2024) 'Autistic cognitive presentation in later-life', FPOP Bulletin, 166, 6-14 Pratt, E. (2024) Proposing a new pathway: The Autism and Dementia Pathway, FPOP Conference 

Summerill, J., Leedale, C., Thompson, D., Ingham, B., & Rutter, L (2024) 'Autism Assessment and Diagnosis in Older Adults: A systematic review of measures and tools', submitted to Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Let's Talk sessions

FPOP run a number of sessions on topics that have been identified by members. The sessions are open to members and non-members and are free to attend. Please email [email protected] if you would like to attend one or both of the sessions. The next session is:

Let's Talk Approved Clinicians - Thursday 6 February 2025, 9.30am - 11am