DHP & BPS Announcements

Members of the DHP can join the DHP Announcements mail list.  To do this send a blank email to subscribe-dhp-announce@lists.bps.org.uk

Statutory Regulation: Some Implications for Health Psychology

As most people will already know, Applied Psychology is going through the process of being a regulated profession.  It is planned that, within the next year or so, the Health Professions Council will regulate all Applied Psychologists who provide services to the public.  At this stage in the procedure, it is envisaged that the Health Professions Council (HPC) will be responsible for disciplinary issues, accreditation of courses and maintaining a register of Applied Psychologists, although it should be noted that everything written here is for general guidance only because none of these decisions are cast in stone.

One of the key debates surrounding this move was to decide which specific title(s) should be regulated.  In the end, it was decided that seven titles would be regulated in the first instance, of which “Health Psychologist” is one.  In other words, the HPC will regulate practising Health Psychologists in the future and anyone who is not registered with the HPC but calls him or herself a “Health Psychologist” will be liable for prosecution.  The British Psychological Society (BPS) will manage this transition to statutory regulation by simply writing to all Chartered Health Psychologists who hold a practising certificate to ask if they wish to transfer over to the HPC. 

Of course, a key strength of Health Psychology is its academic base – we have a strong body of evidence on which our practice rests – but people engaged purely in Health Psychology research will no longer be able to call themselves “Health Psychologists” unless they are registered with the HPC and will be legally obliged to call themselves a “Health Psychology Researcher” or “Lecturer in Health Psychology”, as appropriate.

Chartering will still exist, but only as an adjectival title owned by the BPS - this means that appropriately qualified people will still be able to describe themselves as a “Chartered Psychologist” but can only describe themselves as a “Chartered Health Psychologist” if they appear as a Health Psychologist on the HPC’s list.  More generally, people who are not appropriately regulated by the HPC cannot use the term “Health Psychologist”, even if it is qualified by another adjective (e.g., “Chartered Health Psychologist”, “Clinical Health Psychologist”, “Occupational Health Psychologist”). 

Further information relating to this issue, including a useful “frequently asked questions” section can be found on the BPS website: http://www.bps.org.uk/the-society/statutory-regulation/stat-reg_home.cfm.  The HPC website is: http://www.hpc-uk.org/

National Assessors Guidance Document
Recruitment & Selection to Senior & Consultant Psychologist Posts in Health & Social Care

The National Assessors guidance document is now available. The document consists of three sections:

1. Guidance to Psychology Managers
2. Guidance on the use of National Assessors
3. Appendices (Department of Health Circulars, extracts from Advance Letters, sample job descriptions, etc.)

Hardcopies are to be circulated to all National Assessors, Clinical Psychology Doctorate Training Courses, Psychology Service Managers, and Trust HR Directors. If you would like a hardcopy, please contact the Society's Subsystems Services (email: subsystems@bps.org.uk, tel: 0116 254 9568).