Quality assurance

In June 2010, the Programme had an approval visit from the Health Professions Council following being mandated by the Government to statutorily register Clinical Psychologists and to monitor the competencies of the evolving profession. At the same time, the British Psychological Society undertook its five year accreditation visit, and the University also took the opportunity to validate the programme. The Programme gained ongoing approval from the HPC subject to meeting a small number of conditions. The BPS accredited the programme for a further five years. There were a number of recommendations and no conditions attached whilst the University validated the programme for the same periods with one condition. The conditions were approved by the HPC in September 2010. These processes ensure that the Programme evolves to meet local and national requirements of Clinical Psychologists. In the last five years the Programme has been annually reviewed by the Strategic Health Authority and the University, concerns and enhancements are discussed within the department and Faculty. Currently, the Programme team is working with the Strategic Health Authority and other local Higher Education Providers to implement a new annual quality assurance scheme for all health care programmes.

Additionally, we are equally dedicated to evaluating our own initiatives. The introduction of Surrey’s inter-professional problem-based learning exercise was evaluated. The learning was undertaken with Dietetic colleagues focussing on interventions for children presenting with cystic fibrosis and emotional problems. The findings demonstrated that the inter-professional context provides a useful learning opportunity giving insights into how different disciplines consider information in the therapeutic management of individuals’ physical and emotional issues.

Feedback

Trainees have opportunities to provide feedback and raise issues with Programme team representatives in a number of ways. Trainees in each year group have regular business meetings with issues arising being fed back to the course team. There are also regular meetings with trainee representatives from all three year groups and course team members to foster learning across the three years. All three trainee year groups and course team members also take part in an annual ‘away day’ to share and discuss issues relevant to training and personal development. The away day meeting provides a vehicle for trainees and staff to come together in more neutral surroundings and to consider any initiatives that might benefit the ongoing development of trainees. A representative from each trainee year group attends the Board of Studies which provides an opportunity to both give feedback on and contribute to the development of new practices on the programme.

Individually the Programme team operates an open door policy and are keen to hear from trainees, at the earliest opportunity, if there are issues they are concerned about.

Service User and Carer Involvement

Working with service users and carers

“Being involved has done a lot for me. It’s given me hope, knowing that I can make changes for the better and help the trainees in their learning.” (Service user)

Since 2004, the Clinical Psychology training course has been working with people who use NHS mental health services and their carers. The aim has been to ensure that clinical psychologists graduating from the programme are able to work with service users and carers in effective and meaningful ways. We also have a dedicated Co-ordinator of Service User & Carer Involvement, Barbara Riddell, who has been employed on the programme since 2006.

How have service users and carers influenced training at Surrey?

The influence of service users and carers can be found in all aspects of training:

Selecting trainees: Service user and carer colleagues, together with course team staff, are involved in interviewing and selecting candidates who apply to come on the course. They are also actively involved in designing and evaluating the course’s selection procedures.

Teaching: the input of service users and carers to teaching is an important way for trainees to learn what it is like to live with a particular psychological condition or difficulty.

Research: Research involving service users and carers helps make mental health services more relevant to people who use these services. Trainees are encouraged to include service users and carers in their research.

Oral presentations - in their second year, trainees now present a case study in the form of an oral presentation to a panel made up of course team members plus service users and carers

Payments  - paying service users and carers for their contributions often deters people, as it can interfere with any benefit payments they receive. We have in place a policy which ensures service users and carers are paid a fee for their contributions

Good Practice Guide – commissioned by the DCP for other clinical psychology training courses on how to involve service users and carers in training. The guide can be downloaded from the BPS website http://www.bps.org.uk/.

Service Users & Carers Advisory Group

“I have been so impressed over the years how all of us on the advisory group coming from so many different disciplines and walks of life have worked together as colleagues – to one end, namely, enhancing the involvement of service users and carers in all aspects of the training of clinical psychologists.” (Carer)

The Service User & Carer Advisory Group meets every month and welcomes anyone who is passionate about service user and carer involvement in training clinical psychologists. The Group consists of programme team members, trainees, service users, carers, representatives from local service user/carer organisations. Ideas generated from  the Advisory Group are fed back to the course team (and vice versa), with many new initiatives being implemented and evaluated by the Advisory Group.

Our work has been disseminated in a number of workshops, lectures and publications. Some recent articles describing our work include:

Hayward, M., Riddell, B. & Cooke, A. (2009). Involving service users and carers in clinical psychology placements. Higher Education Academy Psychology Network Newsletter, 52, 4.

Riddell, B. (2010). Beyond the classroom: widening the involvement of service users and carers in clinical psychology. Openmind.

Clinical Psychology Forum is the professional journal for UK clinical psychologists. A special edition (no. 209) on service user and carer involvement was published in May 2010. 

Hayward, M., Riddell, B. & Cooke, A. (2009). Involving service users and carers in clinical psychology placements. Higher Education Academy Psychology Network Newsletter, 52, 4.

Contact

Barbara Riddell, Co-ordinator of Service User & Carer Involvement,
email: b.riddell@surrey.ac.uk
(Barbara works Tuesdays and Thursdays)
Telephone: 01483 689441

You can download a document describing 5 years of service user and care involvement at Surrey below.