Working in the NHS

Overview:

Across the UK there are many people with Health Psychology qualifications employed in applied settings. Some have a first degree; some have Masters Qualifications or are Conditionally Registered with the British Psychological Society (BPS) as a Stage 2/ Doctoral Trainee. Others have professional qualifications i.e. Chartered status and full membership of the BPS Division of Health Psychology (DHP). Once they attain this qualification and are working in an applied setting they must now be registered with the Health Professions Council. More information about this can be found on the following link: /dhp/practioner-health-psychologists/practitioner-health-psychologists.cfm . If they are not registered they can no longer use terms such as Health Psychologist.

1. Health Psychologists within NHS trusts:

Many people employed in the NHS have qualifications in Health Psychology, but may not be employed with that job title. People are drawn to work in the NHS as it provides an opportunity to work directly with people or services to improve health outcomes. Other personal benefits for staff working within the NHS include: membership of the NHS pensions scheme, the potential to work with other Psychologists and other Health Professionals, and gaining experience of applied health psychology e.g. management of chronic illness, pain management, obesity and smoking cessation.

Registered Health Psychologists can be employed as a Psychologist e.g. bay bands 7-9, or in another capacity e.g. as a manager. When employed in another capacity, Health Psychologists may find themselves working independently from the Health Psychology or family of Applied Psychology service.

Regardless of employment circumstances, it is important for Applied Health Psychologists to ensure their continuing professional development (CPD) is tailored to include exposure to health psychology research/ literature and they should have contact with a registered Health Psychologists. More information can be found in the CPD section of the BPS website.

Appointment to senior Psychologist posts within the NHS is supported by the BPS through the National Assessors. It is recommended that organisations that are looking to recruit to senior Psychologist Posts contact the BPS prior to developing the Job Description. You can access more information on the following link:

Trainees: As part of their CPD, and in addition to their Stage 2 supervisor, trainees should have contact with a qualified Health Psychologists within the NHS, preferably at Consultant or senior level. Other CPD activities should ideally include attendance at the Division of Health Psychology Annual Conference and or Post-graduate conference and training events. Additional CPD activities should ideally also include some voluntary work such as for the Division of Health Psychology Committees, particularly the post-graduate sub-committee, and also writing papers for publishing.

Qualified Health Psychologists: As part of their CPD, qualified Health Psychologists should have contact with a Consultant Health Psychologist; they should be attending the National Conference and doing voluntary work with the DHP Committee/ Sub-committee’s. They should also be carrying out research and have contact with their local research and development department and be making conference presentations. Chartered Psychologists can maintain ongoing records of their CPD online. You can log into your account from the following web page /professional-development/professional-development_home.cfm. From 2009, Health Psychologists are required to be regulated by the HPC and CPD will be assessed through that organisation.

Line Management:

When employed within an NHS Trust, all staff should be made aware of who their Line Manager is and of the structure of line management arrangements within the Department/Office/Directorate. Health Psychologists will have differing levels of autonomy depending on their level of qualification. A Line Manager is generally responsible for co-ordinating the workload of staff and is the person who approves annual leave, sick leave and to whom any work problems should be brought. Whether a Health Psychologist is employed as such or in another role, it is not essential to be line managed by another Health Psychologist or an Applied Psychologist, but maybe preferable.

Professional Management:

Professional management is linked to the specific professional requirements of a post. It does not necessarily deal with the practical issues of caseloads (unless this impacts on clinical issues), but focuses on the techniques and evidence base that a Psychologist uses. The Professional Manager will also be responsible for reviewing the on-going professional development of a Psychologist e.g. helping to identify development needs and planning CPD activities.

Trainee’s and Assistant’s should have a Chartered Psychologist as a professional manager, but should also be facilitated to have regular contact with a Registered Health Psychologist. A Registered Health Psychologist should have regular contact with a Consultant or Senior Grade (8b) Health Psychologist, which may be provided either locally or regionally. Health Psychologists in Consultant/senior management (8b or above) roles within the NHS should also be enabled to have access to appropriately senior Health Psychologists in order that they can continue to consult and get professional support in the development of their role and the profession both within their NHS organisation and nationally through working with the BPS Division of Health Psychology and strategic organisations.

These requirements are in place to ensure that Health Psychologist’s continue develop themselves and their professional skills as part of their continuing professional development (CPD). The CPD of a psychologist is now assessed by the HPC. You can find out more about this at the following link: http://www.hpc-uk.org/registrants/cpd/ Each year the HPC will randomly select a sample of Psychologists to audit in terms of their CPD log. If you are chosen, there is a booklet to guide your CPD submission: http://www.hpc-uk.org/assets/documents/10002216How_to_fill_in_your_CPD_profile.pdf

2. Unions:

Whatever organisation you work in, there are times when you may need support regarding employment issues. For example, if your location of work or your hours of work change, or if you have a complaint made against you. As we cannot all be employment experts or be aware of the legal protections that we may have, Unions can provide us with this type of support. They also lead on pay negotiations with big employers such as the NHS.

