National Developments in the Psychological Professions

It has been a busy and exciting time for the psychological professions nationally. We launched the first national conversation to explore across England how we might maximise the impact of the psychological professions for the public, through the on-line Psychological Professions into Action platform. Psychological professionals, other health and care workers and members of the public were active for over 600 hours on the platform, and logged in from all over England and beyond. There were over 8,000 contributions in the form of ideas, comments and votes. The team at Clever Together are now busy reading through and creating an initial thematic review of the conversation, which we will play back to everyone on the platform to challenge, validate and confirm the findings. The results will then be used to shape an action-oriented framework for implementation. To join the second on-line workshop in March - please register here: https://ppsintoaction.clevertogether.com/entry

At the same time, we have published a draft Psychological Professions Vision for England (2019-2024) for public consultation. This is what we promised to do in the NHS Interim People Plan. We would like feedback on the Vision, so please go here to let us know what you think: https://www.engage.england.nhs.uk/consultation/psychological-professions-strategy-2019-24/ . The vision sets out our plans to grow the psychological professions faster than ever before, to improve the development path for psychological professions, and to get leadership for and by these professions right at all levels across provider organisations, Integrated Care Systems, the seven NHS regions and nationally.

As you may recall, part of the national vision is to establish a Psychological Profession network in every one of the seven NHS Regions to help support growth, development and leadership of the psychological professions across England. Gita Bhutani, Chair of the PPN in the North West has taken up a role as National PPN Development Lead to support this process. We were delighted to see the launch of the New PPN South West in January, and will be seeking expressions of interest from potential Chairs to establish PPNs in the Midlands, and in the North East and Yorkshire in the coming weeks.  This growing PPN movement will be steered by a PPN England Board, to ensure that our work is connected and effective.  

Finally, I was delighted that the review of the funding arrangements for Clinical Psychology training came to a conclusion at Health Education England, and that we will be continuing with full payment of training fees, Band 6 full time salaries and travel expenses paid for all trainees. This is a very good result for the future of clinical psychology in England.

Adrian Whittington
Chair, PPN Kent, Surrey and Sussex