Qualifications consultation

As chair of the Board’s subcommittee on governance (GBEN), she brings a strong governance perspective to the role.   

She has wide experience of society issues – as current chair of the Member Board, previous chair of the Member Network Review Steering Group, and previous chair of the Education Board (when it was the Education and Public Engagement Board).  

As previous Director of Education at Queen’s University Belfast, with oversight for professional psychology training programmes, she is familiar with issues related to postgraduate student funding, staffing, resources, accreditation and quality assurance more generally.  

Her role on the steering group is to facilitate discussions and decision-making - within the group, with the expert reference group, and the independent consultants – so that the consultation about qualifications with the membership can be conducted in a timely manner, allowing the steering group to reach well-informed conclusions and make recommendations to the Board of Trustees within the timescale.

Widely published in the academic and practice domain, her research is focused on occupational health, diversity and inclusion with a particular focus on neurodiversity at work. 

She was the Division of Occupational Psychology chair in 2013 and actively led the revision of the relevant training standards. 

As a steering group member, Almuth is representing the Association of Heads of Psychology Departments (AHPD) which is a voluntary and member-led organisation which represents most psychology education providers in the UK.  

He obtained his BA and MA in Psychology from University College Dublin and an MSc in Occupational Psychology from Birkbeck College, University of London. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Organizational Behaviour in the Faculty of Business and Management at Cranfield University. 

Prior to joining Cranfield University his most recent appointment was as at the UK Department for Work and Pensions where he held the role of Chief Psychologist and Head of Profession working in policy development and operational delivery. Previously he has worked in human service organisations in various roles, prisons, and in the development of employment services for underserved groups. 

David is a Chartered and Registered Occupational Psychologist, a former Chair of both the British Psychological Society’s (BPS) Division of Occupational Psychology and the BPS Qualification in Occupational Psychology Board. 

Presently he is Deputy Chair of the BPS Qualifications Committee and is a former Health and Care Professions Council panel member. 

His professional interests include developing leaders in the psychology profession, psychologist training and workforce issues, widening access to the profession and diversity, equality and inclusion policy and practice.

She completed an undergraduate degree in Psychology at Manchester Polytechnic in 1989, worked outside of the criminal justice field for a few years before completing an MPhil Criminology at Cambridge University and joining HMPPS as a psychological assistant. Since then she has completed her MSc in Applied Criminological Psychology at Birkbeck College, University of London and her PhD at Anglia Ruskin University where she focused on the release and recall of life sentenced prisoners.  

In her role, Jo employs and leads the largest single cohort of forensic psychologists in the UK, including both in training and registered staff. These are largely forensic, but also has health, counselling, clinical, occupational and educational psychologists within the workforce.

As an employer, she has experience of engaging with and overseeing a range of routes to qualification and was involved in the development of the Stage 2 Forensic Qualification, acting as both Chief Examiner and Chief Assessor on the BPS Forensic Qualification previously.   

Prior to achieving this qualification, he had a long career as a teacher, a safeguarding lead and a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENDCO).

He now works as a counselling psychologist in a hospital with clients sectioned under the mental health act and present with various mental health and neurodevelopmental challenges. Previously, his time was split between lecturing counselling and psychotherapy with the Open University. However, he left this role to focus more on research and clinical work.

Alongside his hospital work, he is a clinical supervisor who has a keen interest in using creative research methods to capture the lived experiences of marginalised groups. His current research focuses on capturing the lived experiences of neurodiverse counselling psychologists and the unique challenges they may face pre and post qualifying.

She is Chair of the Partnership and Accreditation Committee, which is responsible for the society’s accreditation standards across undergraduate, postgraduate education and the wider psychological workforce and a member of the Health and Coaching Psychology training committees. 

Lynn has been involved in the society’s qualification in health psychology (QHP) for a number of years as a supervisor, assessor and now Head of Assessment for QHP. She also holds several partnership roles with the HCPC.

She has been a member of the BPS since she was an undergraduate at Leeds University, where she was Chairman and co-founder of the first Undergraduate Psychology conference in March 1972.

She holds a master’s degree in industrial/Organisational Psychology from the University of Hull and a PhD from the University of Leeds which examined the complexities of managing volunteers. Her career led her to City University where she designed, developed and obtained accreditation for the MSc in Organisational Psychology.

Her expertise in in Leadership and Executive Development. As a scholar practitioner she is Professor of Leadership and Management Development and currently senior adjunct faculty and researcher at Ashridge Executive Education, part of Hult International Business School. She has been a visiting Research Fellow at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, leading a project on developing Sustainable Leadership in SME’s. Additionally, Patricia has a wealth of experience in accreditation and external examination at undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels.

She has wide ranging expertise in helping national and global clients to develop their leaders for organisational and personal success and has published extensively on related topics.  Patricia is the author and co -author of several books, the latest of which examines the impact of the pandemic on working relationships She has a consultancy company offering both personal and organisational development services.

She is also an Independent Governor at Plymouth Marjon University where she is Deputy Governor, Chair of the People and Organisational and Remuneration committees and is Deputy Chair of the Finance and Resources Committee. Patricia is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a Justice of the Peace and a Freeman of the City of London.