Health Psychologists in the NHS can join any union. It is important when choosing a Union that you think about how they are able to represent your needs as a Health Psychologist. Those that provide representation to large groups of NHS staff include UNITE and UNISON. UNITE is the union that represents most Psychologists.

Once you have become a member of a Union, you should have a local rep within your NHS Organisation that can support and advise you. If you would like to join a Union, a couple of web sites have been provided below, although it is up to you if you want to join one of these or prefer another.

The DHP committee has a representative on the UNITE Occupational Advisory Committee (OAC) for the Family of Psychology. The representative was elected by Unite members. The OAC Committee leads within the Union on actions relating to the Family of Psychology. You can contact this representative to inform them about general Union issues as well as to get advice about issues strategic to Health Psychology:

3. Agenda for Change:

Agenda for change was a Government initiative aimed at making the pay and working conditions of NHS Standardised across the UK. The main pay scale applies to all NHS staff apart from Doctors, Dentists and very senior managers (e.g. Directors). This means that all staff on the same pay scale will have the same amount of leave, the same basic working hours and so on. There will also be standardised pay for overtime or unsociable hours (currently under negotiation).

In order to assess the grading of posts, there have been a number of generic "Job Profiles" drawn up different professions. All Applied Psychology posts are graded using the same profiles (outlined in 3.2).

http://www.nhsemployers.org/PayAndContracts/AgendaForChange/NationalJobProfiles/Pages/AlliedHealthProfessions.aspx

Psychologists working within the NHS are part of the Agenda for Change process. This includes Health, Clinical, Counselling, Psychotherapists and others. Job Profiles have been developed for the different grades. They apply to all Applied Psychologists, not just Clinical (although the terminology within the profile may say Clinical). They have been designed to represent the "Family of Psychology" as a whole and have been approved by the BPS and UNITE. All Health Psychologists within the NHS should ideally be matched to one of these descriptions if possible. If there are grounds to argue that the job is significantly different from it the profile can be amended.

The Agenda for Change process aims to provide equity of pay for staff of equivalent training and seniority/ autonomy: in terms of the Family of Psychology, there should therefore be equity of pay both between specialisims e.g. a Clinical Psychologist and Health Psychologists of equivalent seniority/ responsibility receiving the same pay; as well as within specialism e.g. Health Psychologists of equal grade with equal pay.

Agenda for Change Pay Scales and information can be found on the following link:

Each band has 6- 9 pay levels that people can progress up over the years (subject to annual reviews, which will be linked to the Knowledge and Skills Framework for the post. More information is found in 3.4). Once the post-holder reaches the top of their pay band they would either require that the job is assessed for re-grading or they would need to apply for posts at a more senior level.

Within the new Agenda for Change (AfC) program, each post will have a competency profile. Eventually, this framework will be used in the recruitment process and subsequently to assess an individual’s progression within the pay band. Within the framework are 22 dimensions. 6 of the dimensions are generic and therefore apply to all roles. These are communication, personal and people development, health safety and security, service improvement, quality and equality and diversity. The other dimensions fall into the overall categories of Health and Wellbeing, Estates and Facilities, Information and Knowledge and General.

Each job will have a KSF profile including all of the general dimensions and a selection of the specific dimensions that relate to the responsibilities of the post. This profile will enable a manager to recruit to the requirements of the post. After 1 year this will be used to assess whether the postholder can progress beyond the first pay point (gateway) and will then be used annually to assess the development of the post-holder. The areas where there is room for improvement can then be developed into a personal development plan (PDP).

The NHS Employers Website has more information on that topic on the following link: http://www.nhsemployers.org/PayAndContracts/AgendaForChange/NationalJobProfiles/Pages/AlliedHealthProfessions.aspx

The NHS Employers web site contains the full documentation of the KSF documentation. Your Trust will also have local paperwork to support this on the intranet. An outline of the key points and frequently asked questions can be found at this link:

4. Annual Reviews/Personal Development Plans:

Your employer will usually review your performance on an annual basis. Most organisations will have agreed paperwork to use in this review. Check your organisations intranet for more information. You will usually be required to present evidence of the competencies that you are required to meet within your KSF and may also be asked to also show that you have met the CPD requirements of the HPC; in terms of maintaining your membership and a log of your CPD activities.

As a Psychologist, your review will most likely involve both your Line manager and your Professional Manager and should cover both professional and workplace development requirements.

From this review there will usually be new targets set to meet over the following year and development activities to help you to address any areas of your work where you agree that you have learning needs.