DClinPsy Handbook

Category: Assessment and failure

Recording competencies in the ePortfolio (OneFile)

17/01/2023 /

As part of the programme’s accreditation, the BPS require us to have a clear system of recording competencies within their Standards for the accreditation of Doctoral programmes in clinical psychology. We provide this in electronic form via the OneFile system.

We expect that trainees make use of the ePortfolio throughout training, and this is why it has been incorporated into the Individual Training Plan (ITP) document.  We provide a teaching session on use of the ePortfolio early in training, the slides and recording of which are subsequently available on Moodle for those in need of a refresher.  A guide for both trainees and supervisors on the use of the system are also available in the documents section of each trainees OneFile account. The SAT and PALOG will remain as independent assessment tools, whilst the ePortfolio is a recording tool (i.e. we do not comment on the quality of achievement of competencies within the ePortfolio, but this is done within the SAT and PALOG, which is underpinned by other requirements of the BPS and the HCPC).

Where the ePortfolio is not being completed by a trainee, this will be noted in the ITP, and will be regarded as an issue of professional behaviour. The task has been set out as a responsibility of  trainees, and as with any other task, if not completed we will clarify the barriers to this, and support trainees in finding ways to ensure they can do so.

Supervisor’s guide to the ePortfolio
ePortfolio competencies

Use of bookable extra study (BES)

02/01/2020 /
Full time trainees

Trainees from the 2018 intake onwards are entitled to a total of 30 days of bookable extra study (BES) to use for work on the thesis in addition to regular study days. These are normally taken from third year placement time. However, up to six in total may be taken from core placements in the (placement three or four). All BES days must be taken before the thesis submission date. Please note that there will be a minimum number of days that trainees will need to spend on their third year community placement and so BES cannot be used in a way that would take a trainee below this minimum.

There is flexibility in how a trainee uses their BES, depending on factors including the timing and nature of their thesis work, the nature of the placement, and preferred study routine. However, BES should be consistent in pattern and easy to understand, for example, once a week for x number of weeks, or 3 short study blocks. It should not consist of days taken inconsistently from one week to the next across an extended period.

All BES days must be scheduled in advance of the placement starting wherever possible, and only with the agreement of the individual clinical tutor, research tutor and placement supervisor(s). The spreadsheet at the bottom of this page must be used to document plans for BES days, as well as regular study days, placement, and teaching throughout the third year, and can be adapted for use during core placements year if BES days are taken then. The spreadsheet should be shared and agreed with the clinical tutor, research tutor, and placement supervisor(s).

3rd year placement days

Part time trainees

Trainees from the 2018 intake onwards on a part time route are entitled to a total of 30 days of BES to use for work on the thesis in addition to regular study days; this is the same amount as full time trainees. For part time trainees, most will normally be taken from final placement time, which begins in Nov of the 4th year of the part time route, however, up to six in total may be taken from core placements (placements three or four – April of yr 2 to Oct of yr 4).

All of the above rules for full-time taking BES days also apply to part time trainees.

A getting started guide: assessment

04/07/2019 /

This page is designed to guide you through the key sections of the online handbook which relate to assessment. You can use it as an index to read key assessment related sections of the handbook in a logical sequence. More detail on most areas will be contained within the full sections of the online handbook.

Overview

Rules and Regulations

Details of Assignments

Programme-level learning outcomes & objectives

04/07/2019 /

In order to meet the HCPC Standards of Proficiency for the relevant part of the register, at the programme level the Lancaster University DClinPsy programme has adopted the learning outcomes required by the British Psychological Society (BPS), which are designed to meet these standards. The following extract outlines the learning outcomes.

Extract from the Standards for Doctoral programmes in Clinical Psychology:

2. Required learning outcomes for accredited doctorates in Clinical Psychology

2.1. Clinical psychology programmes will vary in the emphases they place on work with particular clinical groups, therapeutic modalities, curriculum content, non-therapy skills, training methods etc. This is healthy and promotes diversity and richness within the profession. It ensures programmes can be responsive to regional and national priorities, opens up opportunities for some programmes to coordinate and complement their efforts and offers prospective applicants choice of programmes which best suit their own preferences, learning style and goals. Similarly, trainee clinical psychologists within programmes may follow a range of training pathways depending on practice placement experiences, research undertaken, optional modules chosen etc. Thus whilst all graduates will demonstrate core standards of proficiency, with transferability demonstrated across the range of clients and services as specified below, some variation in individual strengths and competencies will be both inevitable and desirable.

This context means that whilst the BPS will accredit programmes as meeting the standards required for their graduates to be eligible for Chartered status, it will be incumbent on programmes to validate the specific portfolio of skills and competencies of graduates in a way which is transparent to employers and commissioners of services. Whilst programmes are free to develop their own portfolio format, examples of how this might look are contained in Appendix 1. These examples should be seen as indicative, rather than prescriptive.

2.2. Overarching goals, outcomes, ethos and values for all programmes include the following:

By the end of their programme, trainees will have:

  1. A value driven commitment to reducing psychological distress and enhancing and promoting psychological well-being through the systematic application of knowledge derived from psychological theory and evidence. Work should be based on the fundamental acknowledgement that all people have the same human value and the right to be treated as unique individuals.
  2. The skills, knowledge and values to develop working alliances with clients, including individuals, carers and/or services, in order to carry out psychological assessment, develop a formulation based on psychological theories and knowledge, carry out psychological interventions, evaluate their work and communicate effectively with clients, referrers and others, orally, electronically and in writing.
  3. Knowledge and understanding of psychological (and other relevant) theory and evidence, related to specific client groups, presentations, psychological therapies, psychological testing, assessment, intervention and secondary prevention required to underpin clinical practice.
  4. The skills, knowledge and values to work effectively with clients from a diverse range of backgrounds, understanding and respecting the impact of difference and diversity upon their lives. Awareness of the clinical, professional and social contexts within which work is undertaken and impact therein.
  5. Clinical and research skills that demonstrate work with clients and systems based on a reflective scientist-practitioner model that incorporates a cycle of assessment, formulation, intervention and evaluation and that draws from across theory and therapy evidence bases as appropriate.
  6. The skills, knowledge and values to work effectively with systems relevant to clients, including for example statutory and voluntary services, self-help and advocacy groups, userled systems and other elements of the wider community.
  7. The skills, knowledge and values to work in a range of indirect ways to improve psychological aspects of health and healthcare. This includes leadership skills and competencies in consultancy, supervision, teaching and training, working collaboratively and influencing psychological mindedness and practices of teams.
  8. The skills, knowledge and values to conduct research and reflect upon outcomes in a way that enables the profession to develop its knowledge base and to monitor and improve the effectiveness of its work.
  9. A professional and ethical value base, including that set out in the BPS Code of Ethics and Conduct, the DCP statement of the Core Purpose and Philosophy of the profession and the DCP Professional Practice Guidelines.
  10. High level skills in managing a personal learning agenda and self-care, in critical reflection and self-awareness that enable transfer of knowledge and skills to new settings and problems and professional standards of behaviour as might be expected by the public, employers and colleagues.

NINE core competencies are defined as follows:

2.2.1. Generalisable meta-competencies

  1. Drawing on psychological knowledge of developmental, social and neuropsychological processes across the lifespan to facilitate adaptability and change in individuals, groups, families, organisations and communities.
  2. Deciding, using a broad evidence and knowledge base, how to assess, formulate and intervene psychologically, from a range of possible models and modes of intervention with clients, carers and service systems. Ability to work effectively whilst holding in mind alternative, competing explanations.
  3. Generalising and synthesising prior knowledge and experience in order to apply them critically and creatively in different settings and novel situations.
  4. Being familiar with theoretical frameworks, the evidence base and practice guidance frameworks such as NICE and SIGN, and having the capacity to critically utilise these in complex clinical decision making without being formulaic in application.
  5. Complementing evidence based practice with an ethos of practice based evidence where processes, outcomes, progress and needs are critically and reflectively evaluated.
  6. Ability to collaborate with service users and carers, and other relevant stakeholders, in advancing psychological initiatives such as interventions and research.
  7. Making informed judgments on complex issues in specialist fields, often in the absence of complete information.
  8. Ability to communicate psychologically-informed ideas and conclusions to, and to work effectively with, other stakeholders, (specialist and non-specialist), in order to influence practice, facilitate problem solving and decision making.
  9. Exercising personal responsibility and largely autonomous initiative in complex and unpredictable situations in professional practice. Demonstrating self-awareness and sensitivity, and working as a reflective practitioner within ethical and professional practice frameworks.

2.2.2. Psychological assessment

  1. Developing and maintaining effective working alliances with service users, carers, colleagues and other relevant stakeholders.
  2. Ability to choose, use and interpret a broad range of assessment methods appropriate:
    • to the client and service delivery system in which the assessment takes place; and
    • to the type of intervention which is likely to be required.
  3. Assessment procedures in which competence is demonstrated will include:
    • performance based psychometric measures (e.g. of cognition and development);
    • self and other informant reported psychometrics (e.g. of symptoms, thoughts, feelings, beliefs, behaviours);
    • systematic interviewing procedures;
    • other structured methods of assessment (e.g. observation, or gathering information from others); and
    • assessment of social context and organisations.
  4. Understanding of key elements of psychometric theory which have relevance to psychological assessment (e.g. effect sizes, reliable change scores, sources of error and bias, base rates, limitations etc.) and utilising this knowledge to aid assessment practices and interpretations thereof.
  5. Conducting appropriate risk assessment and using this to guide practice.

2.2.3. Psychological formulation

  1. Using assessment to develop formulations which are informed by theory and evidence about relevant individual, systemic, cultural and biological factors.
  2. Constructing formulations of presentations which may be informed by, but which are not premised on, formal diagnostic classification systems; developing formulation in an emergent transdiagnostic context.
  3. Constructing formulations utilising theoretical frameworks with an integrative, multi-model, perspective as appropriate and adapted to circumstance and context.
  4. Developing a formulation through a shared understanding of its personal meaning with the client(s) and / or team in a way which helps the client better understand their experience.
  5. Capacity to develop a formulation collaboratively with service users, carers, teams and services and being respectful of the client or team’s feedback about what is accurate and helpful.
  6. Making justifiable choices about the format and complexity of the formulation that is presented or utilised as appropriate to a given situation.
  7. Ensuring that formulations are expressed in accessible language, culturally sensitive, and non-discriminatory in terms of, for example, age, gender, disability and sexuality.
  8. Using formulations to guide appropriate interventions if appropriate.
  9. Reflecting on and revising formulations in the light of on-going feedback and intervention.
  10. Leading on the implementation of formulation in services and utilizing formulation to enhance teamwork, multi-professional communication and psychological mindedness in services.

2.2.4. Psychological intervention

  1. On the basis of a formulation, implementing psychological therapy or other interventions appropriate to the presenting problem and to the psychological and social circumstances of the client(s), and to do this in a collaborative manner with:
    • individuals
    • couples, families or groups
    • services / organisations
  2. Understanding therapeutic techniques and processes as applied when working with a range of different individuals in distress, such as those who experience difficulties related to: anxiety, mood, adjustment to adverse circumstances or life events, eating difficulties, psychosis, misuse of substances, physical health presentations and those with somatoform, psychosexual, developmental, personality, cognitive and neurological presentations.
  3. Ability to implement therapeutic interventions based on knowledge and practice in at least two evidence-based models of formal psychological interventions, of which one must be cognitive-behaviour therapy. Model specific therapeutic skills must be evidenced against a competence framework as described below, though these may be adapted to account for specific ages and presentations etc.
  4. In addition, however, the ability to utilise multi-model interventions, as appropriate to the complexity and / or co-morbidity of the presentation, the clinical and social context and service user opinions, values and goals.
  5. Knowledge of, and capacity to conduct interventions related to, secondary prevention and the promotion of health and well-being.
  6. Conducting interventions in a way which promotes recovery of personal and social functioning as informed by service user values and goals.
  7. Having an awareness of the impact and relevance of psychopharmacological and other multidisciplinary interventions.
  8. Understanding social approaches to intervention; for example, those informed by community, critical, and social constructionist perspectives.
  9. Implementing interventions and care plans through, and with, other professions and/or with individuals who are formal (professional) carers for a client, or who care for a client by virtue of family or partnership arrangements.
  10. Recognising when (further) intervention is inappropriate, or unlikely to be helpful, and communicating this sensitively to clients and carers.

2.2.5. Evaluation

  1. Evaluating practice through the monitoring of processes and outcomes, across multiple dimensions of functioning, in relation to recovery, values and goals and as informed by service user experiences as well as clinical indicators (such as behaviour change and change on standardised psychometric instruments).
  2. Devising innovate evaluative procedures where appropriate.
  3. Capacity to utilise supervision effectively to reflect upon personal effectiveness, shape and change personal and organisational practice including that information offered by outcomes monitoring.
  4. Appreciating outcomes frameworks in wider use within national healthcare systems, the evidence base and theories of outcomes monitoring (e.g. as related to dimensions of accessibility, acceptability, clinical effectiveness and efficacy) and creating synergy with personal evaluative strategies.
  5. Critical appreciation of the strengths and limitations of different evaluative strategies, including psychometric theory and knowledge related to indices of change.
  6. Capacity to evaluate processes and outcomes at the organisational and systemic levels as well as the individual level.

2.2.6. Research

  1. Being a critical and effective consumer, interpreter and disseminator of the research evidence base relevant to clinical psychology practice and that of psychological services and interventions more widely. Utilising such research to influence and inform the practice of self and others.
  2. Conceptualising, designing and conducting independent, original and translational research of a quality to satisfy peer review, contribute to the knowledge base of the discipline, and merit publication including: identifying research questions, demonstrating an understanding of ethical issues, choosing appropriate research methods and analysis (both quantitative and qualitative), reporting outcomes and identifying appropriate pathways for dissemination.
  3. Understanding the need and value of undertaking translational (applied and applicable) clinical research post-qualification, contributing substantially to the development of theory and practice in clinical psychology.
  4. The capacity to conduct service evaluation, small N, pilot and feasibility studies and other research which is consistent with the values of both evidence based practice and practice based evidence.
  5. Conducting research in respectful collaboration with others (e.g. service users, supervisors, other disciplines and collaborators, funders, community groups etc.) and within the ethical and governance frameworks of the Society, the Division, HCPC, universities and other statutory regulators as appropriate.

2.2.7. Personal and professional skills and values

  1. Understanding of ethical issues and applying these in complex clinical contexts, ensuring that informed consent underpins all contact with clients and research participants.
  2. Appreciating the inherent power imbalance between practitioners and clients and how abuse of this can be minimised.
  3. Understanding the impact of differences, diversity and social inequalities on people’s lives, and their implications for working practices.
  4. Understanding the impact of one’s own value base upon clinical practice.
  5. Working effectively at an appropriate level of autonomy, with awareness of the limits of own competence and accepting accountability to relevant professional and service managers.
  6. Capacity to adapt to, and comply with, the policies and practices of a host organisation with respect to time-keeping, record keeping, meeting deadlines, managing leave, health and safety and good working relations.
  7. Managing own personal learning needs and developing strategies for meeting these. Using supervision to reflect on practice, and making appropriate use of feedback received.
  8. Developing strategies to handle the emotional and physical impact of practice and seeking appropriate support when necessary, with good awareness of boundary issues.
  9. Developing resilience but also the capacity to recognize when own fitness to practise is compromised and take steps to manage this risk as appropriate.
  10. Working collaboratively and constructively with fellow psychologists and other colleagues and users of services, respecting diverse viewpoints.

2.2.8. Communication and teaching

  1. Communicating effectively clinical and non-clinical information from a psychological perspective in a style appropriate to a variety of different audiences (for example, to professional colleagues, and to users and their carers).
  2. Adapting style of communication to people with a wide range of levels of cognitive ability, sensory acuity and modes of communication.
  3. Preparing and delivering teaching and training which takes into account the needs and goals of the participants (for example, by appropriate adaptations to methods and content).
  4. Understanding of the supervision process for both supervisee and supervisor roles.
  5. Understanding the process of providing expert psychological opinion and advice, including the preparation and presentation of evidence in formal settings.
  6. Understanding the process of communicating effectively through interpreters and having an awareness of the limitations thereof.
  7. Supporting others’ learning in the application of psychological skills, knowledge, practices and procedures.

2.2.9. Organisational and systemic influence and leadership

  1. Awareness of the legislative and national planning contexts for service delivery and clinical practice.
  2. Capacity to adapt practice to different organisational contexts for service delivery. This should include a variety of settings such as in-patient and community, primary, secondary and tertiary care and may include work with providers outside of the NHS.
  3. Providing supervision at an appropriate level within own sphere of competence.
  4. Indirect influence of service delivery including through consultancy, training and working effectively in multidisciplinary and cross-professional teams. Bringing psychological influence to bear in the service delivery of others.
  5. Understanding of leadership theories and models, and their application to service development and delivery. Demonstrating leadership qualities such as being aware of and working with interpersonal processes, proactivity, influencing the psychological mindedness of teams and organisations, contributing to and fostering collaborative working practices within teams.
  6. Working with users and carers to facilitate their involvement in service planning and delivery.
  7. Understanding of change processes in service delivery systems.
  8. Understanding and working with quality assurance principles and processes including informatics systems which may determine the relevance of clinical psychology work within healthcare systems.
  9. Being able to recognise malpractice or unethical practice in systems and organisations and knowing how to respond to this, and being familiar with ‘whistleblowing’ policies and issues.

[End of extract]

BPS DClinPsy Standards Document

Post contract fees

04/07/2019 /

Please note that this policy only applies to trainees whose contracts ended between 08/01/2018 and 20/06/23

Full-time trainees on the programme are employed on a three year NHS contract. For part-time trainees this is adjusted according to the trainee’s full time equivalent. If a trainee intercalates from study, for maternity leave for example, then the contract date is extended to cover the period of intercalation. It is anticipated that trainees will meet all the conditions for the award of DClinPsy by the end of their contract. However, for some, there remain elements of the award to complete following the conclusion of the NHS contract. Typically, this completion can occur within three months of the end date of the NHS contract. However, if a trainee has yet to meet all conditions for award after three months from the end of contract, they will be liable to pay additional fees to cover any continued training. There are two different contexts where additional fees may be applied:

  1. Incomplete academic submissions

    Full-time trainees, who have not completed the required academic submissions, will be charged £230 for the first year from Dec 1st of the scheduled year of graduation. Any trainees who have yet to complete at the end of this first year are charged a further £465 from the following December. Trainees who enter a third year of study after the end of their NHS contract are charged a further £930 in post contract fees.

    Bespoke pathway trainees will be charged from three months after their contract ends (in accordance with the time they have spent intercalated). That is during intercalation “the clock stops”. The fee will be as above for these students once they have completed their contracts.

    The DClinPsy post contract fees should not be confused with “writing up fees” as per University documentation. DClinPsy trainees are not liable for “writing up fees”.

  2. Incomplete clinical experience

    Trainees require a minimum of five Supervisors Assessment of Trainee (SAT) forms, rated as satisfactory, in order to meet clinical conditions for the award of DClinPsy. In the situation where this is not the case trainees will be given the option to sign an honorary contract with Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust in order to complete their placement experience. If an honorary contract is required for three months or less following the end date of their training contract there will be no additional fee to pay. Following this, a fee of £265 per every three additional months will be charged.

    It may be the case that an individual is required to both complete academic submissions and gain additional clinical experience in order to fulfil the conditions for the award of DClinPsy. In this situation they will be liable to pay both sets of fees as outlined above.

