From the Chief Executive, May 2019

Over recent weeks and months, an advisory group of members drawn from across the BPS has been working to develop a comprehensive survey of our membership. I'm delighted that we're now almost ready to launch the survey, which will cross the boundaries within our discipline and touch on all areas of education, practice and research.

If we're to be successful on our journey to becoming a Society which is led by its members and delivers the outcomes which you all want, it's vital that we have a deep understanding of what that actually is. This survey will produce a detailed evidence base that we can use to inform and improve our work influencing policy and the support that we offer as a professional body.

We are of course aware of increasing workloads and demands, organisational cultures that may not be the most supportive, and examples of poor leadership within our sector. We're aware of these because you tell us, and we often read about it in these pages. But if we're going to advocate for and ultimately achieve positive change in these areas, then we need to be able to back our views up.

A survey on this scale isn't something which we've done before, so we've commissioned the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) to conduct it for us. As well as being industry experts, the team we've worked with has been led by a psychologist and BPS member.

IES will be contacting BPS members by email or letter shortly, inviting you to participate in an online survey. All responses will be confidential, and your data will be held in accordance with GDPR regulations.

The survey will cover key themes including management and leadership, workload, and diversity, equality and inclusion. It will ask about your career journey, and your workplace wellbeing.

While the survey has been carefully designed to capture the broad issues which affect all psychologists, there will also be the opportunity for you to respond on specific issues, whether you are a practitioner, academic, student or even work outside of psychology itself.

As with any survey, its validity depends on the number of responses, so it would be great if as many members as possible give us their views. Please respond and give us the opportunity to represent you as best we can.

As ever, I welcome your thoughts and comments so please do get in touch.

Sarb Bajwa is Chief Executive of the British Psychological Society. Contact him at [email protected]