Memorandum 109
Submission from Professor Graham Turpin,
Clinical Psychology Unit, University of Sheffield
I should like to submit written evidence concerning
the above enquiry. This submission is offered in a personal capacity
but is based on over twenty-five years of experience training
psychologists and other mental health professionals in psychological
therapies.
I am currently the Director of the Clinical
Psychology Unit at the University of Sheffield. I have been the
Chair of the British Psychological Society's Division of Clinical
Psychology and also Chaired the relevant groups for accrediting
the training of clinical psychologists within the UK and also
representing the thirty or so universities which provide training
courses.
Currently, I am seconded via the Care Services
Improvement Partnership/ National Institute of Mental Health England
to the DH/NIMHE/ CSIP Improving Access to Psychological Therapies
Programme as Associate Director, Workforce responsible for developing
education and training to support the workforce required to deliver
this programme.
My evidence is therefore informed by my current
engagement with workforce development around improving access
to psychological therapies and my professional involvement in
clinical psychology training.
INTRODUCTION
1. I am strongly opposed to the general
principle underlying the proposal to withdraw funding from ELQs.
Any development that restricts individuals' access to retraining
or up-skilling will adversely affect the implementation of the
government's policies to support Life Long Learning and Continuing
Professional Development.
2. I have a particular concern about the
implications for the education and training of health care professionals.
In recent years, great emphasis has been placed on moving away
from traditional forms of professional education, with a greater
focus on New Ways of Working such as job flexibility, specific
training of required competencies, and the idea of "a skills
escalator". The latter describes a process whereby healthcare
professionals are engaged in continuous of learning and acquiring
greater and more relevant skills and competencies within the job
which will ultimately be beneficial to patient care. A consequence
of such an approach is that individuals are encouraged to switch
careers/professions and take up programmes of education throughout
their NHS careers. It also allows the creation of new jobs outside
of traditional professions. Such flexibility has to take into
account that individuals will have studied different subjects,
courses, different levels of award and degrees, etc. Indeed, it
is important that individuals are able to move between subjects,
disciplines and courses easily, and recently the adoption of Accreditation
of Prior Learning/Experience procedures within Higher Education
Institutions has facilitated these developments. The withdrawal
of funding for ELQs will have a major negative impact on these
developments and potentially undermine the progress made in recent
years in training flexible and competent health care professionals.
3. More specifically, I fear these proposals
will impact negatively on the training of applied psychologists,
counsellors and psychological therapists. In order to listen,
understand, empathise, support and help vulnerable individuals
in distress, it is desirable that those training for these often
challenging and difficult roles/ professions require considerable
personal maturity and integrity, together with experience of life.
As with the clergy, it is neither desirable nor realistic to expect
to train therapists and counsellors directly following leaving
school. It is particularly common, if not an essential requirement,
that trainees in applied psychology, counselling and psychotherapy
will have studied a prior subject at university and will have
been working in a related but different healthcare profession
(eg nursing, social work etc). In the case of applied psychology,
which is taught at a doctoral level, trainees have to have first
successfully graduated from an undergraduate degree in psychology.
This means that other health professions wishing to become applied
psychologists would be essentially barred from doing so, if ELQ
funding were withdrawn. Nurses, social workers, occupational therapists
wishing to retrain as applied psychologists are likely to have
studied already for an undergraduate degree, but would be prevented
from studying a further psychology degree required in order to
study applied psychology at a doctoral level.
4. The above argument can also be made for
healthcare professionals wishing to undergo other forms of training
in psychological therapies including degrees, postgraduate diplomas/certificates
and masters degrees in various forms of psychological therapies
including: child psychotherapy, cognitive behavioural therapy,
dynamic therapy, systemic and family therapy etc.
5. Any development that impacts negatively
on psychological therapies training is likely to undermine a major
initiative announced by the Secretary of State for Health, the
Rt Hon Alan Johnson to the Commons in October which envisaged
the investment of £173 million in expanding psychological
therapy services. It is planned that a further 3,600 newly-trained
psychological therapists will be produced mainly by university
run courses and commissioned by the Strategic Health Authorities
over the next three years. I believe that this proposal to withdraw
funding could possibly de-stabilise this ambitious programme designed
to provide better therapy services for some of the most disadvantaged
in society suffering from chronic depression and anxiety. I believe
that many mental health charities and professional bodies (eg
BAP, BACP, BABCP, BPS, Relate) associated with psychological therapies
have already made strong protests along similar lines. Accordingly,
it is important that these objections are considered with the
utmost importance.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. I believe that there needs to be a detailed
review of this proposed policy and its possible impact on healthcare
education. Such a review should be cross-departmental and directly
involve the Department of Health.
2. If the proposals are persisted with,
then it will be imperative that further exemptions for routes
into clinical psychology and other NHS-related psychology/mental
health/ psychotherapy trainings are made. This should consider
students across all levels of healthcare training from foundation
degrees through to clinical doctorates. It will be important that
courses specifically in psychology, counselling and psychotherapy,
or other trainings associated with mental health care provision,
are exempted from these arrangements, alongside the exemptions
already identified for doctors and nurses. Essentially the same
arguments also apply.
January 2008
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