    Trainees cannot qualify for the award of the DClinPsy if any fees have yet to be paid.

Data storage, information governance and ethics

04/07/2019 /

Last updated 20/04/23

When collecting data from human participants you need to ensure that the data you collect are handled and stored securely and in accordance with legislative frameworks governing data protection, organisational information governance requirements, and research ethics and governance. The procedure outlined below has been developed with these frameworks in mind, and is designed to provide a clear, consistent approach that can be used for all trainee data (unless there are particular reasons why your data require a different approach).

What constitutes data?

The data you need to think about storing includes:

  • Clinical recordings made on placement
  • Research data e.g. interview recordings, questionnaires, transcripts, coded/analysed data
  • Personal information collected during a study i.e. consent forms, expression of interest forms, email addresses

These data may be in paper form, or electronic (or both), so you need to think about storage of both formats. You also need to distinguish between how you will store data whilst the study is taking place and how it will be stored after the study has finished.

Clinical recordings

As the information governance of trusts can differ, methods of data collection, transfer, and storage may vary from placement to placement. Trainees should check with their supervisor regarding local policy when they first arrive on placement and contact the relevant assignment co-ordinator in the event of any issues. Clinical recordings should be stored on secured university file stores. Portable storage media (such as SD card, encrypted USB) should be used for data transportation ONLY and considered insecure with appropriate care taken to ensure data security. Details on the management of recordings can also be found in the guidance for specific assignments.

Storing data during a research study

Whilst the study is taking place you (the trainee) will be responsible for the data. You need to explain how you will store all data in a way that keeps it secure e.g.  electronic data in password protected file space on the University server, and/or on encrypted electronic devices (see below).

As chief investigator for the study, the thesis supervisor is the named data custodian on the ethics application and must therefore be able to access the data throughout your study. This process needs to be described in your participant facing documents so that participants know how data will be managed. We advise that you store all of your data electronically. This can be achieved for all participant facing documents by using university approved digital platforms, such as Qualtrics, to share your information sheet(s) and collect completed assent and consent forms, and demographic questionnaires. If you do use paper documents, e.g. consent forms, these need to be scanned to create a digital copy and the hard copy should then be destroyed. At the outset of the study, you will need to create a OneDrive folder for the storage of the data and share this with your thesis supervisor. You should encrypt all your data to ensure that it is stored securely. You will need to share the password for the documents with your thesis supervisor so that they are able to access these.

We recommend that data containing personal details that would lead to the identification of participants (e.g. participants’ email addresses, expression of interest forms BUT NOT consent forms) should be deleted/destroyed as soon as possible. If people provide you with their contact details in order to be contacted about taking part in your study, these should be retained only until they have participated in the study, or until they have informed you that they do not wish to take part. However, if a participant says they would like to receive a summary of the research at the end of the study, it would be appropriate to retain their contact details until this summary has been sent out. Once the study is completed, contact details should be deleted and you should confirm in writing (by email) that this action has been completed with your supervisor.

We advise that, as far as possible, data are stored electronically in your personal file space on the University server, rather than on laptops, PCs or other devices. If you do store data on any devices other than the server, it must be encrypted. The server is secure, so any files stored there do not need to be encrypted. However, where you are storing data containing sensitive material or identifiable personal information, individual files should also be password-protected as an additional security measure.

Encryption

If identifiable data are stored on a portable device, e.g. a laptop or USB drive, the University advises that encryption should be used. More information on how to do this is available from the ISS page on encryption. If it is not possible to encrypt the data at a particular stage (such as while on a video camera’s storage), there needs to be confirmation that any identifiable data will be transferred and then deleted from the device as soon as possible. If you are using digital recording devices for research, the encryption capabilities of the devices or a process to mitigate a lack of such should be mentioned in any ethics application.

Long-term storage of research data

You also need to explain what will happen after the study has been completed i.e. what data will be stored, where they will be stored and who will be responsible for them. Long-term data will be stored by the DClinPsy admin team and can be shared with your thesis supervisor on request. If your supervisor also wishes to store the data after the study ends, you will need to discuss this with them before and indicate this on your ethics application, participant information sheet and consent forms. In the past, most data have been stored in paper form. For practical and safety reasons, we advise trainees to keep data for storage after the end of the study in electronic form, unless there is a particular reason for keeping paper documents. The data that should be retained for storage includes the consent forms, all raw data (e.g. interview transcripts and completed questionnaires) and any coded data produced during analysis.

Once the final version of your thesis has been submitted, you will need to share your research data with the Research Coordinator for long-term storage. We would recommend that you do so by sharing the OneDrive folder you use to store the data in during the study. The data will then be saved on a password protected file space on the server. You will also need to confirm the password that has been used to encrypt the documents and the period of time that the data needs to be stored for. On your ethics form, you will need to state that your data will be transferred electronically using a secure method that is supported by the University.

Applying for ethical approval

To gain ethical approval for your project, you will need to develop an application on REAMS. REAMS is the Research Ethics Application Management System for Lancaster University. Once completed by you and signed off by your supervisor, your REAMS application will be reviewed by the Faculty Research Ethics Committee. The system can be accessed remotely via the web. You do not have to be on site or connected to the Lancaster University VPN. We recommend using a desktop PC, laptop or tablet for the best user experience. The REAMS form will adapt as you progress so that you are provided with questions relevant to your study. You can share your REAMS application with your supervisor through the platform. You should expect a REAMS review to take between 4 and 10 weeks, depending upon the level of approval you need and REC availability. Make sure the detail you provide is as clear and accurate as possible to help the committee fully consider your plans, and proof read all participant facing documents extremely carefully prior to submission. For questions regarding sponsorship please discuss these with your supervisor in the first instance. If you need to contact the sponsorship office directly their email address is sponsorship@lancaster.ac.uk.

If you think you may need ethical approval from the Health Research Authority for a study conducted within the NHS and/or social care, complete the decision tool checklist and discuss your plans with your supervisor. HRA applications are submitted through IRAS. Your approved application will then need to be processed through REAMS. You should expect a HRA ethics review to take between 8 and 16 weeks, depending upon the level of approval you need and REC meeting availability. We recommend you attend the REC review meeting to address the panel’s queries or questions, either in person or via a digital platform.


Faculty Ethics Committee
REAMS
How to submit an application in REAMS
IRAS website
Health Research Authority
NHS tutorial video
NHS decision tool
Qualtrics
ISS page on encryption

Passing and failing the DClinPsy programme

03/07/2019 /

Full details of the Assessment schemes and criteria can be found in the programme specification. An overview of this process is provided in the programme completion and failure processes document.

Scheme of assessment

From 2018 cohort onwards, to obtain the award students are required to complete all three elements of the programme. These comprise: –

  1. All five (for trainees in 2018-2020 cohorts) or three (for trainees in 2021 cohort onwards) clinical placements
  2. Passing all seven coursework assignments
  3. A doctoral thesis

Coursework and evaluation of clinical placements are considered at regular programme exam board meetings. The thesis is examined towards the end of the trainee’s registration on the programme.

Requirements for pass

Clinical placements:  Students up to the 2020 cohort undertake five clinical placements, and students in the 2021 cohort onwards undertake three (usually longer) placements. In the event of a placement failure, the student may be required to re-take the placement (and completion of the programme may be extended accordingly – which may be on an unfunded basis). Details on the fail criteria for an individual placement are available on the placement failure pages. Students who fail more than one placement are deemed to have failed the programme and are not allowed to proceed.

Coursework: The student is required to pass all seven distinct pieces of assessed coursework. These comprise three ‘Broad Skills’ assignments and four ‘Live skills’ assignments. The broad skills assignments are the Self-Assessment Exercise, the Placement Assignment -Service Evaluation, and the Thesis Preparation Assignment. Students are permitted three attempts to pass each of these assignments. The live skills assignments comprise the Service Improvement Poster Presentation the three Placement Assignments – Live Skills (#1, #2 & #3). Students are permitted two attempts to pass each of these assignments.  If a student fails all allowed submission attempts of a given assignment, then they are deemed to have failed the programme and is not allowed to proceed. Details of the marking process and outcomes are available in the online handbook. Please note that the details of coursework requirements above only apply to trainees beginning training in 2018 onwards; in earlier cohorts a different assessment scheme was in place for this.

Thesis: This is examined in accordance with the University regulations for doctoral theses.

Appeals

There is no right of appeal for trainees prior to the failure of the whole doctorate. Details of the Appeals process under such circumstances can be found on the Appeals programme handbook page.

Useful documents and links

Programme completion and failure processes
Criteria for placement failure
Marking process, passing and failing assignments – 2018 intake onwards
Examination of the thesis
Fitness to practise
Appeals

Direct Assessment of Clinical Skills – Standardised Role Play Simulation (SRPS)

03/07/2019 /

What is it?

It is an opportunity for the programme to directly assess the practical application of psychological knowledge and clinical skills through the use of a standardised role play approach. The implementation of this assessment ensures that the programme is adhering to guidance laid out in the British Psychological Society (BPS) Accreditation Criteria (2014).

How does it work?

Trainees are asked to take part in a standardised role play scenario (SRPS) with a simulated client (played by an actor). The SRPS is in two parts.

The first part is a simulated initial assessment session which lasts for 12 minutes. During this time trainees are expected to do the following:

  • Appropriately open the session with the client (e.g. introduce self, introduce role, inform client of confidentiality, gain consent to proceed)
  • Ask appropriate questions to explore the reason for the client is attending
  • Develop a rapport with the client
  • Be prepared to address/manage any issues/challenges which may arise (e.g. risk)
  • Close the session appropriately (e.g. not ending abruptly)

The second part is a simulated formulation session which lasts for 17 minutes with a 3 minute reflection on performance following on. During this time trainees are expected to do the following:

  • Appropriately open the session as if it is several sessions into the series of appointments
  • Share/collaboratively develop a formulation which is based on or significantly draws from one (or more) recognised evidence based psychological approach
  • Maintain the rapport with the client
  • Be prepared to address/manage any issues/challenges which may arise
  • Close the session appropriately (e.g. not ending abruptly)
  • Comment and reflect on own performance and clinical competence

Trainees will be given an initial referral letter to read before entering the first simulated session. Trainees will be given background information for the simulated client after the Initial Assessment session and will be given a minimum of an hour to prepare for the simulated Formulation session. Trainees can either pre-prepare a formulation or can develop one with the client in the session.

The simulated role plays are video recorded for assessment purposes.

A schedule for the assessment day will sent out to trainees in advance of the assessment day.

What happens if I am ill on the day?

If you are ill you will need to submit a sick note signed by your GP as it is classed as an examination day by the University. Please alert us to your sickness absence in the usual way (i.e. call the absence phone).

What happens if I am late on the day?

If you are going to be late, please let us know as soon as possible by contacting the programme office. Depending on scheduling we will try and reschedule your slot on the same day. If this cannot happen we will reschedule the assessment as soon as is practically possible.

What will happen if I ‘freeze’ on the day?

If you come so anxious you ‘freeze’ or are unable to enter into the simulation process, time will be allowed for you to regain your composure before making a second attempt. If you are unable to enter the simulation process at the second attempt, advice will be sought from the Chair of the Exam Board or their deputy as to how to proceed.

Fitness to practise/professional behaviour concerns arising during the assessment process.

If a trainee engages in behaviour which would raise questions about their fitness to practise OR behaves in a way which could be considered to be gross professional misconduct, this will be brought immediately to the attention of the Clinical Director or their deputy as to how to proceed.

What are the competencies being assessed?

  • Skills of engagement and rapport
  • Communication skills
  • Professional behaviour
  • Session management
  • Psychological knowledge and application
  • Being respectful of difference
  • Resilience

Further description and details of the competencies being assessed can be found in the indicator booklet for examiners.

How is it assessed?

Recordings of the Initial Assessment simulated session and the Formulation simulated session for each trainee will be put together in a video ‘bundle’ for examiners. Each video ‘bundle’ will be viewed by two internal examiners who will independently collect evidence of behavioural indicators and give a rating per competence before comparing evidence and ratings with the second examiner and agreeing final ratings and feedback.

This assessment is subject to the usual external examiner ratification processes and Exam Board processes of the DClinPsy.

What do I need to prepare?

The content of the assessment process is designed to be a simulation of clinical work undertaken with a client. The trainees will have had experience of the facets of the assessment through the Communication Skills training sessions and theory to practice sessions within the teaching programme and should be familiar with the features of the simulated role plays through practice on placement (e.g. how to open and close a session, how to explain the role of a trainee clinical psychologist, how to gain informed consent, how to ask exploratory questions, how to work with a client on a formulation/apply psychological knowledge/understanding). Trainees therefore should not need to undertake any specific preparation, however trainees may wish to consider the following:

  • Re-famliarise self with the 5P’s approach to formulation as a starting point
  • Refresh yourself in terms of your ‘patter’ about introducing psychology, confidentiality and trainee role
  • Think about some good opening assessment questions
  • Consider how you might address/manage any issues/challenges if they come up e.g. risks
  • Think about how you are developing your style in relation to working with a client on formulation e.g. do you want to pre-prepare a formulation to take into the simulated formulation session, or would you prefer to develop/co-create the formulation live in the simulated session

You may bring reference materials with you to support your development of a psychological understanding of the client’s presentation during the 60 minute preparation time. You may also use the COW lap tops in the base room to access reference materials. However, please be aware that you cannot take reference materials into the simulated formulation session with you, unless it is something which you have developed specifically (e.g. formulation diagram). You can take pens/paper/appropriate creative supports into the simulated session with you. If you are unsure please ask the tutor facilitator in the base room on the day.

DACS-SRPS instructions to markers
DACS-SRPS marker booklet
DACS-SRPS trainee feedback form

Direct Assessment of Clinical Skills – Placement Portfolio (DACS-PP)

03/07/2019 /

The Direct Assessment of Clinical Skills – Placement Portfolio (DACS- PP) is a summative assessment to be undertaken by the 2015 and future cohorts. It has been developed in response to the most recent British Psychological Society (BPS) Accreditation Criteria which was published in May 2014.

The model proposed by Miller has been widely adopted in the literature as a framework to guide consideration of how to assess the complexities of competence in professional practitioners (Muse and McManus, 2013). It has been adopted here to inform the development and structure of the Direct Assessment of Clinical Skills.

The Direct Assessment of Clinical Skills – Placement Portfolio has several elements which are allied to placements 1 & 2 and placements 3 & 4 which address all four levels suggested by Miller (1990). The elements of the assessment are outlined in the table below.

Direct Assessment of Clinical Skills – Placement Portfolio 1 Direct Assessment of Clinical Skills – Placement Portfolio 2
1x Assessment and Action Plan 1 – Core placement 1 1x Assessment and Action Plan 3 – Core placement 3
1x Assessment and Action Plan 2 – Core placement 2 1x Assessment and Action Plan 4 – Core placement 4
1x Clinical Recording (from placement 1 or 2) 1x Clinical Recording (from placement 3 or 4)
1x Clinical Recording Report (based on the submitted recording) 1x Clinical Recording Report (based on the submitted recording)

1. Assessment and Action Plan

For each core (or relevant) placement, trainees will be required to submit an Assessment and Action Plan (AAP). This will be a short report (AAP 1 & AAP 2 are up to 2000 words, AAP 3 & 4 are 2750 words with an additional allowance of 300 words for a context paragraph which means the total word count cannot exceed 3050 words) relating to a specific piece of clinical work that will provide details of an assessment strategy based on presenting/referral information, and, drawing on live client information provide a provisional psychological formulation/synthesis of understanding and, based on this, provide an evidence-based action plan. This could relate to an individual client, a group of clients, or a piece of indirect clinical work with staff.

The purpose of the report will be to demonstrate that the trainee has the ability to competently assess the need for psychological intervention, can synthesise this information into a meaningful understanding of the information (psychological formulation/synthesis of understanding) drawing on appropriate psychological models/approaches, and generate a robust, evidence-based action plan based on that understanding. The report will detail what the trainee plans to do, and how these fit within the current evidence-base, psychological theory, and specific therapeutic models/approaches. The implementation of the clinical intervention itself does not need to be reported.

The reports will be submitted prior to the end of placement in accordance with the fixed deadline schedule.

Competencies assessed by the Assessment and Action Plan Report will be: Written Communication Skills, Knowledge and Skills, Analysis and Critical Thinking, Professional Behaviour and Contextual Awareness.

Level assessed in relation to Miller’s (1990) Model: Levels 1 & 2 – Knows and Knows How.

2. Clinical Recording

After core placements 1 & 2 and again after core placements 3 & 4, (or relevant placements) trainees will be required to submit a video or an audio recording (of at least 30 minutes) of a piece of direct or indirect clinical work to the programme in order for clinical skills to be assessed in a real-life setting. Video recordings are preferred for submission, but one audio recording can be submitted for either CR 1 or CR 2 if video recording is not an option, but not both (unless there are circumstances considered to be exceptional). Thirty minutes of recording will be assessed with the trainee being asked to nominate at the point of submission which section of 30 minutes (of continuous recording) they would like to be assessed from within the recording. This can be from either of the core placements undertaken in that time period (e.g. either Child or Adult, and either Older Adult/Health/Neuro or Learning Disabilities) or any other relevant placement(s).

The recording will be submitted as a password-protected encrypted digital video/audio file, and will be stored and transported securely, in accordance with guidance regarding information governance requirements from the NHS Trust in which the clinical work takes place (e.g. Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust – Procedure and Guidance for Health Professionals Video or Audio Recording Clinical Sessions, 2013). It is the responsibility of each trainee to seek out local policy guidance once on placement and to inform the assignment coordinators if there are any issues. Trainees will be required to seek informed consent for the recording from the client/professionals and record this within the appropriate record (e.g. clinical record). The trainee’s placement supervisor will be required to submit a declaration to the programme that appropriately informed consent was sought and given, and that the work submitted, to the best of their knowledge, is an account of the work undertaken on placement. The process of the supervisor declaration is in line with current practice on the D.Clin.Psy in relation to ensuring appropriate consent has been gained to use confidential material.

The recording could be of work with an individual client, a group of clients or could be a piece of indirect clinical work with staff. The purpose of the recording is for the trainee to clearly demonstrate their skill in conducting evidence-based therapeutic or psychologically informed work on placement. The specific content of the recorded work can vary, but the recording must demonstrate the application of therapeutic techniques/principles/concepts, and must allow for the observation and rating of the specific competencies being assessed. Example content could include carrying out an assessment, sharing a formulation with a client or staff group, summarising an intervention action plan, or applying an intervention with an individual client.

Some placement settings may be less easy for trainees to record sessions or secure informed consent to do so (e.g. secure in-patient settings or clients’ homes). After discussion with both placement supervisors and their clinical tutor, trainees may be encouraged to consider all possible settings for clinical recordings if recording of direct clinical sessions is not possible, e.g. consultations or discussions with staff team members, or appropriate discussions during clinical supervision (e.g. describing a complex formulation to a supervisor). Clinical tutors will be in regular contact with trainees to discuss potential clinical recording opportunities and will liaise with supervisors when necessary to ensure that sufficient opportunities for recordings are provided on each placement.

The Clinical Recording and Report will typically be submitted in the month following the completion of placements 2 and 4 in accordance with the fixed submission deadline.

