Proposal to establish core training and career entry point structure for Psychology graduates into
Psychological professional roles within the NWC NHS. Entry from January 2021
Expressions of Interest invited by 14th August 2020
Revised 3rd August 2020
Issued to: 1. NHS Trust and Foundation Trust CEOs, HR Directors, Directors of nursing and allied health professionals
Copies for Information issued to:1. North West Coast Steering Group – New career routes for psychological
professionals2. Psychological professions network North West 3. HEE regional leads
1
Implementing New Career Routes in Psychological Professions
1) Purpose of the PaperThe purpose of this paper is to update stakeholders on this national trailblazing programme, supported by Health Education England (HEE) and we are now seeking expressions of interest for a first-cohort training programme, commencing in January 2021. Mental health services are a national priority, particularly during the current COVID situation, and this programme will help underpin the recovery of local systems and the workforce. The key aims of the paper are as follows:
To update on current progress and receipt of further funding from HEE for 2020/21, To report that a full programme mandate, including delivery and governance
arrangements is being developed. A programme board will be established which will seek executive membership and clinical support from providers,
To expand the offer to providers in Greater Manchester for the first cohort of approximately 20 psychology graduates will be recruited to a ’test of concept’ training programme, delivered by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) to commence in January 2021. NB We are seeking initial expressions of interest and a detailed recruitment timeline will follow in when the demand from providers is known.
2) Background
In 2018/19 HEE commissioned the Innovation Agency North West Coast (IA-NWC) to undertake a project to explore New Career Routes for Psychological Professions across the North West Coast (NWC) footprint. A final report was produced and presented to the Local Workforce Action Boards (LWABs) in Cheshire and Merseyside (C&M) and Lancashire and South Cumbria (L&SC) in September 2019. The key issues are summarised below:
The workforce challenges for the NHS are well known and the current level of vacancies across all professions contributes to the increasing pressure on services coupled with rising demand. The existing workforce cannot deliver the ambitions of the NHS Long Term Plan (LTP) and the traditional approaches to increasing the workforce supply rate have, to date, not been successful. Psychology is one of the most popular and largest undergraduate degree subjects. It is recognised however that a significant proportion of psychology graduates are interested in a career in health care but find it unavailable to them as a career choice.
There are no psychology degrees nationally that are currently commissioned by HEE that are specifically designed to produce psychological care professionals ready to join the NHS as a qualified, registered practitioner into a postgraduate clinical career pathway. Some graduates may have a significant clinical course component in their degrees, but they do not have the relevant clinical experience, or placements to allow them to enter the workforce on graduation at the same level as, say, a staff nurse would. This appears to be a unique situation that is avoided in almost all other clinical training pathways, whether it is in nursing, medicine or allied healthcare professionals.
2
The project focused on identifying opportunities to improve career routes into the range of psychological professions and the recommendations are set out below:
1) Design and deliver an integrated postgraduate career structure to enable graduates to join the NHS on qualification and build up a progressive career within the NWC system;
2) Develop new educational approaches and courses designed to enable graduates to enter the NHS as a qualified clinician;
3) Establish a structure to manage and administrate the single progressive career structure across the NWC;
4) Take account of operational dependencies and overall efficiency of workforce planning in psychological care roles.
Following support from the LWABs in C&M and L&SC, a funding proposal was submitted to HEE North to support delivery of these recommendations. This proposal has been supported and funding secured from April 2020-April 2021 to establish a small core Programme Team working across the NWC. This work is being led by the Innovation Agency (NWC) in partnership with key stakeholders and will report via the LWABs. HEE nationally has identified this programme as a key priority and is seeking to roll it out across all regions in 2021/2022. Early indicative targets suggest an initial cohort of 50 posts per region will be supported with HEI programme costs, supervision and backfill provided. One of the first priorities of the programme team will be to work with HEE to identify the additional funding support required. A call with HEE National Executive and Director of Education Quality has been set up week commencing 4th May to expedite this process.
Following the conclusion of an expression of interests process for those providers within the North West Coast area the decision was made to expand the scheme to Greater Manchester providers.
3) Current Position and early ‘Test of Concept’
Since January 2020, a NWC Steering Group has continued to meet to initiate next steps, sign off the proposal to HEE and continue to drive this work forward. A working group, comprising key stakeholders has been established, designing a ‘test of concept’, which includes the design of Trainee Associate Psychological Practitioner (TAPP) and Associate Psychological Practitioner (APP) roles (Job Descriptions attached at Appendix 1). The aim is to recruit initially to these new roles thereby expediting some of immediate workforce challenges in priority areas such as community mental health teams, Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) for people with long-term conditions, core IAPT, hospital liaison, mental health inpatients, primary care, health and wellbeing services for staff and health psychology services in acute pathways.
