National agreement for Health Psychology job descriptions in the NHS

There are increasing enquiries coming to the DHP from Health Psychologists and Psychology Managers in the NHS about which groups should be using the Agenda for Change applied psychology generic job profiles. The following statement has been released from AMICUS the union working with the BPS Family of Psychology (Health, Clinical & Counselling) who developed Agenda for Change applied psychology job profiles:

Statement for matching the job profiles for - Health Psychologists, Counselling Psychologists, Clinical Psychologists, Child Psychotherapists and Adult Psychotherapists and Family Therapists:

The agreed profiles applicable to all applied psychologists and psychotherapists, as listed above, are about to be republished on the DOH website and also on the DCP and Management Special Interest Group websites.  These profiles have been reviewed for user friendly language and consistency with the revised Job Evaluation Handbook and Guidance for JE matchers and evaluators.  These generic profiles where drawn up and agreed in consultation with AMICUS and professional representatives for health, counselling and clinical psychology and separately with the groups of psychotherapists.  Although they may refer to clinical psychology in the text, this does not affect their use for all these groups and there is now some evidence for successful matching across all these groups. Click here to download a pdf file with the new profiles.

The profile titles are Department of Health generic titles that apply across all groups of employees in the NHS.  We were unsuccessful in persuading the Job Evaluation Working Party to use professions specific titles which may be the cause of some confusion and reluctance to use these generic profiles.  Locally, individual and professional titles will appear on job descriptions and person specifications so it should be quite clear to matching panels which profiles to apply.  In case of any difficulty, or matching panels not following this advice and practice, your local A4C Rep and/or your Amicus Regional Officer Lead for NHS should be informed to ensure that the agreed and uniform matching process is followed.  In extremis, it is possible to contact your Family of Psychology Regional Representative who can relay concerns to the Secretary of the Family of Psychology Occupational Advisory Committee JEWP.

Patrick Smuts
Chair of AMICUS Family of Psychology, Occupational Advisory Committee