Competencies assessed by the recording will be: Communication Skills, Engagement and Rapport, Professional Behaviour, Respectful Acknowledgement of Difference and Session Management (these are the same competencies considered in the D.Clin.Psy Direct Assessment of Clinical Skills – Standardised Role Play Simulation)

Level assessed in relation to Miller’s (1990) Model: Levels 3 and 4 – Shows How and Does

3. Clinical Recording Report

Trainees will also submit a report based on the recording submitted for assessment. The report will begin with an introductory section (up to 500 words) outlining relevant contextual background information to accompany the work within the recording, i.e. to provide examiners with information about why the work took place, the setting in which it is being conducted and the stage of the work from which the recording is taken.

Trainees will be asked to pick two five minute sections from the recording (which can be concurrent) which demonstrate their competence in applying a particular therapeutic technique/ principle/ concept and produce a written transcript of each five minute section selected. The transcript is not included in the final word count.

This is to be accompanied by a ‘line-by-line’ commentary (of up to 2000 words) during which the trainee highlights areas such as the application of specific therapeutic techniques, decision making points in terms of why they used a particular technique over another, comments on responses of the other person(s) in the session and how they responded.

The report will end with a reflection on and critique of the session (up to 1500 words), highlighting the evidence base for the work and possible ways in which the work could have been improved or carried out differently and what the trainee has learnt from the session.

The Clinical Recording and Report will typically be submitted in the month following the completion of placements 2 and 4 in accordance with the fixed submission deadline.

Competencies assessed by the Clinical Recording Report will be: Written Communication Skills, Knowledge and Skills, Analysis and Critical Thinking, Reflection and Integration, Professional Behaviour.

Level assessed in relation to Miller’s (1990) Model: Levels 2 and 3 – Knows How and Shows How

Marking and Trainee Feedback

Each element of the DACS-PP will be single or double marked by clinical tutors or other markers (local clinicians) all of whom will have undergone the necessary assessment-specific training. Markers will independently view written material / listen to recordings, collect evidence and rate each competency. If there are two markers each marker with do this separatelybefore sharing their ratings with their co-marker and jointly agreeing a final mark. The Clinical Recording and associated Clinical Recording Report elements will both be marked by the same marker or marker pair for each trainee unless there is a reason why an original marker is not available in which case another marker will be nominated.

The marks for all elements will be provisionally released to trainees once they have been returned to the programme and checked. External Examiner moderation will take place following this.. The marks will then be formally ratified at the relevant Exam Board. Occasionally there may be a circumstance in which provisional marks cannot be released prior to the Exam Board. Trainees affected by this will be informed.

Submission of the Placement Portfolio

Each element of the DACS-PP has formative and summative submission points. Work submitted at the formative point by the agreed deadline is marked in exactly the same way as at the summative point, and feedback and a mark is then provided to the trainee. If a mark of 50 or above is achieved for the formative submission, then this is automatically carried forward to become the summative mark and no further submission of that element is required by the trainee. If the formative mark is 49 or below, then the trainee will be asked to make a summative submission.

If all elements achieve a passing mark (of 50 or above) by the summative stage, the final overall mark for the assignment will be the average of all summative marks. If a trainee fails one or more of the elements at the summative stage then the final overall mark for the assignment (i.e. the DACS PP- 1 or 2) will be the average of the summative marks given for the failed elements only. This means that failing any single element of the placement portfolio at the summative stage will always result in the failure of the assignment as a whole.

Resubmission

When the assignment as a whole is failed, trainees are only required to revise and resubmit the failed elements for re-marking. There is no formative submission stage in the resubmission process. If the elements resubmitted receive a passing mark (i.e. of 50 or above), then the final overall mark for the Placement Portfolio resubmission will be calculated as above (i.e. an average of all the marks for the individual elements). If however any element fails at resubmission, then the Placement Portfolio resubmission as a whole will be failed for the second time. This will be recorded as two fails (i.e. at first attempt and the resubmitted attempt). As with other assignments on the programme, there is no third attempt required following a second fail of the whole assignment.

DACS Information for Trainees
DACS Consent Form
DACS-PP supervisor declaration form (to be used from Oct 2017)

CR supervisor declaration form (for use until Sept 2017 only)
CR Submission Form
CR instructions to markers
CR marker booklet
CR trainee feedback form

AAP supervisor declaration form (for use until Sept 2017 only)
AAP Structure and Style Guide
AAP information for clients
AAP instructions to markers
AAP marker booklet
AAP trainee feedback form

CRR Transcription Style and Structure Guide
CRR instructions to markers
CRR marker booklet
CRR trainee feedback form

Marking process, passing and failing assignments

03/07/2019 /
2018 cohort and onwards

The programme uses its assignments as tools to assess trainee progress on the ten assessed domains of competence, which are a codification of the programme learning outcomes. In order to pass the programme, trainees are required to pass each individual assignment. Each assignment has been designated a fixed set of assessment domains upon which it is actively graded (positive and negative evidence is collected). In order to pass an assignment, trainees are required to reach an acceptable standard in each of the actively graded domains for that assignment. However, an assignment may also be failed if substantial negative evidence for any of the ten domains is identified in the course of marking. Assignments are not marked numerically, but rated pass, fail, or (for some assignments) pass with conditions. More detailed information on the criteria used to mark each specific assignment are contained in the marksheets for each academic assignment, which can be found in the programme handbook page for that assignment.

Submissions are marked blind by one or two markers. Markers can be either members of the programme team or clinicians/stakeholders who have been specifically trained to mark the assignment(s). Where two markers are involved, they will discuss their marking to reach a consensus outcome. Occasionally there may be a need for a third marker to be involved, which is typically a member of the programme team. All marking processes are subject to review processes (involving internal and external processes) in accordance with the University Manual of Academic Regulations and Procedures (MARP) before being ratified by the Exam Board.

The process by which an individual assignment is passed or failed can be found in the ‘2018 onward assignment process’ document below.

2018 onward assignment process
Assessment submission points
Assignment processes and responsibilities following failed assignments

2017 cohort and earlier
The programme uses its assignments as tools to assess trainee progress on a series of competencies, which are a codification of the programme learning outcomes. In order to pass the programme, trainees must complete all assignments and any required resubmissions without registering more than two summative fails. Each assignment has been designated a fixed set of competencies upon which it is actively graded (positive and negative evidence is collected). These are numerically rated in order to produce a final mark in the range 0-100. In order to pass an assignment, trainees are required to attain a mark of 50 or higher. More information about the competencies and how they relate to each assignment can be found in the online handbook. More detailed information on the criteria used to mark each specific assignment are contained in the marksheets for each academic assignment.

All submissions and resubmissions are either single or double marked. Marking is conducted by a combination of programme staff and other suitably trained clinical psychologists and other stakeholders who are employed by the programme for this purpose. A sample of all submitted work is moderated by the programme’s external examiners. Information about the external examiners can be found in the online handbook.

The process by which an individual assignment is passed or failed can be found in the ‘2017 and earlier assignment process’ document below.

Under certain circumstances when a trainee fails an assignment the exam board may recommend that they resubmit using a different topic. Flowcharts illustrating how this process operates can also be found below.

2017 and earlier assignment process
Flowchart for assignment failure topic change pre 2018 (General)
Flowchart for assignment failure topic change (PPR)

Teaching, learning and assessment strategy

03/07/2019 /

Curriculum Guidance

The curriculum is informed by a wide range of guidance, which includes the following:

  • HCPC Standards of Education & Training
  • HCPC Standards of Proficiency
  • Standards for the accreditation of Doctoral programmes in clinical psychology (BPS document)
  • BPS accreditation through partnership handbook
  • BPS accreditation through partnership additional guidance for clinical psychology training programmes: The Ten Essential Shared Capabilities
  • BPS Generic Professional Practice Guidelines
  • BPS Division of Clinical Psychology Professional Practice Guidelines
  • Clinical Psychology – a quick guide to the profession and its training
  • Clinical Psychology: The core purpose and philosophy of the profession (BPS Division of Clinical Psychology)
  • BPS Division of Clinical Psychology Good Practice Guide :Service User and Carer Involvement within Clinical Psychology Training
  • BPS Division of Clinical Psychology Good Practice Guidelines: Training in Forensic Clinical Psychology
  • BPS Division of Clinical Psychology Good Practice Guidelines for UK Clinical Psychology Training Providers for the Training and Consolidation of Clinical Practice in Relation to People with Learning Disabilities
  • BPS Division of Clinical Psychology Good Practice Guidelines for UK Clinical Psychology for Training Providers – Training and consolidation of clinical practice in relation to children and young people
  • BPS Division of Clinical Psychology Good Practice Guidelines for UK Clinical Psychology Training Providers for the Training and Consolidation of Clinical Practice in Relation to Older People
  • BPS Division of Clinical Psychology Good Practice Guidelines for UK Clinical Psychology Training Providers. Training and Consolidation of Clinical Practice in Clinical Health Psychology.
  • BPS Division of Neuropsychology Competency Framework for the UK Clinical Neuropsychology Profession.
  • NHS National Service Frameworks
  • NHS Knowledge & Skills Framework
  • QAA Benchmark statement Healthcare programmes – Clinical Psychology.
  • Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, ‘Code of practice for the assurance of academic quality and standards in higher education’
  • Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, ‘A framework for higher education qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland’
  • National Qualifications Framework in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
  • Disability Discrimination Act 1995
  • Human Rights Act 1998
  • Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and associated regulations
  • The Children Act 2004
  • Selection of Clinical Psychologist Trainees Job Analysis Final Report
  • Lancaster University DClinPsy programme vision statement
  • Input from stakeholders (including local employers, trainees, service users and carers, Health Education England) through the programme’s stakeholder events, and stakeholder representation on programme policy groups.
  • Current NICE guidance. In relation to Risk, teachers are required to explicitly teach the NICE Guideline on Self harm: assessment, management and preventing recurrence.

Curriculum Strategy & Aspirations

Overview

The programme strives to provide a holistic experience of training that enables trainees to develop an integrated set of skills that meet the programme learning outcomes. It aims to provide a balanced and developmental set of clinical, academic and research experiences throughout the three years of training.

Placements

The clinical component aims to produce clinicians with a breadth of experience and a range of transferable as well as some specialist skills. To this end clinical experience is gained in service delivery systems that offer a coherent clinical context, oriented towards a population defined by age (e.g. child, adult, older people), by special needs (e.g. learning disabilities, serious mental health problems, health-related problems, substance abuse) or by a service delivery focus (e.g. psychological therapy). In addition, clinical experience is gained in a range of service contexts (primary, secondary and tertiary care, in-patient, out-patient, community), with service delivery models ranging from independently organised work through to integrated inter-professional working. Placement experiences within third sector and other contexts where there is a focus on community mapping and engagement are also increasingly being developed and undertaken by trainees.

The programme aims to promote a diverse range of clinical psychology practice and give trainees exposure to a wide variety of therapeutic models. The programme encourages flexibility in approach, adapting working to meet the needs of individual clients and in integrating theory into practice. The programme aims to produce clinicians who have a keen awareness of context, diversity and power issues, who are able to collaborate and work effectively with colleagues but who are able to work as drivers rather than simply followers of NHS policy. The programme aims to produce clinicians who understand the relationship between clinical psychology and the wider health and social policy agenda whilst also having an awareness of the current needs and realities within the health service.

Academic

The academic component provides an integrated curriculum supporting the training. The research training has sufficient time devoted to it to enable trainees to conduct research at a doctoral level and to be in a position to contribute to the knowledge base of the profession.

The programme seeks to provide an environment that encourages the pursuit of knowledge that informs clinical practice. The body of knowledge and contexts within which clinical psychologists work is broad, and so the programme’s assessments aim to provide trainees with some degree of choice in terms of the subject matter they present whilst still ensuring that trainees who complete the assessed components of the programme will have shown competencies that indicate that they meet the HCPC Standards of Proficiency.

Service Users

Service user involvement is considered a vital aspect of the curriculum. Service users not only provide regular contributions to the teaching delivered, but are also involved in a number of other roles including acting as consultants as trainees develop their research project ideas, and, shortly, involvement in the planning and strategic development of learning and teaching as member of teaching strand teams.

Delivery of learning and teaching experiences

Teaching and learning on most of the programme is designed specifically for clinical psychology trainees. To ensure that teaching is as relevant as possible to current practice and is based on the most up-to-date evidence, much of the teaching is delivered by practising clinical psychologists. Teaching is also delivered by other health and social services professionals, as well as users of services and other experts by experience. The majority of teaching on communication skills, research skills and personal development and reflection is delivered by members of the programme staff.

Programme staff work in small teams to plan and co-ordinate teaching within the nine thematic ‘strands’ that run throughout the three years of training, and these staff liaise closely with external teachers to ensure the learning experience for trainees is coherent and consistent. Learning and Teaching activities are designed to work towards the programme’s Learning and Teaching Vision. The programme also runs occasional ‘good practice in teaching’ workshops for all those who teach for the programme.

The DClinPsy is approved by university as a programme using the ‘standard’ (face to face) mode of delivery, and for this reason and for reasons of best pedagogic practice given the content, the vast majority of teaching is delivered by face-to-face means only. Within this the format of teaching is varied, adopting a broad range of approaches, often within a single teaching session. Teaching is mostly delivered in ‘whole day’ (5 hours) or ‘half day’ (2.5 hours) sessions which will usually include a combination of delivery modes including such elements as didactic presentations, small and large group discussion, workshop exercises, role-play and use the use of audio-visual materials as appropriate. The programme issues guidance to teachers on the production of teaching materials to maximise their accessibility to any trainees with visual impairment or dyslexia.

Guidance on document and slide preparation

Guidance on Assignment Submission

03/07/2019 /

This guidance relates to the preparation of all documents except the thesis

In this guide

General Guidance on submissions

All written coursework for the programme needs to be submitted online via the University’s Moodle virtual learning environment. This page provides a guide to let you know how to prepare and make your submissions, and tells you what happens after they are submitted.

If you have a specific learning difficulty

You have the opportunity to highlight this to markers. More information on marking in relation to a specific learning disability is available in the online handbook.

Submitting on time

The standard deadlines for the submission of each assignment in the current academic year can be found in the programme’s annual plan and on the assignment suite overview. These deadlines will apply to you unless your deadline has been changed as the result of an approved extension or an individual training plan review. The deadline will always be at 9.30am on the day identified.

It is very important to submit work before your deadline for each assignment. The deadline policy is strict and there are severe penalties for submitting work late. After a deadline has passed you can still submit work on Moodle for another 72 hours, but anything submitted will have ten marks deducted (for trainees in 2017 cohort and earlier) or will result in a concern being raised (for trainees in the 2018 cohort onwards). It is not possible to submit work more than 72 hours after a deadline, and if work is not submitted then a fail mark will be given. More details on the consequences of late submission and the criteria for and process of applying for extensions can be found in the programme’s deadline policy pages.

Things you must NOT do

  1. Include identifiers in your written work. See the page on identifiers in assessed work for details.
  2. Plagiarise any part of your assignment. See the programme plagiarism policy for details.

Making a complete submission

For your submission to be accepted, all the required elements need to be included. It is your responsibility to make sure your submission is complete. Until a complete submission is made it isn’t counted, and programme staff only check whether submissions are complete after the deadline for submission has passed. This means that if you don’t make a complete submission first time around, you are likely to be penalised for lateness.

Here are details of what a submission for each assignment must include to be considered complete:

Assignments for 2018 cohort onwards

Self- Assessment Exercise written report (SAE)

  • A title page (set out in accordance with the guidance provided below) including word count (please state this for part 1 and part 2 of the SAE form separately) and trainee number
  • SAE form with appendices attached as set out within the SAE form

Thesis Preparation Assignment (TPA)

  • TPA assignment document
    • Title page (set out in accordance with the guidance provided below) including word count (max 4,500), trainee number, title of the TPA
    • The main body of the literature review
    • A completed thesis proposal (1,500 words)
    • The TPA Review Topic form (as approved by assignment co-ordinator)
  • Thesis proposal (same version as in the assignment document)

Placement Assignment – Live Skills 1, 2 & 3 (PALS)

  • Title page (set out in accordance with the guidance provided below) including word count (for each section), trainee number and assignment title
  • The report
  • Completed clinical recording submission form
  • 30 minute (minimum) video or audio clip securely uploaded to the trainee’s BOX folder
  • Confirmation of appropriate consent being obtained must be separately submitted by the relevant placement supervisor

Placement Assignment – Service Evaluation (PASE)

  • Title page (set out in accordance with the guidance provided below) including word count, trainee number, title of the PASE
  • The report
  • The PASE proposal form
  • Documentary confirmation from the relevant NHS R&D department that the work included in the report will be classified as a service evaluation
  • Any relevant protocols, participant information sheets or other materials either used during the conduct of the project or submitted to the R&D department to gain approval
Assignments for 2017 cohort and earlier

Professional Issues Assignment (PIA)

  • Title page (set out in accordance with the guidance provided below) including word count, trainee number and PIA title
  • The assignment
  • Completed Professional Issues suitability form

Placement Presentation and Report Initial Reports (PPR1IRa, PPR1IRb, PPR2IRa, PPR2IRb) – for trainees who commenced training prior to 2015

  • Title page (set out in accordance with the guidance provided below) including title, word count, PPR number and assignment title
  • The Report

Please note that your supervisor must also email the programme with a form providing confirmation that you have obtained appropriate consent for the initial report with the title you have submitted before you will be allowed to give your PPR presentation.

Placement Presentation & Report main report (PPR1 & PPR2) – for trainees who commenced training prior to 2015

  • Title page (set out in accordance with the guidance provided below) including word count, unique PPR trainee number and PPR title
  • PPR main report

Direct Assessment of Clinical Skills – Standardised Role Play Simulation (DACS-SRPS)

  • No submission requirements – trainee has to be present for the assessment process
  • If trainee is absent on the day of the role play evidence such as a fit note must be presented as to the reason for the absence in line with university examination processes

Direct Assessment of Clinical Skills – Placement Portfolio (DACS-PP)

Assessment & Action Plan (AAP1-4)

  • Title page (set out in accordance with the guidance provided below)
  • including word count, trainee number and AAP title
  • The AAP report

Please note that your supervisor must also email the programme with a form providing confirmation that you have obtained appropriate consent for the AAP. Without this form trainee work will not be sent out for marking.

Clinical Recording (CR)

  • Submission of 30 minute recording and Clinical Recording submission form to the designated folder within the Box encrypted online storage system
  • Optionally, a written factual context statement of up to 300 words to accompany the recording

Clinical Recording Report (CRR)

  • Title page (set out in accordance with the guidance provided below) including word count, trainee number and CRR title
  • The report

Please note that your supervisor must also email the programme with a form providing confirmation that you have obtained appropriate consent for the CR and CRR. Without this form trainee work will not be sent out for marking.

Systematic Literature Review (SLR)

  • Title page (set out in accordance with the guidance provided below) including word count, trainee number, title of the SLR and name of intended journal
  • The main body of the review
  • The SLR proposal form
  • Dissemination strategy
  • Guidance on submission to the specific journal

Service-related research project (SRP)

The SRP should be submitted as two files. The first file must be in MS Word format and be double line spaced. The file should contain:

  • Title page including word count, trainee number, title of SRP
  • Main body of the SRP (including the dissemination strategy and ethical reflections)

The second file should contain:

  • Ethics materials, including protocol, ethics form(s), participant sheets etc.
  • Approval letters or emails from ethics committees and/or R&D committees

Further queries

If you have any further queries about the content of submissions, then please ask the relevant assignment coordinator. These are:

  • SLR: Ian Smith
  • SRP: Fiona Eccles/Ian Smith
  • PIA: Richard Slinger
  • PPR & DACS: Emma Munks

Getting the right layout

General Presentation

Apart from specific exceptions (e.g. the SAE), trainees are required to submit their written work in APA (American Psychological Association) style. This includes all citation and referencing. Copies of the latest APA manual are available from the DClinPsy library resources. The APA style website also gives lots of advice.

