Going from Strength to Strength - A Regional Update

We have had a very busy time in the PPN Kent, Surrey and Sussex, and are excited to at last relaunch our bimonthly newsletter!

I am proud to say that our community of practice has been going from strength to strength! When I first took up my post 2½ years ago, there was this great opportunity to develop and host a network, where the unifying ground is our collective passion for NHS commissioned psychological healthcare. I am therefore proud that we now have a thriving PPN in this region, with over 700 members, delivered two annual conferences, and are about to expand across the South East. Our region also connects to all the PPNs in England as one, ground-up community of practice! 

From the outset, we have driven this work forward by joining up those who deliver, plan and use psychological healthcare in the NHS. Here I am particularly proud of the ongoing collaboration with our Service User Consultants Helen Leigh-Phippard and Laura Lea, and Carer Consultant Sharon Galliford, and all other Experts by Experience who have contributed to our work to date. A huge thank you!  

We have been promoting who the 12 Psychological Professions. Please click on the following links to see our flyer and animation.  This has helped to pave the way for our launch of the national campaign #PPsIntoAction on 15^th January 2020 at https://PPsIntoAction.CleverTogether.Com and our electronic career map, which will be launched at https://ppn.nhs.uk  later this month. Here I would like to thank Cristina La Cara for all her contributions to the career map project during her Darzi Fellowship with us.

We are also now in discussion with a number of stakeholders on finalising and next steps of the discussion papers:   

• Maximising the Potential of Psychological Practice in Physical Healthcare
• Leadership, Management and the Psychological Professions
• Exploring the Contribution of the Psychological Professions to Promoting Wellbeing in Communities

A big thank you to Clare Daniel, Jackie Allt and Hannah Denton for preparing these papers for us.

I am also delighted that more Subnetworks are now developing, which I am keen to bring together in a regional Community of Practice Networking Forum. They enable more inclusive representation at board level by joining up either uniprofessional groups, or areas of interest. I would like to extend my gratitude to Lizzie Gray, Simon Winter, Adam Dawes and colleagues for all your hard work to get the PWP Subnetwork launched on 30^th January 2020, and to Chloe Stewart for starting up a Health Psychology Subnetwork!  Please do come forward with further proposals for other subnetworks.

Please keep supporting this thriving regional PPN by keeping in touch and spreading the word to your colleagues to join at https://kss-ppn.nhs.uk

Alice Plummer
Clinical Programme Manager, PPN Kent, Surrey and Sussex