The rationale, and evidence from the original research is that there are considerable vacancies in the majority of Trusts, across the NWC, yet a plentiful supply of graduates who wish to pursue a career in the health sector. Currently the NHS is unable to convert this supply into a ‘locked-in’ resource partly due to the lack of a recognised postgraduate entry point and a clear career pathway. Delivering all of the recommendations from the original project will help ensure a longer-term supply chain to meet the workforce growth requirements set out in The Long Term Plan.
The HEI partner for this initial ‘test of concept’ phase is UCLan, although many other HEIs across the NWC have been working as part of the Steering Group and expressed an interest in future delivery, following evaluation of this initial phase and when detailed modelling about future demand is clarified.
3
This phase of implementation will target an initial cohort of approximately 50 recently qualified psychology graduates. The intended recruits will have a British Psychological Society accredited first degree in Psychology. The recruits may have already had experience in support worker roles or other relevant positions. They will be recruited at a Band 4 for the duration of the training and then be appointed as a substantive Band 5 Practitioner, post qualification.
The Postgraduate Diploma Associate Practitioner Psychologist (PGDip APP) programme will be delivered across a twelve-month period to TAPPS, who are in post within providers in the NWC. It is envisaged that the post will be within a fixed service role for the duration of the training and not on a rotational basis. This is to give continuity of experience such that the momentum gained once settled into the role is not lost in reorientation to a new service and culture. The aim of the course is for trainees to develop competence in identified areas that fulfil the new Associate Practitioner Psychologist role competencies. In addition to the generic competencies required for a practitioner psychologist at this level the graduates will have developed individual competencies specific to their post in a specific trust service.
The PGDip will be of 12 months duration and structured around six key domains, as follows:
1) An introductory block that is split between time in university covering introduction to fundamental practitioner skills and provider-based preparation for work within the service including NHS induction activities;
2) Themed blocks will make up the regular curriculum delivery around competencies and will take the form of online recorded lectures with supportive Q&A discussions, along with the use of campus-based workshop days to support components that are not well-suited to online engagement;
3) A journal club which will encourage trainees to work as part of a team to share best practice, explore evidence-based approaches and develop confidence in professional communication;
4) The clinical placement work which will make up 80% of the trainees’ time. It is important that the service line manager within the provider feels part of the training and is conversant with the competencies that the trainee is working towards. It is important that the course tutor, clinical supervisor and service line manager have an established communications link to support the trainee and share progress reviews, including a training log;
5) The bulk of the course delivery will be achieved online to minimise the disruption for those coming from further afield across the North West. Digital platforms are widely used in contemporary higher education and there is a lot of experience in developing high quality lecture materials that can be reviewed flexibly by the student, offering recorded live interactive sessions with and without video conferencing with shared screens. Almost all assessment of submissions is now done through online platforms.
6) Supervision during training will be provided weekly by a designated qualified psychological professional who will receive appropriate induction and support in working with this role. Supervision may be provided via UCLan or on placement depending on capacity availability at service level. Following completion of training, individual supervision will be provided monthly in line with other qualified roles with group and peer supervision supplementing the immediate post-qualification period. Supervision contracts will support the delivery and quality assurance.
4
The current state and future state/ new undergraduate programmes and postgraduate training structures are set out in appendix 2.
4) Actions, Considerations and Next Steps
Providers to put forward an initial expression of interest by 14th August 2020 to Andrew Morris, Workforce Development Programme Manager C&M ([email protected]) regarding the required number of posts for the initial cohort in January 2021. This will identify the level of demand across the NWC, and support the development of the Business Case for HEE regarding additional costs for the HEI programme, supervision and back fill to be agreed by July 2020;
Providers will be required to fund these new training posts at a Band 4 initially for 12 months as part of the establishment, followed by a conversion to a Band 5 substantive post after 12 months;
A detailed recruitment timeline and process will be agreed by the emerging programme team and signed off by the Programme Board to be established. It is proposed that this is a single recruitment process with UCLAN during the autumn of 2020. This will reduce the recruitment burden and enable the programme to be effectively marketed;
Providers across the NWC will need to agree a single recognised career hierarchy as set out in Figure 1 and this will be addressed through the work of the Programme Board;
An Evaluation of the first cohort will help inform a Business Case to access future workforce growth funding across the NWC;
Future HEI provision will need to be configured to meet predicted demand and procured through a robust process led by HEE, informed by the Programme Board and local LWABs.
August 2020
Paula Roles, Strategic Workforce Lead (L&SC)
Chris Samosa, Strategic Workforce Lead (C&M)
Carole Spencer, Director of Transformation (Innovation Agency NWC)
Appendix 1: Job Descriptions
5
Appendix 2:
6
Expression of interest reply form. Deadline 14 th August 2020
Return to [email protected]
Contact Name:,
Job Role
Organisation:
Contact details :
Phone
Number of posts required:
Brief description of where these roles will be located and confirmation of band 4 funding availability:
I can confirm the funding of these posts.
7