The 2021 cohort and later cohorts should use APA 7th edition. The 2020 cohort and earlier cohorts may use APA 6th or 7th edition, but the style chosen should be stated on the assignment cover sheet.

APA 6th recommends 12-point Times New Roman. APA 7th allows a variety of fonts including sans serif fonts 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, or 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode and serif fonts such as 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, or normal (10-point) Computer Modern. The programme’s choice in its documents is 12-point Trebuchet. The text should be black on a white background. Use at least 1.5 line spacing for the main body of text. Tables can be 1.5 spaced or single spaced

The guides in the appendices below give general guidance on the use of APA referencing.

The Title Page

The title page should include the following aspects:

  • Title – all submissions should have a title descriptive of the specific content (e.g. NOT just ‘PALS1 initial report’, but ‘PALS1 Initial report regarding work with a staff team around a client with anxiety difficulties’)
  • Trainee number – your trainee number is provided by the programme, it is not your university ID number
  • Word count – this must be accurate and work will be returned to you if it is over the word limit (or if it claims to be over the limit), even by one word. Like completeness, we only check this after the deadline, so this is another way of being penalised for lateness. For assignments that have separate word limits for specific sections you must list the word count for each section here.
  • You might also wish to have a running head and some further detail (name of assignment, place of study) but this is not essential.

Making sure your file isn’t too large

All assignments should be submitted as a single file. It is important that you make sure all files that you submit are no larger than 10MB in size. You will not be able to submit a file over 20MB via Moodle as this is the maximum file size for the system. It is your responsibility to ensure your assignment is small enough to be submitted on time.

Below are some ways for reducing the size of your files and for merging multiple PDF and Word documents into one.

Scanning documents

Wherever possible we recommend that you use electronic documents to avoid the need to scan. If necessary, the multifunction printers in the Furness building can scan documents and email them to you. You can change resolution settings when scanning to obtain the smallest possible file size. However, smaller text may not be easily legible. If you have this problem, you should increase the darkness of scan while keeping the other settings.

Ensuring images in Microsoft Word are optimised

Images will significantly increase the file size of your document if they are not appropriately optimised. This is particularly the case where scanned documents are inserted as images. If you are using images, the following process will reduce their impact as much as possible.

  1. Click on a picture in your document
  2. On the Picture toolbar, click the Compress Pictures button (it’s the one with arrows at all four corner)
  3. In the Compress Pictures dialog box, you are presented with options for the way Word handles your images. The target output for email (96ppi) will give the smallest file size
  4. To apply your changes to all the pictures in your document, click the button beside All pictures in document in the Apply to section

Saving as a PDF from Microsoft Word at minimum size

If you are outputting your Word document as a PDF so that you can merge it with other PDF documents for a submission, the following steps will tell Word to ensure the size is kept to a minimum.

  1. Click on the File tab and choose “Save As”
  2. Choose “PDF” from the “Save as type” dropdown menu
  3. Under the “Optimise for” option choose “Minimum Size (publishing online)”

Further reducing the size of PDF files

Once you have a PDF, you can further reduce its size by using Adobe Acrobat DC which is provided via the Cloudpaging player.

  1. Open Adobe Acrobat DC
  2. Open the PDF file you want to reduce in size
  3. Click on the File menu and choose Save As -> Reduced Size PDF
  4. Choose to make the PDF compatible with Version 9 and save the file
  5. More advanced settings to reduce the file size further can be accessed in Acrobat Pro by choosing to save your file as an “Optimised PDF” from the “Save As” menu.

Combining multiple PDF files

If you have a number of PDF files which you need to combine into a single document, this can be done easily with Adobe Acrobat DC.

  1. Open Adobe Acrobat DC
  2. Click on the File menu and choose “Create”
  3. Choose “Combine Files into a Single PDF”
  4. Drag and drop the files you want to merge into the window (or use the add files button)
  5. Move them into the order you want them when merged and click on “Combine Files”

Combining multiple Microsoft Word files

If you have a number of Word documents which you wish to combine into a single document, this can be done easily within Word.

  1. Open the document you want to merge another into
  2. Place your cursor at the place to add the document
  3. Click on the Insert tab on the ribbon
  4. Click on the Object button in the “Text” group
  5. Choose “Text from File…” and select your Word document which contains the content to add

Uploading your submission to Moodle

Please name your file in the following format before uploading it:

[Trainee Number]+[Assignment name]+[Month & Year] (e.g. 2201PALS1February2018.docx)

To make your electronic submission, you should log in to Moodle and click on the link for the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology VLE section and then the assignment submission area.

You will see the name of the assignment, which has a TurnItIn icon next to it. After clicking on the assignment you are presented with the Summary page outlining the name of the assignment. To submit your assignment, you should now click on the tab labelled “Add Submission”.

Drag and drop the file to submit. You must tick to accept the declaration in the form before clicking the Add Submission button.

If you have queries about the technical elements of the submission then please email Jen Whitfield (Programme Assistant – Academic).

Potential problems using software not controlled by Lancaster University / NHS

The Programme are aware that a variety of software bugs exist in common office programs, some of which have the potential to cause problems with assignments submitted via Moodle.

These problems can include the omission of spacing and other formatting requirements which can then adversely affect marks on specific competencies relating to written communication etc.

It is your responsibility to ensure that any software used, which is not controlled by Lancaster University or the NHS, is fully patched to minimise these difficulties. This would typically involve ensuring that all service packs and security updates available from the relevant software vendors are applied. Both Lancaster University and the NHS have an automated procedure in place to ensure that the latest update for centrally distributed software, such as Microsoft Office, is applied to all onsite machines.

All submissions to the programme should be checked by you prior to uploading to Moodle to ensure that the document is as expected. The responsibility for the quality of a submission lies with you and it is not possible to re-submit an assignment after the given deadline if it later appears that formatting changes have occurred.

After submission

Once submitted, the assignment will appear on the current page, showing it has been added to the system successfully. You can download the current assignment you have submitted by clicking on the download icon on the “My Submissions” page.

After we receive the submission, we will process it using Turnitin. This is an on-line software plagiarism detection programme which analyses each piece of work and checks to see whether parts of it can be found anywhere on the internet, in academic articles or other texts, or in any previously submitted coursework by other students from around the world . It produces a report for each piece of work, highlighting any parts that match anything found on the internet, and indicating where the original text can be found. More information is available in the programme’s plagiarism policy.

Once assignments have been checked, they are sent out to be marked. Following marking some are also sent out for moderation by the programme’s external examiners. From 2018 cohort onwards assignment outcomes and feedback will be sent to trainees prior to the moderation by the external examiners. The marks for all assignments are ratified via the programme’s examination board, and trainees notified of their ratified mark.

Assignment submission dates
Change to submission terminology, assignment support and responsibilities
APA style: a general guide
APA 7 quick reference guide
Clinical Recording submission form
Specimen title page

Learning structures outside formal teaching

03/07/2019 /

Supervision & learning on practice placements

Trainees must spend a minimum of 50 per cent of their time on clinical placement(usually between 50-60%), and are actively guided in their clinical learning and practice by their practice placement supervisors. The focus of the learning to take place is specified in the placement contract agreed between trainee and supervisor(s) at the beginning of the placement and submitted to the programme. Contracts are written using a proforma that is structured using the programme’s learning objectives; see the bottom of this page for the form.

Oversight of academic work (assignments and thesis)

DClinPsy assessed coursework assignments are not routinely draft read by staff prior to first submission. There are two exceptions to this:

  • A trainee’s individual research tutor will draft read and give feedback on the TPA assignment prior to submission.
  • A trainee’s individual clinical tutor will draft read and give feedback on a draft of the written component only of their PALS#1 assignment prior to submission.

For the thesis each trainee is allocated an academic supervisor early in the programme who also acts as their research tutor and usually remains with them throughout training.  The programme’s research consistency framework outlines the typical level of support a trainee can expect from the academic supervisor with regard to thesis work, including details of the draft reading available.

Peer support and discussion groups

As part of the teaching curriculum, the programme organises self-facilitated thesis discussion group sessions where trainees are able to share thesis progress, challenges and best practice with their peers in small groups. These sessions are scheduled to take place every few weeks during periods of the programme when study days are most likely to be focused on thesis work.

In addition to these, the programme encourages trainees to meet in self-directed groups (which can be facilitated or un-facilitated) around specific issues. These groups should not impinge on placement or teaching time, and whilst trainees should arrange such meetings themselves, the programme is often able to book spaces, provide necessary resources and may be able offer occasional facilitation for such meetings on request.

General learning & pastoral support

In addition to the structures directly designed to support learning, the programme makes available to trainees a number of other more general support process to assist in their progress on the programme. These include a system of independent mentors, a ‘buddy’ system and facilitating access to the faculty’s student learning advisor who offers clinics and one-to-one session to help students develop generic academic skills. These processes are overseen by the programme’s Pastoral Policy Implementation Group.

Placement contract

Identifiers: words or phrases which identify individuals

03/07/2019 /

It is important that ‘identifiers’- words or phrases which identify individuals, institutions etc. without their explicit consent – are not present in assignments submitted for examination. Trainees should check their work carefully before submission to ensure that this does not happen and that, for example, ethics applications have such identifiers redacted.

Where it is felt by markers of an assignment that the presence or number of identifiers is unacceptable then this could result in the trainee failing that particular assignment.

Any trainee who has submitted work that includes identifiers will be asked to remove these and submit corrected work.

Examination of the thesis

03/07/2019 /

For the thesis, programme staff (or other members of the university such as colleagues in psychology, DHR or social sciences) who are not directly involved in helping trainees with the preparation of their thesis research and are not one of their individual tutors act as internal examiners. Each thesis is examined by a specifically appointed external examiner whose appropriateness to examine the thesis is assessed by the university. University requirements regarding the examination of doctoral level theses require that the viva be chaired by an eligible member of academic staff or audio-recorded.

Trainees can find more information in the Guidance on the thesis process for trainees section of the online handbook.

Advice to thesis examiners

Examination board

03/07/2019 /

The Examination Board has the authority delegated to it by the University to reach decisions regarding the academic status (pass / fail) of students’ assignments and practice placements. The examination board comprises the programme staff and appointed external examiners, with the Vice Chancellor, the Assistant Dean for Teaching and the Head of the Division of Health Research also being ex-officio members.

The external examiners sit for a fixed term (usually four years) and have an overview of the programme assignments and other assessment processes. They also provide the final adjudication on assignments indicated as fails by markers. Markers of assignments external to the programme may also be invited to attend Boards. The current Chair of the Exam Board is Dr Ian Smith. The chair and deputy are appointed and reviewed annually at the directors’ committee.

The Exam Board usually meets three times per year and its minutes, taken by the Programme Assistant (Academic), are available to all programme staff, external examiners and relevant University post holders.

 

Deadlines, extensions and exceptional circumstances

03/07/2019 /

Deadlines and extensions

Trainees can find the fixed deadlines for all assignments with the programmes’ Assignment Submission Plan. All assignments need to be submitted by the agreed deadline to avoid negative consequences. The consequences of late submission and the process for obtaining an extension is detailed on the following page:

Changes via Individual Training Plan meeting

Deadlines for individual trainees may also be moved to a subsequent fixed deadline for that assignment during an individual training plan meeting if both of the trainee’s individual tutors are in agreement and this is approved by the directors. If trainees are aware of any extended circumstances out of their control which might result in them being able complete assessed work to their normal standard of academic performance then they should discuss this with their individual tutors at the earliest opportunity so that any necessary reasonable adjustments can be made.

Exceptional Circumstances

If subsequent to a submission being made or a deadline being missed a trainee identifies such circumstances then they may request that exceptional circumstances are taken account of.

Assessment submission points

Policy regarding deadlines for submission of assessed coursework

03/07/2019 /
2018 cohort and onwards

Introduction & aims of the policy

This policy was developed with the following aims in mind:

  • To bring us in line with best practice – most degree programmes at Lancaster University and Clinical Psychology programmes across the country have a clear deadline policy.
  • To clarify what constitutes grounds for an extension and formalising a process for obtaining an extension. This will also enable us to clarify the consequences of late or non-submission without an extension.
  • To provide a consistent policy that would be fairer to trainees and also would be seen to be fairer.
  • To set clear and reasonable boundaries around deadlines that mirrors the expectations that trainees are likely to have placed upon them in the workplace.
  • To ensure that trainees are meeting the competencies of good time management and professional behaviour in their academic as well as placement activities.
  • To reduce the number of extensions requested by trainees, and as a result reduce the workload for the programme team.
  • To help reduce the culture of submission ‘at the last minute’. This has contributed to many of the extension requests that had previously been made by trainees as a result of circumstances that should be avoided by appropriate time management. Reducing this culture will not only help trainees develop more helpful habits for their professional careers, but may also resolve any difficulties which could arise around teaching attendance near deadlines.

Scope of the Policy

The policy applies to the submission of all coursework on the programme excluding the Thesis.

Supporting Trainees and Encouraging Early Submission of Work

The programme wants trainees to feel supported, and if any trainees find themselves struggling with a piece of assessed work for any reason, they are encouraged to approach their individual tutors at the earliest opportunity to discuss this and obtain help and support from the programme. Having to continue to devote time to an assessed piece of coursework beyond the normal deadline can create substantial additional pressure for the trainee and disrupt their path through training. This deadline policy, therefore, has strict boundaries relating to the submission of work, and significant penalties for the late submission of work. In order to avoid trainees failing due to late submission, staff should encourage trainees at every opportunity to plan to submit their work well in advance of the deadline.

Single Extensions

Deadline date is less than a week away. Trainees can ask for an request an extension the week of the deadline date up until, and including, the Wednesday before the Friday deadline. Trainees will not be able to request an extension after the Wednesday before the deadline. If after the Wednesday (i.e. Thursday), the trainee will need to go through the exceptional circumstances process if appropriate.

Trainees  should speak to speak to their individual tutor pair regarding an  extension request. The individual tutor pair will help the trainee to decide if they want to apply for a single extension or require an Individual Training Plan adjustment. A tutor will then  make the request if appropriate via Teams and this  will be considered at the weekly directors’ meeting for approval. If the request is being made at short notice (i.e. after 10am on the Tuesday or on the Wednesday prior to the deadline) the  tutor should also alert the directors to the request  via email to ensure it is considered. In all cases the programme directors will either 1) not grant an extension; 2) grant a single extension- 1 week; 3) grant a single extension- to next deadline.

Individual Training Plan (ITP)

In some instances, a single extension may not be sufficient for a trainee. This is when there is a significant interruption to training, which is likely to affect more than one deadline. At these times, trainees and their individual tutors should discuss a revised overall deadline schedule at an ITP meeting. This is an alternative to obtaining an extension and takes account of the trainee’s overall progress through the programme. The revised deadlines schedule must be approved at the Directors’ meeting prior to it taking effect.

The Process of Submission of Work

Written work must be submitted online via the programme’s Moodle submission mechanism. The exact details of what constitutes a ‘complete’ submission for each assignment can be found in the programme’s “Guidance on Assignment Submission” information. At all times, it is the responsibility of the trainee to ensure that they make a complete submission.

Trainees should note that submissions which exceed the specified word limit will not be accepted. After the deadline has passed, submitted work will be checked, and any work which is over the maximum word count or declares that it is, will be returned to the trainee with no extension to the deadline. The trainee will be required to re-submit a version of the work that is within the word limit. This submission will then be late, and considered in accordance with the ‘Consequences of Late Submission’ section below. Please note that the maximum word count for each piece of assessed coursework is as specified in the assessment handbook of the programme. There is no leeway above this limit. The inclusion/exclusion of tables and figures from the word count varies from assignment to assignment and individual guidance is available in the handbook.

If a trainee is on sick leave on the due date of a piece of work and has not already submitted the work nor has an approved extension, they must submit their work by no later than 9.30am of the day AFTER the end of their period of sick leave (not including weekends). They must also submit a doctor’s note covering the sickness period to the DClinPsy programme office within one week of the submission of the coursework (even if the sickness was for only one day). This reflects the university’s position on assessment.

Consequences of Late Submission

Moodle automatically classifies any submission that is after the deadline as late. Under all other circumstances than those listed above, work that is submitted late without an approved extension shall be dealt with as follows. If a complete submission of the work is up to three calendar days late, then:

A concern will be raised about the trainee’s behaviour. Concerns can lead to fitness to practise or disciplinary procedures being implemented.

If a complete submission of work is not made within three days following the deadline, this will constitute a fail, with a mark of zero or fail being recorded for the first submission.

If a trainee considers there are exceptional circumstances that have led to the late submission, they should submit these by the appropriate deadline to the programme’s exceptional circumstances committee, which will consider any such submissions prior to the mark being ratified by the programme examination board.

Obtaining an Extension

For all pieces of assessed work (except the thesis), a single extension would be granted for immediate and temporary issues which have been appropriately reported to the programme. This includes submitting evidence as to the reason for the extension. Examples for a single extension include:

  • Self-certified sickness
  • Caring responsibility resulting in loss of study day
  • Accident/ injury to self of significant other than resulted in loss of study day
  • Adverse Event, which has temporary impact (e.g. flooding)
  • Any other significant life events of a similar degree of severity which are beyond the trainee’s control and are judged by the Directors to have a deleterious effect on their ability to submit work by the current deadline.

Reasons a single extension would not be granted include:

  1. Technology issues
  2. Poor organisation by trainee

Deadline Policy Flow Chart

2017 cohort and earlier

Introduction & aims of the policy

This policy was developed with the following aims in mind:

  • To bring us in line with best practice – most degree programmes at Lancaster University and Clinical Psychology programmes across the country have a clear deadline policy.
  • To clarify what constitutes grounds for an extension and formalising a process for obtaining an extension. This will also enable us to clarify the consequences of late or non-submission without an extension.
  • To provide a consistent policy that would be fairer to trainees and also would be seen to be fairer.
  • To set clear and reasonable boundaries around deadlines that mirrors the expectations that trainees are likely to have placed upon them in the workplace.
  • To ensure that trainees are meeting the competencies of good time management and professional behaviour in their academic as well as placement activities.
  • To reduce the number of extensions requested by trainees, and as a result reduce the workload for the programme team.
  • To help reduce the culture of submission ‘at the last minute’. This has contributed to many of the extension requests that had previously been made by trainees as a result of circumstances that should be avoided by appropriate time management. Reducing this culture will not only help trainees develop more helpful habits for their professional careers, but may also resolve any difficulties which could arise around teaching attendance near deadlines.

Scope of the policy

The policy applies to the submission of all coursework on the programme. Thesis and placement documentation submissions are excluded.

Supporting trainees and encouraging early submission of work

The programme wants trainees to feel supported, and if any trainees find themselves struggling with a piece of assessed work for any reason, they are encouraged to approach their Individual Tutors at the earliest opportunity to discuss this and obtain help and support from the programme. Having to continue to devote time to an assessed piece of coursework beyond the normal deadline can create substantial additional pressure for the trainee and disrupt their path through training. This deadline policy, therefore, has strict boundaries relating to the submission of work, and significant penalties for the late submission of work. In order to avoid trainees failing due to late submission, staff should encourage trainees at every opportunity to plan to submit their work well in advance of the deadline.

Single Extensions

Deadline date is less than a week away. Trainees can request an extension the week of the deadline date up until, and including, the Wednesday before the Friday deadline. Trainees will not be able to request an extension after the Wednesday before the deadline. If after the Wednesday (i.e. Thursday), the trainee will need to go through the exceptional circumstances process if appropriate. When requesting a single extension, the trainee will need to email both programme directors, copying in the Programme Administrator and their tutor team into the email as well. The trainee may choose to request a weeklong single extension or an extension until the next scheduled assignment deadline date. It is the trainee’s responsibility to follow up a response if necessary. Trainees must submit evidence for the extension. The evidence can be submitted after the request but any granted extension will be subject to the receipt of evidence. The programme directors will either 1) not grant an extension; 2) grant a single extension- 1 week; 3) grant a single extension- to next deadline or 4) single extension awarded and a recommendation that an Individual Training Plan meeting is considered by the tutor pair.

Deadline date is more than a week away. If the deadline date is more than a week away, trainees are encouraged to speak to their individual tutor pair. The individual tutor pair will help the trainee to decide if they want to apply for a single extension or require and Individual Training Plan (ITP [see below]). Either option would need to be submitted to the weekly directors’ meeting for approval. The programme directors will either 1) not grant an extension; 2) grant a single extension- 1 week; 3) grant a single extension- to next deadline

Individual Training Plan (ITP)

In some instances, a single extension may not be sufficient for a trainee. This is when there is a significant interruption to training, which is likely to affect more than one deadline. At these times, trainees and their individual tutors should discuss a revised overall deadline schedule at an ITP meeting. This is an alternative to obtaining an extension and takes account of the trainee’s overall progress through the programme. The revised deadlines schedule would need to be approved at the Directors’ meeting.

The process of submission of work

Work must be submitted online via the programme’s Moodle submission mechanism. The exact details of what constitutes a ‘complete’ submission for each assignment can be found in the programme’s “Guidance on Assignment Submission” information. At all times, it is the responsibility of the trainee to ensure that they make a complete submission.

Trainees should note that submissions which exceed the specified word limit will not be accepted. After the deadline has passed, submitted work will be checked, and any work which is over the maximum word count or declares that it is, will be returned to the trainee with no extension to the deadline. The trainee will be required to re-submit a version of the work that is within the word limit. This submission will then be late, and considered in accordance with the ‘Consequences of Late Submission’ section below. Please note that the maximum word count for each piece of assessed coursework is as specified in the assessment handbook of the programme. There is no leeway above this limit. The inclusion/exclusion of tables and figures from the word count varies from assignment to assignment and individual guidance is available in the handbook.

If a trainee is on sick leave on the due date of a piece of work and has not already submitted the work nor has an approved extension, they must submit their work by no later than 9.30am of the day AFTER the end of their period of sick leave (not including weekends). They must also submit a doctor’s note covering the sickness period to the DClinPsy programme office within one week of the submission of the coursework (even if the sickness was for only one day). This reflects the university’s position on assessment.

Consequences of late submission

Moodle automatically classifies any submission that is after the deadline as late. Under all other circumstances from those listed above, work that is submitted late without an approved extension shall be dealt with as follows:

  1. If a complete submission of the work is up to three calendar days late, it shall be penalised by having ten marks deducted from that awarded by the examiners of the piece of work. Examiners shall not be informed as to whether the work they have been asked to mark will be subject to such a penalty.
  2. If a complete submission of work is not made within three days following the deadline, this will constitute a fail, with a mark of zero being recorded for the first submission and any subsequently submitted work being marked as if it were a re-submission. This means that if such late-submitted work is also marked as a fail, then the trainee will have two fails marked against their record and will not be permitted to submit the piece of work again.

If a trainee considers there are exceptional circumstances that have led to the late submission, they should submit these by the appropriate deadline to the programme’s exceptional circumstances committee, which will consider any such submissions prior to the mark being ratified by the programme examination board.

Obtaining an extension

For all pieces of assessed work (except the thesis), a single extension would be granted for immediate and temporary issues which have been appropriately reported to the programme. This includes submitting evidence as to the reason for the extension. Examples for a single extension include:

  • Self-certified sickness
  • Caring responsibility resulting in loss of study day
  • Accident/ injury to self of significant other than resulted in loss of study day
  • Adverse Event, which has temporary impact (e.g. flooding)
  • Any other significant life events of a similar degree of severity which are beyond the trainee’s control and are judged by the Directors to have a deleterious effect on their ability to submit work by the current deadline.

In addition, the following are also considered acceptable grounds for application for an extension for THE SRP ONLY:

  • Issues of delay in data collection which are beyond the trainee’s control. During any such delay, the trainee must be able to evidence having made all possible efforts to continue with aspects of the assignment,

Reasons a single extension would not be granted include:

  • Technology issues
  • Poor organisation by trainee

Service Improvement Poster Presentation (SIPP)

03/07/2019 /

Introduction

The SIPP assignment involves groups of trainees recording videos of themselves working together on a service development project during their project block, and producing a poster and 500 word summary of the project. This is followed by the group delivering a 30 minute presentation on the project. At the end of the process, each trainee submits a short report summarising their reflections on their contribution to the process.

The SIPP assesses trainees’ individual skills in interacting and working together with others, and in presenting verbal and visual information within group meetings, presentations and documents. It is classed as a live skills assignment, which means that trainees will normally be allowed up to two attempts at passing (first and resubmission).

Domains actively assessed

  1. Collating information and knowledge (gathering)
  2. Performance skills (performing)
  3. Communicating information effectively (communicating)
  4. Interpersonal skills & collaboration (interacting)
  5. Responsive to impact and learning from experiences (responding)

Preparing for the assignment

There are several teaching sessions which help orient trainees to the assessment. The first of these specifically focuses on what to expect in the assessment process of the SIPP itself, and also provides trainees with some teaching on key incidental skills, such as production of the poster and presentation.

Following this, trainees will receive teaching sessions on service development, which include the content of the activities undertaken during the recorded parts of the SIPP assignment.

Structure of the assignment

Trainees are allocated to small groups.  Each group is assigned a service improvement issue which will be the focus of their work together. Issues are usually proposed by one or more people in the field (project stakeholders).

  1. Group work sessions

During the project block, each group is required to submit six, 30 minute videos of the trainees working on a series of service development exercises. The videos need to be submitted in a certain order according to a suggested submission schedule.

  1. Project poster & service development proposal

Prior to the final week of the project block, each group of trainees must produce and submit a digital A0-sized poster which summarises their project work, and a short written executive summary of up to 500 words.

  1. Presentation day

During the final week of the project block, each group of trainees will attend an event where they will display and answer questions on their poster, give a live 30-minute presentation of their project proposal (which each trainee will present a segment of), and answer questions on this from markers and an invited audience, which will include their project stakeholder(s).  This event will last around 90 minutes for each group of trainees.

  1. Reflections

Following the presentation session, each trainee will submit an individual report of up to 500 words which summarises their reflections on the process of completing the SIPP and their performance in the different tasks, and their learning from the experience.

Process of Assessment

All trainees within each group are assessed by two markers. Markers will assess the submitted videos and rate each trainee individually on the relevant competencies (performing, communicating and interacting competencies). During the presentation exercise further evidence on these competencies is collected through live observation of trainee behaviour throughout the process.

Following the presentation, markers will assess the poster and summary document for competency evidence (gathering and communication competencies), as well as each trainee’s reflective summary (responding competency).

The final rating of competencies will be agreed by the marker pair on the basis of evidence collected across all of the above.

The following documents are being reviewed and should not be used at present: –

SIPP – how to guide
SIPP – FAQ
SIPP – trainee feedback form

Placement Assignment – Service Evaluation (PASE)

03/07/2019 /

Introduction

The PASE is a report based on a piece of audit or service evaluation work carried out on placement. For trainees in the 2020 cohort and earlier, the work outlined in the first submission of the assignment can be from any one of the second, third or fourth core placements. Following the other three core placements trainees submit a Placement Assignment – Live Skills (PALS). For trainees in the 2021 cohort and later, the work outlined in the first submission of the assignment is taken from the Indirect Skills placement.

Actively assessed domains

The PASE actively assesses the following domains: –

  1. ‘Gathering’ – Collating information and knowledge for specific purpose
  2. ‘Analysing’ – Critical analysis & synthesis
  3. ‘Deciding’ – Strategy for application
  4. ‘Communicating’ – Communicating information effectively

Preparing for the assignment

Trainees discuss the PASE with their placement supervisor(s) at the start of the placement to establish what opportunities there are to conduct a service evaluation. Trainees will need to adhere to the R+D processes specific to the Trust they are on placement within, including gaining formal approval from the Trust in most cases. Trainees then write a brief proposal for the work (using the proposal form, which can be downloaded from the bottom of this page) and submit this to the programme for approval. The proposal will be reviewed by at least one tutor on the programme and will provide feedback and / or approval that the work can be used as the subject of a PASE report. The trainee may be required to amend and resubmit the proposal before approval is given.

For trainees in the 2020 intake and earlier, the proposal form must be submitted within the first 18 days on placement. For trainees in the 2021 intake and later, the proposal form must be submitted within the first 22 days on placement. The longer time to complete the proposal for trainees in the 2021 intake and later is due to the longer placement length.

As well as the proposal form, supervisors must complete a supervisor declaration form and submit this to the programme before the PASE can be approved. Once approved, the conduct of the evaluation is overseen by the placement supervisor, just as other placement work is. The trainee’s DClinPsy programme tutors are available for the supervisor to consult should any issues arise on which they need specific advice or support.

Structure of the Assignment

The Service Evaluation Project is a 3,000 word (maximum) report which will usually take the following form:

  • Summary
  • Introduction – describing the context for the evaluation or audit
  • Audit standards – if applicable
  • Methods
  • Results
  • Action plan – including a short discussion of the findings in relation to key literature and plans for re-audit if applicable
  • References (in APA format)
  • Appendices

Tables and figures are included in the word count.

Process of Assessment

First submissions are marked blind by one or two markers. Second submissions and resubmissions are marked by two markers. Where two markers are involved, they will discuss their marking to reach a consensus outcome. Occasionally there may be a need for a third marker to be involved, which is typically a member of the programme team. All marking processes are subject to moderation processes before being ratified by the Exam Board.

Assessment guidance and forms

PASE – proposal form
PASE – how to guide
PASE – supervisor declaration form
PASE – trainee feedback form

Placement Assignment – Live Skills (PALS)

03/07/2019 /

Introduction

Over the course of the programme, trainees are required to submit three pieces of work for Placement Assignment: Live Skills (PALS), in addition to one Placement Assignment: Service Evaluation (PASE).

Trainees in the 2021 cohort (and subsequent cohorts) will submit PALS #1 and #2 from work completed on their direct skills placement, and PALS #3 from their indirect skills placement.

Trainees from earlier cohorts will submit PALS #1 based on work from their first placement and PALS #2 and #3 from two different subsequent core practice placements.

The three PALS assignments each comprise a clinical recording from placement and a written component. The PALS assesses both the ‘live skills’ of the trainee and their ability to reflect on and critically appraise their work.

Domains actively assessed

This assignment actively assesses the following domains:

  1. ‘Analysing’ – Critical analysis & synthesis
  2. ‘Deciding’ – Strategy for application
  3. ‘Performing’ – Performance skills
  4. ‘Responding’ – Responsive to impact & learning from experiences
  5. ‘Interacting’ – Interpersonal skills & collaboration

Preparing for the assignment

Trainees are advised to familiarise themselves with the e-learning materials available on the programme handbook webpages.

On starting placement, trainees are advised to speak to their placement supervisor about which piece of work they might submit for a PALS. Trainees are required to obtain informed consent from clients to proceed with recording and using their personal/clinical information. Placement supervisors need to complete a supervisor declaration form at the end of the placement which indicates that informed consent has been obtained. Please refer to the PALS documentation on the programme handbook webpages for further information and to access supervisor declaration forms.

Trainees will received a draft read from a member of the programme team for the PALS #1.

Structure of the Assignment

  • Clinical recording (30 minutes)
  • Written component (4,500 words)
    • Outline of work undertaken (up to 1,500 words)
    • Transcription and commentary (no word count for transcript, up to 1,500 words for commentary)
    • Critical appraisal reflections/evaluation of work undertaken (up to 1,500 words)

Process of Assessment

All submissions are assessed by two markers. Markers will use evidence from both the written submission and the clinical recording to individually determine grades (pass or fail) for each of the assessment domains, then confer and agree a final grade for each domain, which determines the outcome of the assignment submission.

Assessment guidance and forms

PALS – introductory teaching PowerPoint slides
PALS – preparation and recording clinical work guidance
PALS – written component guidance
PALS – client information and consent form
PALS – trainee feedback form
PALS – supervisor declaration form
PALS – transcript template
PALS – submission form
PALS – how to submit on OneDrive
PALS – addendum guidance

Thesis Preparation Assignment (TPA)

03/07/2019 /
2023 cohort onwards

Introduction

The Thesis Preparation Assignment (TPA) is undertaken in the first year of training and is specifically designed to enable trainees to develop the knowledge and skills needed to undertake the thesis. It consists of two elements: a 4,500 word literature review (4,000 words for the review itself plus a 500 word literature retrieval summary), and a 2,500 word research proposal which is submitted separately, after the literature review. The literature review is assessed and marked as a piece of written work, whilst the thesis proposal is not marked but is peer-reviewed by the programme team. In order to pass the assignment, the thesis proposal must have been submitted.

Domains actively assessed

1. Collating information and knowledge
2. Critical analysis & synthesis
3. Strategy for application (deciding)
4. Performance skills
5. Responsive to impact & learning from experiences
6. Communicating information effectively
7. Interpersonal skills & collaboration
8. Organisational skills
9. Professional behaviour
10. Essential Knowledge

Preparing for the assignment

As the TPA involves preparatory work for the thesis, before starting work on the assignment the trainee must be allocated to a research supervisor who will go on to be the research supervisor for their thesis.

Once the trainee has been allocated to a research supervisor they identify a topic for their TPA literature review in discussion with their supervisor.

Structure of the TPA literature review

The literature review should take the form of a 4,000 word narrative review of research, clinical and theoretical literature which provides a foundation for the body of work the trainee intends to undertake for their thesis plus a 500 word literature retrieval summary. It should be formatted as a single Word document, written in APA style, structured as follows (section word counts are suggested as a guide):

  1. Introduction (800 words), to include: –
    • The background to the topic area and a rationale for the review, which makes reference to its relevance to clinical practice, policy (including relevant guidelines), and psychology theory as appropriate
    • A clear statement of the aims of the review
  2. Method (200 words). This should summarise the approach taken, including sources searched, search strategy used and approach used for synthesising the literature found. Reference can be made to the Literature Retrieval Summary for more detail.
  3. Synthesis/Findings/Results (2,000 words). The heading used for this section will depend on the approach taken. It should be structured in a way that is appropriate to the review topic and approach taken e.g. as themes or topic areas.
  4. Discussion (1,000 words), which should include identification of the research question to be addressed in the research proposal, based on the findings of the review.
  5. References (not included in the word count).
  6. Table of characteristics of included studies.
  7. Appendix A: Literature Retrieval Summary Form (500 words, plus the words on the form). This should be completed to provide an account of how relevant literature was identified and how decisions were made about what to present in the review.

Research Proposal

The research proposal is completed using the Thesis Proposal Form. It should be 2,500 words (excluding the text already on the form and your supervisor’s comments).

The thesis proposal will normally be developed from the literature review, in collaboration with the research supervisor.  Thus, it is expected that whilst the general research topic may be decided upon early in the assignment preparation process, the exact research question(s) to be addressed in the research proposal and details of the research design will not be decided until the trainee has completed the literature review.

It is expected that the rationale for the research proposal should draw upon the issues discussed in more detail in the review.

The research proposal should represent a feasible, ethical research study that meets the requirement of a DClinPsy thesis (see thesis guidelines for more detail).

Supervisory support for the assignment

It is expected that the trainee will meet regularly with their research supervisor during the process of completing the assignment.  As part of the supervisory process, the supervisor will provide the following support: –

  • Guidance on the choice of topic;
  • Guidance on the content, structure and approach to be adopted for the literature review;
  • Advise on literature searches and on literature to include and exclude;
  • Read a complete draft of the review;
  • Provide guidance in the development of the thesis proposal;
  • Read a draft of the research proposal prior to the trainee submitting it for review.

Process of assessment

Trainees have up to three attempts at the TPA literature review. To pass the assignment, the literature review must reach a passing standard in all assessed domains.

Submission 1 – April year 1 (full-time) or July year 2 (part-time)

Resubmission dates to be agreed as needed with the trainee’s tutor pair and in line with the deadlines policy.

A thesis proposal must also be submitted for the assignment pass to be confirmed.  This should normally be submitted 3 months after the literature review is submitted.  It is not necessary for the literature review to have passed before the thesis proposal is submitted – it is expected that work developing the thesis proposal will begin as soon as the TPA has been submitted.  However, the trainee may decide, in discussion with their supervisor, to wait until the literature review has passed before submitting the thesis proposal.

Review of the thesis proposal

The thesis proposal is submitted separately, within a maximum of three months after the literature review.  If the proposal is not submitted by the relevant deadline the TPA assignment will usually be failed. Once the thesis proposal has been submitted it will be reviewed by members of the programme team for its suitability as a DClinPsy thesis.  If the TPA literature review does not pass at the first submission point, but a thesis proposal has been submitted, the thesis proposal does not need to be resubmitted as part of the second submission.  It is intended that the thesis proposal can be developed into the research protocol which the trainee will need to submit with their ethics application.

Assessment guidance and forms

TPA – Trainee Guide
TPA – Trainee Feedback Forms
TPA – Mark Sheet
TPA – Research Choices Form
Thesis Proposal Form
TPA – Literature Retrieval Summary

2022 cohort

Introduction

The Thesis Preparation Assignment (TPA) is undertaken in the first year of training and is specifically designed to enable trainees to develop the knowledge and skills needed to undertake the thesis. It consists of two elements: a 4,500 word literature review (4,000 words for the review itself plus a 500 word literature retrieval summary), and a 3,500 word research proposal which is submitted separately, after the literature review. The literature review is assessed and marked as a piece of written work, whilst the thesis proposal is not marked but is peer-reviewed by the programme team. In order to pass the assignment, the thesis proposal must have been submitted.

Domains actively assessed

1. Collating information and knowledge
2. Critical analysis & synthesis
3. Strategy for application (deciding)
4. Performance skills
5. Responsive to impact & learning from experiences
6. Communicating information effectively
7. Interpersonal skills & collaboration
8. Organisational skills
9. Professional behaviour
10. Essential Knowledge

Preparing for the assignment

As the TPA involves preparatory work for the thesis, before starting work on the assignment the trainee must be allocated to a research supervisor who will go on to be the research supervisor for their thesis.

Once the trainee has been allocated to a research supervisor they identify a topic for their TPA literature review in discussion with their supervisor.  The trainee completes a TPA Review Topic Form in which they give a brief outline of the title, aims and structure of the literature review element of the TPA. This is submitted to the TPA co-ordinator for approval to proceed. The trainee may be asked to revise or resubmit the topic form before approval is given.  Once the TPA topic form is approved the trainee completes the assignment.

Structure of the TPA literature review

The literature review should take the form of a 4,000 word review of research, clinical and theoretical literature which provides a foundation for the body of work the trainee intends to undertake for their thesis plus a 500 word literature retrieval summary. It should be formatted as a single Word document, written in APA style, structured as follows (section word counts approximate):

  1. Introduction (800 words), to include:
    • The background to the topic area and a rationale for the review, which makes reference to its relevance to clinical practice, policy (including relevant guidelines), and psychology theory as appropriate;
    • A clear statement of the aims of the review.Main body of the review (not intended as a heading). The heading – or headings – used for this section will depend on the approach taken. It should be structured in a way that is appropriate to the review topic and approach taken.
  2. Main body of the review (not intended as a heading). The heading – or headings – used for this section will depend on the approach taken. It should be structured in a way that is appropriate to the review topic and approach taken.
  3. Discussion (1,200 words), which should include identification of the research question to be addressed in the research proposal, based on the findings of the review.
  4. References (not included in the word count).
  5. Literature Retrieval Summary form (500 words, plus the words on the form).  This should be completed to provide an account of how relevant literature was identified and how decisions were made about what to present in the review.
  6. TPA Review Topic Form (appended, not included in the word count).

Beyond not being a systematic review, there is no prescribed format or approach for the review.  However, the review should lead to the identification of the research question that the trainee intends to address for their thesis.  Thus, the review might be an argument-based extended rationale for the thesis project, covering several topic areas.  Or it might focus in more detail on a specific topic area of direct relevance to the intended thesis topic.  It is expected that the trainee should decide upon a suitable approach to the review with their supervisor and that the structure and content will be appropriate to the review topic.

Research Proposal

The research proposal is completed using the Thesis Proposal Form. It should be 3,500 words (including the text already on the form, but excluding your supervisor’s comments).

The thesis proposal will normally be developed from the literature review, in collaboration with the research supervisor.  Thus, it is expected that whilst the general research topic may be decided upon early in the assignment preparation process, the exact research question(s) to be addressed in the research proposal and details of the research design will not be decided until the trainee has completed the literature review.

It is expected that the rationale for the research proposal should draw upon the issues discussed in more detail in the review.

The research proposal should represent a feasible, ethical research study that meets the requirement of a DClinPsy thesis (see thesis guidelines for more detail).

Supervisory support for the assignment

It is expected that the trainee will meet regularly with their research supervisor during the process of completing the assignment.  As part of the supervisory process, the supervisor will provide the following support:

  • Guidance on the choice of topic;
  • Guidance on the content, structure and approach to be adopted for the literature review;
  • Read a draft of the TPA Review Topic Form;
  • Advise on literature searches and on literature to include and exclude;
  • Read a complete draft of the review;
  • Provide guidance in the development of the thesis proposal;
  • Read a draft of the research proposal prior to the trainee submitting it for review.

Process of assessment

Trainees have up to three attempts at the TPA literature review. To pass the assignment, the literature review must reach a passing standard in all assessed domains.

Submission 1 – March Year 1 (full-time) or year 2 (part-time)

Submission 2 – July Year 1 (full-time) or July Year 2 (part-time)

Resubmission – March Year 2 (full-time) or Year 3 (part-time)

A thesis proposal must also be submitted for the assignment pass to be confirmed.  This should normally be submitted 3 months after the literature review is submitted.  It is not necessary for the literature review to have passed before the thesis proposal is submitted – it is expected that work developing the thesis proposal will begin as soon as the TPA has been submitted.  However, the trainee may decide, in discussion with their supervisor, to wait until the literature review has passed before submitting the thesis proposal.

Review of the thesis proposal

The thesis proposal is submitted separately, within a maximum of three months after the literature review.  If the proposal is not submitted by the relevant deadline the TPA assignment will usually be failed. Once the thesis proposal has been submitted it will be reviewed by members of the programme team for its suitability as a DClinPsy thesis.  If the TPA literature review does not pass at the first submission point, but a thesis proposal has been submitted, the thesis proposal does not need to be resubmitted as part of the second submission.

Assessment guidance and forms

TPA – Trainee Guide
TPA – Review Topic Form
TPA – Trainee Feedback Forms
TPA – Mark Sheet
TPA – Research Choices Form
Thesis Proposal Form
TPA – Literature Retrieval Summary

2021 cohort and earlier

Introduction

The Thesis Preparation Assignment (TPA) is undertaken in the first year of training and is specifically designed to enable trainees to develop the knowledge and skills needed to undertake the thesis.  It consists of two elements: a 4,500 word literature review, and a word research proposal which is submitted separately, after the literature review.  The literature review is assessed and marked as a piece of written work, whilst the thesis proposal is not marked but is peer-reviewed by the programme team.  In order to pass the assignment, the thesis proposal must have been submitted.

Domains actively assessed

1. Collating information and knowledge
2. Critical analysis & synthesis
3. Strategy for application (deciding)
4. Performance skills
5. Responsive to impact & learning from experiences
6. Communicating information effectively
7. Interpersonal skills & collaboration
8. Organisational skills
9. Professional behaviour
10. Essential Knowledge

Preparing for the assignment

As the TPA involves preparatory work for the thesis, before starting work on the assignment the trainee must be allocated to a research supervisor who will go on to be the research supervisor for their thesis.

Once the trainee has been allocated to a research supervisor they identify a topic for their TPA literature review in discussion with their supervisor.  The trainee completes a TPA Review Topic Form in which they give a brief outline of the title, type of review, aims and structure of the literature review element of the TPA. This is submitted to the TPA co-ordinator for approval to proceed. The trainee may be asked to revise or resubmit the topic form before approval is given.  Once the TPA topic form is approved the trainee completes the assignment.

Structure of the TPA literature review

The literature review should take the form of a 4,500 word review of research, clinical and theoretical literature which provides a foundation for the body of work the trainee intends to undertake for their thesis. It should be formatted as a single Word document, written in APA style, structured as follows (section word counts approximate):

  1. Introduction (800 words), to include:
    • The rationale for conducting the review, including a statement of its relevance to clinical psychology theory and practice;
    • A clear statement of the research question the review will address, and the aims of the review.
  2. Identifying and deciding what to include in the review (500 words)
  3. The TPA is not a systematic review. As such, there is no method section. However, an account should be provided of how relevant literature was identified and how decisions were made about what to present in the review. This may include details of searches undertaken including search terms used and databases searched.
  4. Findings/results (or other suitable heading depending on approach).  (2,000 words). This may be structured into sub-sections.
  5. Discussion (1,200 words), which should include identification of the research question to be addressed in the research proposal, based on the findings of the review.
  6. References (not included in the word count).
  7. TPA Review Topic Form (appended, not included in the word count).

Beyond not being a systematic review, there is no prescribed format or approach for the review.  It is expected that the trainee should decide upon a suitable approach to the review with their supervisor and that the structure and content will be appropriate to the review topic. The scope of the review should reflect an appropriate balance of depth and breadth of knowledge, depending on the nature of the topic.

As part of the discussion section, it is expected that the trainee will identify the topic to be developed in their research proposal as a line of further research inquiry arising from the review.

Research Proposal

The research proposal is completed using the Thesis Proposal Form. It should be 3,500 words (including the text already on the form, but excluding your supervisor’s comments).

The thesis proposal will normally be developed from the literature review, in collaboration with the research supervisor.  Thus, it is expected that whilst the general research topic may be decided upon early in the assignment preparation process, the exact research question(s) to be addressed in the research proposal and details of the research design will not be decided until the trainee has completed the literature review.

It is expected that the rationale for the research proposal should draw upon the issues discussed in more detail in the review.

The research proposal should represent a feasible, ethical research study that meets the requirement of a DClinPsy thesis (see thesis guidelines for more detail).

Supervisory support for the assignment

It is expected that the trainee will meet regularly with their research supervisor during the process of completing the assignment.  As part of the supervisory process, the supervisor will provide the following support:

  • Guidance on the choice of topic;
  • Guidance on the content, structure and approach to be adopted for the literature review;
  • Read a draft of the TPA Review Topic Form;
  • Advise on literature searches and on literature to include and exclude;
  • Read a draft of a completed section of the review (up to a maximum of 1000 words), usually the introduction;
  • Provide guidance in the development of the thesis proposal;
  • Read a draft of the research proposal prior to the trainee submitting it for review.

Process of assessment

Trainees have up to three attempts at the TPA literature review. To pass the assignment, the literature review must reach a passing standard in all assessed domains.

Submission 1 – March Year 1 (full-time) or year 2 (part-time)

Submission 2 – July Year 1 (full-time) or July Year 2 (part-time)

Resubmission – March Year 2 (full-time) or Year 3 (part-time)

A thesis proposal must also be submitted for the assignment pass to be confirmed.  This should normally be submitted 3 months after the literature review is submitted.  It is not necessary for the literature review to have passed before the thesis proposal is submitted – it is expected that work developing the thesis proposal will begin as soon as the TPA has been submitted.  However, the trainee may decide, in discussion with their supervisor, to wait until the literature review has passed before submitting the thesis proposal.

Review of the thesis proposal

The thesis proposal is submitted separately, within a maximum of three months after the literature review.  If the proposal is not submitted by the relevant deadline the TPA assignment will usually be failed. Once the thesis proposal has been submitted it will be reviewed by members of the programme team for its suitability as a DClinPsy thesis.  If the TPA literature review does not pass at the first submission point, but a thesis proposal has been submitted, the thesis proposal does not need to be resubmitted as part of the second submission.

Assessment guidance and forms

TPA – Trainee Guide
TPA – Review Topic Form
TPA – Trainee Feedback Forms
TPA – Mark Sheet
TPA – Research Choices Form
Thesis Proposal Form

Assessment of learning outcomes

03/07/2019 /
2018 cohort and onwards
The DClinPsy’s programme-level learning outcomes are prescribed by the British Psychological Society’s Standards for Doctoral programmes in Clinical Psychology document (2019). These learning outcomes consist of ten over-arching outcomes and nine core competency domains. Details of these can be found in the DClinPsy’s programme specification.

Assessment through practice placement experience

The Supervisor’s Assessment of Trainee (SAT) is a report form which supervisors complete prior to the placement meetings  and at the end of each practice placement. It includes twelve transferable competencies which are drawn from the latest job, task and role analysis for clinical psychology arising from a research project commissioned by the Clearing House for Postgraduate Course in Clinical Psychology (Baron & O’Reilly, 2012) and the eighteen specific competencies which are drawn from the BPS Standards. These  competencies are grouped into six areas for supervisors to consider and comment on. The SAT is used to indicate whether or not the trainee has met the required learning outcomes for the practice placement and subsequently to recommend to the exam board whether the placement should be considered satisfactorily or unsatisfactorily completed.

Assessment through research thesis

The doctoral thesis is a substantial piece of work (up to 56,000 words including tables, figures and appendices) trainees usually complete during their second and third year of training. As well as providing additional evidence of many of the HCPC’s Standards of Proficiency, and providing evidence that trainees have developed the skills described within the BPS’s ‘research’ core competency domain, the thesis must be completed to a to a standard which is consistent with Lancaster University’s guidance on doctoral level research. It comprises conducting and reporting on primary, investigative research which is relevant to the theory and practice of clinical psychology. In terms of quality, the thesis needs to demonstrate a substantial contribution to knowledge and should afford originality by the discovery of new findings and by the exercise of independent critical power.

Assessment through academic coursework submission

Academic coursework completed as part of the programme is evaluated by rating a series of domains that are required to perform these skill sets proficiently. These domains are a codification of the BPS (2019) learning outcomes and relevant parts of the 2012 Baron & O’Reilly job, task and role analysis. The domains are transferable across the multiple activities in which clinical psychologists are expected to engage. A brief definition of each of them follows: –

1. ‘Gathering’ – Collating information and knowledge for specific purpose
Locating appropriate and relevant information and drawing on own existing knowledge to address a specific issue or situation.

2. ‘Analysing’ -Critical analysis and synthesis
In terms of the relevant issue, weighing up & critically analysing & synthesising everything from collated information and knowledge

3. ‘Deciding’ – Strategy for application
Developing a strategy to practically apply the outcome of the synthesis to a specific situation and showing how this strategy follows from the synthesis. This may include a plan for conducting a programme of research, or using an integrative or eclectic approach that would be used in the planned intervention. This domain relates specifically to making the plan, not its implementation.

4. ‘Doing’ – Performance skills
Implementing a strategy in a real environment. This domain concerns the concrete application / performance of specific techniques and (micro) skills.

5. ‘Responding’ – Responsive to impact and learning from experiences
Trainee seeks out and is responsive and sensitive to the effect of his / her own actions & to new information. S/he shows learning from this through adapting her / his own future behaviour.

6. ‘Communicating’ – Communicating information effectively
Communicating information effectively to the intended audience, adapting style, delivery and content as appropriate (but NOT the choice of strategy).

7. ‘Interacting’ – Interpersonal skills & collaboration
These are the transferable skills that underpin interactions with others.

8. ‘Organising’ – Organisational skills
Using organisational skills in a proactive way to process and prioritise disparate demands and tasks to achieve objectives in a timely fashion.

9. ‘Behaving’ – Professional behaviour
Behaving professionally and appropriately in all contexts

10. ‘Knowing’ – Demonstrating Essential Knowledge
The trainee is able to show the required essential knowledge of clinical psychology theory, evidence and best practice that can be applied to their own learning and practice.

Evidence for a broader knowledge of clinical psychology practices is collected throughout to training from the assignments and other sources and is logged within the trainee’s e-portfolio.

A lack of skill, knowledge of competence can be assessed using any of the assignments. However, each assignment focuses on 4-5 ‘active’ domains where the trainee is required to provide positive evidence of skills in the domain in order to pass the assignment. The table below indicates which assignments ‘actively assess’ which domains. Note that domains 8-10 are only ever passively assessed.

Descriptive name Domain name Placement Assignment – Live Skills (x3) Self-Assessment Exercise Thesis Preparation Assignment Placement Assignment – Service Evaluation Service Improvement Poster Presentation
Gathering 1. Collating information and knowledge X X X X
Analysing 2. Critical analysis and synthesis X X X X
Deciding 3. Strategy for application (deciding) X X X X
Doing 4. Performance skills X X
Responding 5. Responsive to impact and learning from experiences X X
Communicating 6. Communicating information effectively X X X X
Interacting 7. Interpersonal skills and collaboration X X

Details of the assessment domains and the new suite of assignments and assessment system can be found in the assignment suite overview and Assessment domain list.

2017 cohort and earlier
The DClinPsy’s programme-level learning outcomes are prescribed by the British Psychological Society’s Standards for Doctoral programmes in Clinical Psychology document (2014). These learning outcomes consist of ten over-arching outcomes and nine core competency domains. Details of these can be found in the DClinPsy’s programme specification.

Assessment through practice placement experience

The Supervisor’s Assessment of Trainee (SAT) report form, which supervisors complete prior to the mid-placement visit and at the end of each practice placement, comprises two sections. The first contains twelve transferable competencies which are drawn from the latest job, task and role analysis for clinical psychology arising from a research project commissioned by the Clearing House for Postgraduate Course in Clinical Psychology (Baron & O’Reilly, 2012). The second section of the form contains eighteen specific competencies which are drawn from the BPS Standards. The SAT is used to indicate whether or not the trainee has met the required learning outcomes for the practice placement and subsequently to recommend to the exam board whether the placement should be considered satisfactorily or unsatisfactorily completed. Trainees are also required to complete a log-book for each practice placement, which includes a self-assessment component where they are asked to rate themselves against a range of objectives that stem directly from the programme-level learning outcomes.

Assessment through research thesis

The doctoral thesis is a substantial piece of work (up to 56,000 words including tables, figures and appendices) trainees usually complete during their second and third year of training. As well as providing additional evidence of many of the HCPC’s Standards of Proficiency, and providing evidence that trainees have developed the skills described within the BPS’s ‘research’ core competency domain, the thesis must be completed to a to a standard which is consistent with Lancaster University’s guidance on doctoral level research. It comprises conducting and reporting on primary, investigative research which is relevant to the theory and practice of clinical psychology. In terms of quality, the thesis needs to demonstrate a substantial contribution to knowledge and should afford originality by the discovery of new findings and by the exercise of independent critical power.

Assessment through academic coursework submission

Academic coursework completed as part of the programme is evaluated by rating a series of competencies that are required to perform these skill sets proficiently. The broader competencies are derived from the Baron & O’Reilly job, task and role analysis (2012), whilst the more specific, practically focused ones (such as practical research skills and those featured in the DACS assignments) are designed to address both the job analysis skills and / or the BPS standards. The competencies are designed to be transferable across the multiple activities in which clinical psychologists are expected to engage. A brief definition of each of them follows:

Knowledge and skills – this is evidence that the trainee has a broad knowledge and clear understanding of the knowledge and evidence base being referred to in the assignment. This will include, for example, knowledge and understanding of theory and clinical technique in relation to a clinical situation, of research methodology and application, and of the evidence and literature base more generally in a relevant subject area.

Analysis and critical thinking – this relates to evidence of the ability to evaluate literature critically and to adapt and apply knowledge and skills to specific situations. It can include, for example, adapting theory for use with a particular client, critical evaluation of the work of others and analysis of data collected through research.

Reflection and integration – this relates to evidence of the trainee being able to adopt a reflective stance to facilitate learning, and the application of learning to practice.

Professional behaviour – this relates to evidence of the trainee conducting themselves in a manner consistent with the professional role of clinical psychologist. This will include an awareness and use of relevant guidelines and standards regarding ethics, boundaries etc., and interacting with other professionals in an appropriate manner.

Written communication – This refers to the adequate written expression of a range of ideas, concepts and arguments, in a coherent, flowing and appropriately structured way. The style adopted should be appropriate for the intended audience.

Resilience – this reflects evidence of the trainee’s ability to face challenges confidently and learn from setbacks.

Standard setting – this relates to evidence that the trainee sets high standards of personal behaviour for themselves and strives to achieve these.

Presentation skills – evidence of the ability to effectively communicate information in a live presentation environment is assessed under this competency. It includes verbal communication skills plus associated planning and performance skills in presenting.

Practical research skills – this relates to evidence of the trainee showing the technical skills required in locating and using relevant literature and other sources of knowledge and evidence.

Contextual Awareness – competency refers to an awareness of the contexts that clinical psychologists work in, and the professional role of a clinical psychologist within them.

Engagement & Rapport – evidence of good skills in using non-verbal and para-linguistic skills to adopt a compassionate, validating approach with others which encourages positive engagement

Verbal communication skills – using appropriate approach, language and questioning for the situation and person being interacted with, is able to converse in a way that develops understanding

Session management – ability to create and maintain appropriate focus, structure and boundaries around a meeting or other professional interaction.

Psychological knowledge – an ability to converse in a psychologically informed way, applying knowledge in an appropriate and collaborative manner.

Respecting and exploring difference – in professional interactions the ability to adopt a non-judgemental stance, actively but sensitively approach issues of difference, and recognise and question own assumptions within an interaction.

These competencies were originally designed to map onto specific areas of proficiency within the programme learning outcomes, and the broad relationships between the two are illustrated in the table below.

Key: –

  1. Generalisable meta-competencies
  2. Psychological assessment
  3. Psychological formulation
  4. Psychological intervention
  5. Evaluation
  6. Research
  7. Personal and professional skills and values
  8. Communication and teaching
  9. Organisational and systemic influence and leadership
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Knowledge and skills X X X X X X X
Reflection and Integration X X
Professional behaviour X X X
Analysis and critical thinking X X X X X X X X
Written Communication X X X X X X
Resilience X X
Standard setting X X
Engagement and rapport X X
Verbal communication skills X X X X X X
Session management X X X
Respecting and exploring difference X X X X
Psychological knowledge X X X X X
Practical research skills X

In terms of academic assignments, trainees must submit all of the following:

  • Systematic Literature Review (SLR): a 6,000 word systematic review of either quantitative or qualitative studies.
  • Professional issues assignment (PIA): a 2,500 essay on a topic relating to one or more professional practice issues
  • Direct assessment of clinical skills standardised roleplay (DACS-SRPS)
  • Direct assessment of clinical skills Placement Portfolio (DACS-PP) x 2
  • Service-related project (SRP): a 6,000 word report of research conducted in a service setting

The competencies used in the assessment of each assignment are detailed in the table below.

Key: –

  1. PIA
  2. SLR
  3. DACS-SRPS
  4. DACS-PP
  5. SRP
1 2 3 4 5
Knowledge and skills X X X X
Reflection and Integration X
Professional behaviour X X X X
Analysis and critical thinking X X X X
Written Communication X X X X
Resilience X X
Standard setting X X X X
Practical research skills X
Engagement and rapport X X
Verbal communication skills X X
Session management X X
Respecting and exploring difference X X
Psychological knowledge X X

Assignment suite overview

03/07/2019 /
2018 cohort and onwards

Formal Assessment

Broad skills assignments
Trainees may take THREE attempts at these assignments

Self-Assessment Exercise (SAE)

This assignment comprises four elements:

  1. Initial Self appraisal – written report (maximum of 500 words).
  2. Formative evaluative exercises. Trainees will engage in a series of formative exercises over approximately the first 55 days of training to enable them to self-assess their knowledge and skills effectively.
  3. Report on outcome of self-assessment process (maximum of 1,000 words).
  4. Self-assessment viva. This is a formal, structured meeting of up to 40 minutes duration between the trainee and two markers where the above documents are discussed. The outcome of the assignment is determined by performance in this meeting.

Thesis Preparation Assignment (TPA)

The assignment comprises two mains sections.

  1. A literature review (maximum 4,500 words) examining the published research, theoretical literature and clinical and policy guidelines on the topic which the trainee intends to research for their DClinPsy thesis.
  2. A Research Proposal (maximum 1,500 words).

These sections are submitted separately, and both must be submitted for the assignment to be passed. However, only the literature review section is formally assessed.

Placement Assignment – Service Evaluation (PASE)

This assignment is assessed via a report (maximum 3,000 words) of service evaluation activity that the trainee has conducted whilst on practice placement. Trainees from the 2020 cohorts and earlier must complete one of these assignments during core practice placement #2, #3 or #4 (the one for which a PALS assignment is not being submitted). Trainees from the 2021 cohort onward complete and submit the PASE assignments during their second practice placement.

Live skills assignments
Trainees may take TWO attempts at these assignments

Placement Assignment – Live Skills (PALS) (#1, #2, and #3)

These assignments each focus on a piece of clinical work that the trainee has conducted whilst on practice placement. Trainees must complete three PALS assignments during their practice placements. These assignments are independent of each other  and use the same marking criteria but are assessed at progressively higher standards. They must be passed in sequence (trainees must pass a PALS assignment at each level before submitting one at the next level)  Each assignment comprises the following:

  1. A 30 minute excerpt of a recording of the trainee’s clinical activity, and
  2. A report relating to the same piece of clinical work comprising
    1. An outline of the work undertaken,
    2. A transcription (not included in the word count) and commentary on two 5 minute sections of the recording, and
    3. A critical appraisal of the work undertaken.

The maximum word count for each of these three sections is 1,500 words. Overall word count is 4,500.

Service Improvement Poster Presentation (SIPP)

This assignment comprises four elements:

  1. Group work: trainees will work collaboratively in groups during their project block to develop a service improvement proposal. During the group work trainees will record and submit six, 30 minute videos of themselves engaged in service development tasks
  2. Project poster: trainees will produce a poster summary of their project
  3. Presentation and communication skills: trainees will deliver a presentation of their project, and respond to marker questions
  4. Service development summary: Each group of trainees will submit an easy-read’ summary (up to 500 words) of their project work.
  5. Reflective summary: Each trainee will submit a summary (up to 500 words) of their reflections on their contributions to the SIPP and their learning from the experience.

All trainees must undertake a formative ‘SIPP’ experience  prior to undertaking the summative assessment.  This allows trainees to familiarise themselves with the aims and methods used in the assignment and to obtain formative feedback on their interaction and influencing skills, which are the focus of the assessment.

Guide to assignment submission timings

2018-2020 cohorts

Full time pathway

Year Month Submissions
One December The self-assessment exercise ()
March Thesis Preparation Assignment ()
May PALS #1
From June Thesis proposal
Two November PASE or PALS #2
April PASE or PALS #2 or #3
Service Improvement Poster Presentation
Three October PASE or PALS #3
March Thesis submission

Part time pathway

Year Month Submissions
One
Two December The self-assessment exercise (first viva)
Aug PALS #1
March Thesis Preparation Assignment
May PASE or PALS #2
Three

 

 

 Jan PASE  or PALS #2 or #3
Apr Service Improvement Poster Presentation
Nov PASE  or PALS #3
Four
July Thesis submission

2021 cohort

Full time pathway

Year Month Submissions
One December The self-assessment exercise ()
March Thesis Preparation Assignment
May Thesis Proposal
June PALS #1
June Thesis proposal
Two September PALS #2
December Service Improvement Poster Presentation
August PASE
Three October PALS #3
March Thesis submission

Part time pathway

Year Month Submissions
One December The self-assessment exercise
Two Sep PALS #1
March Thesis Preparation Assignment
Jan PALS #2
May Thesis Proposal
Jun Service Improvement Poster Presentation
 

 

Three

 

 

 Mar PASE
June PALS #3
Four July Thesis submission

Complementary Tasks

While not formally examined in the way the assignments above are, there are other tasks which we would expect to be completed before the doctorate can be awarded. These are:

  • Take part in one formative Standardised Role Play Simulation near the beginning of training
  • Presentation to colleagues, programme staff and other stakeholders on third year placement activity
  • Give a presentation to colleagues relating to their third year leadership teaching

All these presentation dates are indicated in the annual plan/teaching schedules and trainees should be aware that if they are unable to attend the scheduled dates, alternative dates will be arranged.

Useful documents

Assessment submission points

Self-Assessment Exercise (SAE)
Thesis Preparation Assignment (TPA)
Placement Assignment – Live Skills (PALS)
Placement Assignment – Service Evaluation (PASE)
Service Improvement Poster Presentation (SIPP)
DClinPsy Assessment Domain List

2017 cohort and earlier

Formal Assessment

In terms of academic assignments, trainees must submit/complete all of the following:

For trainees in 2015, 2016 and 2017 cohorts:

  • Placement Portfolio (DACS-PP1&2) comprising of two sets of the following submitted across the first 4 placements of the programme:
    • 2 Assessment and Action Plan reports which are based on clinical activity – AAP 1 & 2 are 2000 words, AAP 3 & 4 are 2750 words (with an additional allowance of 300 words for a context paragraph which means the total word count cannot exceed 3050 words)
    • 1 Recording of Clinical Activity: 30 minute excerpt
    • 1 Clinical Recording Report (based on the submitted recording of clinical activity): Transcription (not included in the word count) and commentary on two 5 minute sections up to 2000 words, an introductory/context section of up to 500 words, and a reflective element up to 1500 words. In total (excluding the transcript commentary) the report is 4000 words
  • Roleplay (DACS-SRPS) comprising of an assessed roleplay performance, taking place toward the latter part of the first year of training.
  • Professional Issues Assignment: 2,500 word essay relating to one or more professional practice issues. It is submitted in the first few months of training.
  • Systematic Literature Review (SLR): a 6,000 word systematic review of either quantitative or qualitative studies, submitted in the summer of the first year (for the 2015 cohort) or winter of the second year (for the 2016 cohort onwards).
  • Service-Related Project (SRP): a 6,000 word report of research conducted in a service setting, submitted around half way through training.

For trainees in cohorts 2014 and earlier:

  • Placement Presentation and Report (PPR): two 7,000 word reports of a piece of clinical work/activity comprising of:
    • 2 Initial Reports – 1500 word report based on a communication from clinical placement (4 must be submitted, but only two are examined)
    • 2 Presentations – 15 minutes based on piece of work from placement
    • 2 Discussions with examiners based on presentation material
    • 2 Main Reports – 5500 words based on work from placement
  • Roleplay (DACS-SRPS): see above (for 2014 cohort only, earlier cohorts do not undertake this assignment)
  • Professional Issues Assignment: see above but with addition of PIA 2, an essay of the same word length submitted towards the latter part of the second year of training.
  • Systematic Literature Review: see above
  • Service-Related Project: a 12,000 word report of research conducted in a service setting

Complementary Tasks

While not formally examined in the way the assignments above are, there are other tasks which we would expect to be completed before the doctorate can be awarded. These are:

  • Take part in one formative Standardised Role Play Simulation near the beginning of training (2014 cohort onwards)
  • Presentation of initial SRP idea to a peer group
  • Presentation of completed SRP to colleagues, programme staff and other stakeholders
  • Presentation of completed first Professional Issues Assignment to colleagues and programme staff
  • Presentation of the thesis to colleagues, programme staff and other stakeholders
  • Presentation to colleagues, programme staff and other stakeholders on third year placement activity
  • PDR presentation to colleagues

All these presentation dates are indicated in the annual plan and trainees should be aware that if they are unable to attend the scheduled dates, alternative dates will be arranged.

Standard assignment submission schedules

Year 1
Professional Issues Assignment February
DACS-PP1 Assessment and Action Plan 1 (Child) May
DACS – Standardised Role Play Simulation July
DACS-PP1 Assessment and Action Plan 2 (Adult) September
Year 2
DACS-PP1 Clinical Recording 1 and Clinical Recording Report 1 October
Systematic Literature Review December
Service Related Project February
DACS-PP2 Assessment and Action Plan 3 (Older Adult/Neuro/Health) May
DACS-PP2 Assessment and Action Plan 4 (LD) September
Year 3
DACS-PP2 – Clinical Recording 2 and Clinical Recording Report 2 October
Thesis May

Assignment submission dates

Assessment general principles

03/07/2019 /

Assessment on the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology is guided by a number of different frameworks including the Health and Care Professions Council’s (HCPC’s) standards of education and training and standards of proficiency, the British Psychological Society’s (BPS’s) accreditation through partnership framework and Lancaster University’s own guidance for postgraduate students. Links to all relevant documentation are included at the end of this section.

The programme’s assessment strategy is developed and monitored by the Assessment Development and Implementation Group (ADIG). The aims of the ADIG are to monitor and review each academic assignment, and to develop the framework of academic assessment to best fit trainee competencies. Each assignment is reviewed annually by the Assessment Development and Implementation Group. Once results have been ratified by the Exam Board, the coordinator for each assignment submits a report for discussion by the ADIG on the process of the assignment, including feedback from external examiners and other stakeholders. Any proposed changes to assignments are initially discussed at the Assessment Development and Implementation Group, and then brought to the Operational Management Group for approval.

The programme’s assessment strategies are informed by the HCPC’s standards of proficiency for practitioner psychologists and the BPS’s learning outcomes and objectives. For trainees up to the 2017 intake, assignment evidence for specific competencies is collected and rated for each assignment. For the 2018 intake onwards, this system of competencies has been replaced with an updated system of assessment domains. Under both systems, evidence within specific areas is collected and rated for each assignment. This approach to assessment means that each competency or domains (e.g., critical analysis & synthesis) will be assessed repeatedly throughout training but the way trainees are required to demonstrate these will vary according to the specific assignment.

It should be noted that only by successfully completing the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology can trainees become eligible to apply to the HCPC to be registered as a clinical psychologist. Furthermore, only HCPC approved programmes can confer eligibility to apply for HCPC registration. The programme does not offer any other route except to the full award of the doctorate in clinical psychology: no aegrotat award is offered.

The HCPC Standards of Proficiency for practitioner psychologists
HCPC Standards of education and training
BPS Standards for the accreditation of Doctoral programmes in clinical psychology

 

Assessment Development and Implementation Group (ADIG)

03/07/2019 /

The Assessment Development and Implementation Group (ADIG) is responsible for reviewing and transforming assessment processes on the Lancaster DClinPsy programme to ensure that they are fit for purpose, and develop in line with changes in the delivery of healthcare both within the NHS and wider contexts.

The overall aims of the group are:

  • To review the current methods and processes of assessing trainee competency on the programme
  • To continuously improve and develop the framework of assessment of trainee competencies
  • To review and develop all of the assessment processes, responding to feedback from a range of stakeholder groups

Members of the programme team within the DIG are responsible for leading the implementation of the policies, strategies and procedures developed and reviewed by the group. The ADIG reports to the Operational Management Group. The membership of the group comprises members of the programme team with specific assessment responsibilities and members of the stakeholder groups (e.g. markers, practice placement supervisors, trainees and LUPIN members).

Assessment Development and Implementation Group Terms of Reference

Service related project (SRP) trainee guidance

03/07/2019 /
2016 and 2017 cohorts

N.B. The SRP is only undertaken by trainees in the 2017 cohort and earlier

It is a requirement for each trainee to submit one SRP for examination during their training. Although the planning for this SRP will start in your first year, it will not have to be submitted until part way through your second year (or later if you are on a bespoke training path). This project is designed to provide you with experience of the following which are also required elements of the assessment:

  • choosing (together with your field and research supervisors) an appropriate project
  • developing this project in terms of its methodology, in collaboration with relevant others
  • considering the ethical issues for the project and applying for ethical approval, from either an NHS ethics committee, or the Faculty ethics committee when necessary
  • following all appropriate R&D procedures where applicable
  • collecting your own data or extracting relevant data from datasets collected by others
  • analysing your own data (with appropriate advice)
  • writing up your project in not more than 6,000 words
  • considering appropriate dissemination routes

In choosing your SRP, you must make sure that it is an example of service-related research within a clinical context. While it does not necessarily have to be explicitly psychological in focus (e.g., it could include an analysis of referral patterns to a clinical psychology department), it has to address issues of relevance to the practice of clinical psychology, and ideally should be of interest to local practitioners. If it is not particularly service-based (e.g., research around clinical psychology training) it has to have relevance to the practice of clinical psychology. In terms of its scope, it should be methodologically sound, ethically responsible and appropriately analysed. Within the SRP there is an expectation of a strategy for the dissemination of your research findings. This will likely involve identifying a journal to publish your results or writing a report for the service that commissioned the research. The dissemination strategy should be realistic (do not aim for publication in a very high impact factor journal) and take account of the various audiences (e.g., professionals, service users/experts by experience, carers, patient organisations) who might be interested in the research.

Examples of suitable projects could be:

  • evaluation of a therapeutic intervention using appropriate quantitative or qualitative methodology
  • evaluation of the operation of a new aspect of a service (e.g., a new support group or a client assessment strategy)
  • staff’s experiences of a particular aspect of a service

Alternatively the SRP could be used to inform the development of the thesis research project by incorporating pilot work of a suitably advanced nature. The SRP does not have to be directly linked to any placements but, since it is service-related, it will need to be linked to a service of some kind (even one offered at a national level). Alternatively it may be linked to one of your placements (or to none of your placements). It could even be linked to training course developments as this impacts on the practice of clinical psychology more widely.

There are no specific requirements for the methods to be used in SRPs, although it is expected that SRPs will, for example, not just rely on descriptive statistics as the sole form of analysis. It must involve the consideration of all relevant ethical issues and could also involve an independent submission to an ethics committee (NHS- or university-based). It is also expected that, if using qualitative designs and collecting new data, you will transcribe the data yourself. The programme does not usually pay for transcription or allow others to transcribe your data for you.

SRP supervision

Trainees are encouraged to develop their networks with clinical psychologists practising in the region and, ideally, approach a potential SRP supervisor. In some cases, however, the clinical (or ‘field’) supervisor for the SRP may be a member of the programme staff and, in some cases, a placement supervisor may take up the role of SRP supervisor. In addition to this ‘field’ supervision, all trainees will be allocated a research supervisor (from the Programme’s Research Team). You will be given a number of suggested ideas from local clinicians and programme staff at the SRP introduction days (in September/October of the first year) and you are encouraged to contact local clinicians to discuss these further and find out whether they would be willing to act as your field supervisor. Your project also needs to gain the agreement in principle from one of the research team staff to supervise it.

Building a good supervisory relationship involves a process of negotiation, learning about each other’s strengths and areas of expertise, and ascertaining what each party can bring to the SRP process. Some trainees may already be strong in their chosen topic area or research method, and need little guidance on this. Some trainees may specifically seek a supervisor because of their expertise or their access to prospective research participants. There is no single, fixed set of things that supervisors will need to offer. Instead, deciding what is needed from supervision will involve a process of discussion between the trainee and the two supervisors.

The following list gives an idea of the kinds of things a field supervisor may be able to offer. Not all of these attributes will necessarily be needed; the needs will depend on the trainee and on the nature of the particular SRP. It is perfectly possible for someone to take up the role of field supervisor without being able to offer all of these.

  • support in choosing an appropriate topic
  • identifying how it fits with a particular service or clinical question
  • support in developing the necessary networks
  • support in identifying the relevant ethics committee and R&D personnel
  • support in developing the project, including thinking through issues of feasibility
  • support in making contact with prospective research participants
  • feedback on the written proposal
  • feedback on the ethics application
  • feedback on up to two drafts of the SRP report

When you arrive on the programme you will be allocated a temporary research tutor who will offer you advice and support on choosing an appropriate topic in the first few weeks. Once this has been decided upon you will be allocated a research supervisor, who is usually a member of the research team and who will also become your research tutor for the duration of your SRP. Once your project has been approved (see process below) you will then complete a contract with both your supervisors so that everyone is clear about their role. You can expect the following support from your research supervisor:

  • advice on the general suitability of the proposed research project
  • support in developing this project in terms of its methodology
  • advice on a power calculation, if applicable, although you will be expected to have attempted this previously
  • support in applying for ethical approval and following R&D procedures where necessary
  • advice on data analysis
  • detailed feedback on up to two drafts of the SRP report (provided submitted to agreed deadlines)

The kind of draft feedback that can be expected from supervisors will include: general advice on the content, format and clarity of the draft; comments aimed at the structural elements of the work. It is not the draft reader’s responsibility to: advise on the comprehensiveness of the material covered or the accuracy of your understanding of that material; correct work to make it conform to APA style. Please consult the consistency framework for further guidance on how your supervisors will contribute to the SRP.

The proposal process

To begin the process of working up your SRP you will need to discuss your ideas with your temporary research tutor. By the end of October (precise dates will be given in your SRP teaching) you will need to submit an SRP topic form. This outlines briefly the general area you intend to research (e.g., research in learning disabilities or physical health) and the methodology (quantitative or qualitative) that you intend to employ as well as the likely field supervisor. This form will be used to allocate you a research supervisor.

You will then work with your supervisors (field supervisor and research supervisor) to develop a formal SRP proposal using the SRP proposal form. This will be submitted towards the end of November (dates to be given in SRP teaching) and will be reviewed by members of the research team, including the Research Director. The aim of this process is to provide a rigorous examination of the relevance, design and feasibility of the proposal.

You and your supervisors will then receive feedback on this proposal which you need to record formally on the feedback form, along with how you intend to address any concerns. Once any concerns have been addressed satisfactorily and we have a final version of your feedback form, you will receive notification (by email) that your SRP title has been approved by the Exam Board.

The SRP co-ordinator will give guidance on appropriate procedures and a timeline to follow.

What makes a good SRP?

It is difficult to provide clear rules about what makes a good SRP; indeed, part of the purpose of doing one is for you to be able to judge for yourselves what is an acceptable project. However we think the following list will be useful for all service-related research: Projects that have gone well have…

  1. Started early to allow for things to go wrong
  2. Carefully investigated the feasibility of the project
  3. Gone through any of the relevant NHS R&D and ethical clearance procedures in good time
  4. Addressed a clear research question
  5. Used an appropriate research design and method to address the question
  6. Used an appropriate research design and method for the resources you have
  7. Addressed an issue of importance to a local service
  8. Had the active support of key personnel within the service
  9. Allowed plenty of time for data collection, analysis and writing up
  10. Conformed to the American Psychological Association (APA) formatting guidelines
  11. Been sensitive to the data actually collected in the written report
  12. Clearly written why the project was done, how it was done, what it found, and what the implications are

Projects that run into difficulties have…

  1. Started late
  2. Relied on others’ reports of feasibility, rather than trainees’ checking for themselves
  3. Not checked early enough on local R&D and/or ethical approval procedures
  4. Been unclear in their aims
  5. Been over-ambitious or unrealistic about what can be achieved
  6. Been conducted in the face of indifference or outright opposition from key personnel
  7. Have addressed an issue seen as irrelevant by the local service
  8. Been extremely rushed in terms of data collection, analysis and writing up
  9. Used inappropriate statistics/analysis
  10. Been sloppy in presentation
  11. Been written in a way that is vague, unfocused, careless, or effortful to understand
  12. Did not have a clear dissemination strategy (e.g. either in terms of publishing the results or formally feeding back the results to the service)

Available guidance and ethical procedures

For detailed guidance on the research process, please consult the handouts and materials suggested in the research teaching. You can also access information on how to write a research protocol in the online handbook.

Ethics procedures are changing all the time so consult your supervisor on the appropriate ethical approval route for your project. Websites that might be useful include the HRA website and IRAS website (suitable for NHS and other public agency approval) and the Faculty Ethics Committee website.

Expenses for research

Details about research resources including information about research expenses can be found in the online handbook.

You need to ascertain as early as possible whether your project is likely to incur any additional expenses above those covered in the research expenses documentation as this will need to be discussed with your research supervisor and field supervisor and approved by the Research Director. An example of such expense would be the use of interpreters or room bookings, and you need to discuss as early as possible with your tutor and supervisors whether your project may warrant the inclusion of participants who would need this service to take part in your research.

Timeline

Individual projects will vary. The following is intended only as a general guide:

Date Stage
Oct Define your SRP topic and identify a likely field supervisor
Nov Work on literature review, submit initial proposal
Dec / Jan Address any concerns from feedback and submit feedback form. Receive approval email from Exam Board
Jan / Feb / Mar Arrange three-way meeting with supervisors to discuss SRP research contract, find out about R&D and ethics processes, and develop research protocol and materials
Mar / Apr / May Finalise research materials and submit ethics application (when appropriate)
Apr / May / Jun / Jul Work through ethics and R&D processes where necessary
Aug / Sept / Oct Fieldwork and begin writing up introduction and method of report
Oct / Nov Analysis and writing
Dec / Jan Submit draft for supervisors’ feedback
Feb Submit SRP

Make sure that you follow through with the services that have supported the research, ensuring that they receive feedback in an appropriate form. As detailed above, this is now a formal requirement for the SRP and you will be asked to demonstrate an appropriate dissemination strategy within the write up. In most cases, it is expected that this will involve writing up the research for publication. However, there are cases where the work is not appropriate for publication, so alternative dissemination strategies needs to be demonstrated (e.g. PowerPoint presentation, report to the service, etc).

If for some reason you feel that data collection needs to continue beyond the hand-in date this needs to be discussed with your research supervisor.

The report and its appendices

The format and style of presentation of the SRP must reflect the purpose of the project and all reports should be in the publication format of the American Psychological Association (see the APA publication manual for details; a copy of the most recent, sixth edition is available in the trainee room). The SRP should normally include the following sections (unless a radically different format is required, in which case this should be agreed in advance with the course team).

  • Abstract (no more than 200 words; not included within the 6000 word limit)
  • Introduction to the research question, referring to any relevant literature and providing a clear statement of the specific question being addressed by the project. The introduction should provide justification for your research, demonstrating that it is timely, needed, and appropriate and that your chosen method of analysis is relevant to the research question
  • Methods What was your research design or strategy? Who or what was your research sample? Which research methods did you use and what procedure(s) did you carry out to collect the information? Briefly mention ethical issues and refer readers to the main ethics section (see below)
  • Results or Findings These should be presented in a clear and concise manner. Clarity of presentation is more important than wowing the markers with fancy inferential statistics
  • Discussion A brief discussion of the project’s findings. How do they relate to the research question? What were the limitations of the research project? What recommendations can you make for service provision and future research?
  • Reference list
  • Required appendices
  • Dissemination Strategy This is a short section that details your dissemination strategy. It may give the journal of choice for your submission and give evidence of your thoughts about the appropriate vehicle of dissemination. Alternatively, you may have agreed to produce an article for a service publication (e.g. newsletter) or produce a report for the service
  • Ethical reflection The report should also contain a separate section where the ethical issues which were pertinent to the project are considered
  • Ethics section Include your proposal to the ethics committee (if appropriate) and any ethical committee application forms, your information sheets and consent forms, the approval letter of the ethics committee (all appropriately redacted)
  • Other appendices as appropriate

The report of the SRP should be no more than 6000 words. This word count is for the introduction, methodology, results/findings, discussion and conclusions. This does not include the abstract, dissemination strategy, ethical reflections, the ethical section, any tables, the references and any other appendices. Within the ethics section it is expected that it contains any appropriate ethical material including, where relevant, the ethics application, information sheets, consent forms, and approval letter from the ethics committee. For qualitative projects, quotes from participants are included in the word count.

Thus the 6000 words for the main body of the report could be divided up like this:

  • Introduction: 1500 words
  • Method section: 1200 words
  • Results: 2000 words
  • Discussion and Conclusions: 1300 words

It is expected that the dissemination strategy will be approximately 500 words and that the abstract will be no more than 200 words.

The word numbers given above provide you with a rough guide only. Marks are not allocated per section of the SRP but, rather, the SRP will be marked as a whole document.

Qualitative projects will typically need more words in the results section than quantitative projects do. This will automatically affect the balance of word numbers between the results, the discussion and the introduction. It is important that you (in consultation with your supervisors) make this balance work well for your particular project. It is perfectly acceptable in qualitative projects to combine the Results and Discussion sections. You will not be penalised for this. It would then be usual for this joint Results and Discussion section to be followed by a much shorter Conclusion section.

A full set of the ethics materials – appropriately redacted to exclude identifiers – does need to be included (this may be scanned). The ethics materials should not impinge on your ability to do justice to the research write-up. For this reason, the ethics section is not included in the word count. However, it is expected that you are succinct in your ethics section. Examiners should be able to see the approval letters from your ethics/R&D applications.

It is important to use the write-up to demonstrate transparency in the research process and thoroughness in your critical reflections on the process, and to engage with relevant methodological literature.

Writing tips and draft reading

Please try to ensure that drafts are written to a timetable agreed with supervisors well in advance. This will help supervisors give feedback in a thorough and timely way.

The value of a carefully-written report cannot be overstated. Do pay close attention to editing and proof-reading and leave plenty of time for this part of the process. Apostrophes, spelling, grammar, paragraphing and the clear expression of ideas are all crucial to the overall impression. Be aware that draft readers will not have time to do proof-reading and editing: this is your job! You will also need your report to be written in APA style. Copies of the APA style guide are available in the trainee room.

Submission process

Details of the submission process will be sent to you nearer the time, although some general guidelines are available in the online handbook. This includes a list of the required documents for a complete submission.

Presentation guidelines

Following the submission of your SRP, you will be required to give a short presentation of your work to fellow trainees, supervisors and members of the wider faculty. This should be thought of as a public presentation and afterwards trainees are given the option to make their presentations available publicly through the course website. You should bear this in mind when choosing what to present and include on your slides.

Previous SRP presentations can be found on the programme website. Copies of the proposal form, the proposal feedback form and the topic form are available from the SRP coordinator.

HRA website
IRAS website
Faculty Ethics Committee
SRP trainee feedback form (2016 cohort onwards)
SRP instructions to markers (2016 cohort onwards)
SRP marker booklet (2016 cohort onwards)
Service-Related Project Contract and Action Plan (all cohorts)

2015 cohort

N.B. The SRP is only undertaken by trainees in the 2017 cohort and earlier

It is a requirement for each trainee to submit one SRP for examination during their training. Although the planning for this SRP will start in your first year, it will not have to be submitted until part way through your second year (or later if you are on a bespoke training path). This project is designed to provide you with experience of the following which are also required elements of the assessment:

  • choosing (together with your field and research supervisors) an appropriate project
  • developing this project in terms of its methodology, in collaboration with relevant others
  • considering the ethical issues for the project and applying for ethical approval, from either an NHS ethics committee, or the Faculty ethics committee when necessary
  • following all appropriate R&D procedures where applicable
  • collecting your own data or extracting relevant data from datasets collected by others
  • analysing your own data (with appropriate advice)
  • writing up your project in not more than 6,000 words
  • considering appropriate dissemination routes

In choosing your SRP, you must make sure that it is an example of service-related research within a clinical context. While it does not necessarily have to be explicitly psychological in focus (e.g., it could include an analysis of referral patterns to a clinical psychology department), it has to address issues of relevance to the practice of clinical psychology, and ideally should be of interest to local practitioners. If it is not particularly service-based (e.g., research around clinical psychology training) it has to have relevance to the practice of clinical psychology. In terms of its scope, it should be methodologically sound, ethically responsible and appropriately analysed. Within the SRP there is an expectation of a strategy for the dissemination of your research findings. This will likely involve identifying a journal to publish your results or writing a report for the service that commissioned the research. The dissemination strategy should be realistic (do not aim for publication in a very high impact factor journal) and take account of the various audiences (e.g., professionals, service users/experts by experience, carers, patient organisations) who might be interested in the research.

Examples of suitable projects could be:

  • evaluation of a therapeutic intervention using appropriate quantitative or qualitative methodology
  • evaluation of the operation of a new aspect of a service (e.g., a new support group or a client assessment strategy)
  • staff’s experiences of a particular aspect of a service

Alternatively the SRP could be used to inform the development of the thesis research project by incorporating pilot work of a suitably advanced nature. The SRP does not have to be directly linked to any placements but, since it is service-related, it will need to be linked to a service of some kind (even one offered at a national level). Alternatively it may be linked to one of your placements (or to none of your placements). It could even be linked to training course developments as this impacts on the practice of clinical psychology more widely.

There are no specific requirements for the methods to be used in SRPs, although it is expected that SRPs will, for example, not just rely on descriptive statistics as the sole form of analysis. It must involve the consideration of all relevant ethical issues and could also involve an independent submission to an ethics committee (NHS- or university-based). It is also expected that, if using qualitative designs and collecting new data, you will transcribe the data yourself. The programme does not usually pay for transcription or allow others to transcribe your data for you.

SRP supervision

Trainees are encouraged to develop their networks with clinical psychologists practising in the region and, ideally, approach a potential SRP supervisor. In some cases, however, the clinical (or ‘field’) supervisor for the SRP may be a member of the programme staff and, in some cases, a placement supervisor may take up the role of SRP supervisor. In addition to this ‘field’ supervision, all trainees will be allocated a research supervisor (from the Programme’s Research Team). You will be given a number of suggested ideas from local clinicians and programme staff at the SRP introduction days (in September/October of the first year) and you are encouraged to contact local clinicians to discuss these further and find out whether they would be willing to act as your field supervisor. Your project also needs to gain the agreement in principle from one of the research team staff to supervise it. It is likely that the project will be related to the research team member’s area of interest.

Building a good supervisory relationship involves a process of negotiation, learning about each other’s strengths and areas of expertise, and ascertaining what each party can bring to the SRP process. Some trainees may already be strong in their chosen topic area or research method, and need little guidance on this. Some trainees may specifically seek a supervisor because of their expertise or their access to prospective research participants. There is no single, fixed set of things that supervisors will need to offer. Instead, deciding what is needed from supervision will involve a process of discussion between the trainee and the two supervisors.

The following list gives an idea of the kinds of things a field supervisor may be able to offer. Not all of these attributes will necessarily be needed; the needs will depend on the trainee and on the nature of the particular SRP. It is perfectly possible for someone to take up the role of field supervisor without being able to offer all of these.

  • support in choosing an appropriate topic
  • identifying how it fits with a particular service or clinical question (relevant for the commissioning service)
  • support in developing the necessary networks
  • support in identifying the relevant ethics committee and R&D personnel
  • support in developing the project, including thinking through issues of feasibility
  • support in making contact with prospective research participants
  • feedback on the written proposal
  • feedback on the ethics application
  • feedback on up to two drafts of the SRP report

If you choose a project from the list we provide, then one or more research team members will probably already be indicated as potential supervisors and they are the first people to approach for initial discussions. If you wish to pursue an alternative project you are encouraged to speak to the SRP coordinator in the first instance to see if someone in the research team will be able to supervise it. In October you will then be allocated a member of the research team as a supervisor. Once your project has been approved (see process below) you will then complete a contract with both your supervisors so that everyone is clear about their role. You can expect the following support from your research supervisor:

  • advice on the general suitability of the proposed research project
  • support in developing this project in terms of its methodology
  • advice on a power calculation, if applicable, although you will be expected to have attempted this previously
  • support in applying for ethical approval and following R&D procedures where necessary
  • advice on data analysis
  • detailed feedback on up to two drafts of the SRP report (provided submitted to agreed deadlines)

The kind of draft feedback that can be expected from supervisors will include: general advice on the content, format and clarity of the draft; comments aimed at the structural elements of the work. It is not the draft reader’s responsibility to: advise on the comprehensiveness of the material covered or the accuracy of your understanding of that material; correct work to make it conform to APA style. Please consult the consistency framework for further guidance on how your supervisors will contribute to the SRP.

The proposal process

To begin the process of working up your SRP you will need to discuss your ideas with the appropriate research team member. By the middle of October (precise dates will be given in your SRP teaching) you will need to submit an SRP topic form. This outlines briefly the general area you intend to research (e.g., research in learning disabilities or physical health) and the methodology (quantitative or qualitative) that you intend to employ as well as the likely field supervisor. This form will be used to allocate you a research supervisor.

You will then work with your supervisors (field supervisor and research supervisor) to develop a formal SRP proposal using the SRP proposal form. This will be submitted towards the end of November (dates to be given in SRP teaching) and will be reviewed by members of the research team, including the Research Director. The aim of this process is to provide a rigorous examination of the relevance, design and feasibility of the proposal.

You and your supervisors will then receive feedback on this proposal which you need to record formally on the feedback form, along with how you intend to address any concerns. Once any concerns have been addressed satisfactorily and we have a final version of your feedback form, you will receive notification (by email) that your SRP title has been approved by the Exam Board.

The SRP co-ordinator will give guidance on appropriate procedures and a timeline to follow.

What makes a good SRP?

It is difficult to provide clear rules about what makes a good SRP; indeed, part of the purpose of doing them is for you to be able to judge for yourselves what is an acceptable project. However we think the following list will be useful for all service-related research:
Projects that have gone well have…

  1. Started early to allow for things to go wrong
  2. Carefully investigated the feasibility of the project
  3. Gone through any of the relevant NHS R&D and ethical clearance procedures in good time
  4. Addressed a clear research question
  5. Used an appropriate research design and method to address the question
  6. Used an appropriate research design and method for the resources you have
  7. Addressed an issue of importance to a local service
  8. Had the active support of key personnel within the service
  9. Allowed plenty of time for data collection, analysis and writing up
  10. Conformed to the American Psychological Association formatting guidelines
  11. Been sensitive to the data actually collected in the written report
  12. Clearly written why the project was done, how it was done, what it found, and what the implications are

Projects that run into difficulties have…

  1. Started late
  2. Relied on others’ reports of feasibility, rather than trainees’ checking for themselves
  3. Not checked early enough on local R&D and/or ethical approval procedures
  4. Been unclear in their aims
  5. Been over-ambitious or unrealistic about what can be achieved
  6. Been conducted in the face of indifference or outright opposition from key personnel
  7. Have addressed an issue seen as irrelevant by the local service
  8. Been extremely rushed in terms of data collection, analysis and writing up
  9. Used inappropriate statistics/analysis
  10. Been sloppy in presentation
  11. Been written in a way that is vague, unfocused, careless, or effortful to understand
  12. Did not have a clear dissemination strategy (e.g. either in terms of publishing the results or formally feeding back the results to the service)

Available guidance and ethical procedures

For detailed guidance on the research process, please consult the handouts and materials suggested in the research teaching. You can also access information on how to write a research protocol in the online handbook.

Please talk to your supervisor about the appropriate route for your project to receive ethical review

Expenses for research

Details about research resources including information about research expenses can be found in the online handbook.

You need to ascertain as early as possible whether your project is likely to incur any additional expenses above those covered in the research expenses documentation as this will need to be discussed with your research supervisor and field supervisor and approved by the Research Director. An example of such expense would be the use of interpreters or room bookings, and you need to discuss as early as possible with your tutor and supervisors whether your project may warrant the inclusion of participants who would need this service to take part in your research.

Timeline

Individual projects will vary. The following is intended only as a general guide:

Date Stage
Oct Define your SRP topic and identify a likely field supervisor
Nov Work on literature review, submit initial proposal
Dec / Jan Address any concerns from feedback and submit feedback form. Receive approval email from Exam Board
Jan / Feb / Mar Arrange three-way meeting with supervisors to discuss SRP research contract, find out about R&D and ethics processes, and develop research protocol and materials
Mar / Apr / May Finalise research materials and submit ethics application (when appropriate)
Apr / May / Jun / Jul Work through ethics and R&D processes where necessary
Aug / Sept / Oct Fieldwork and begin writing up introduction and method of report
Oct / Nov Analysis and writing
Dec / Jan Submit draft for supervisors’ feedback
Feb Submit SRP

Make sure that you follow through with the services that have supported the research, ensuring that they receive feedback in an appropriate form. As detailed above, this is now a formal requirement for the SRP and you will be asked to demonstrate an appropriate dissemination strategy within the write up. In most cases, it is expected that this will involve writing up the research for publication. However, there are cases where the work is not appropriate for publication, so alternative dissemination strategies needs to be demonstrated (e.g. PowerPoint presentation, report to the service, etc).

If for some reason you feel that data collection needs to continue beyond the hand-in date this needs to be discussed with your research supervisor.

The report and its appendices

The format and style of presentation of the SRP must reflect the purpose of the project and all reports should be in the publication format of the American Psychological Association (see the APA publication manual for details; a copy of the most recent, sixth edition is available in the trainee room). The SRP should normally include the following sections (unless a radically different format is required, in which case this should be agreed in advance with the course team).

  • Abstract (no more than 200 words; not included within the 6000 word limit)
  • Introduction to the research question, referring to any relevant literature and providing a clear statement of the specific question being addressed by the project. The introduction should provide justification for your research, demonstrating that it is timely, needed, and appropriate and that your chosen method of analysis is relevant to the research question
  • Methods What was your research design or strategy? Who or what was your research sample? Which research methods did you use and what procedure(s) did you carry out to collect the information? Briefly mention ethical issues and refer readers to the main ethics section (see below)
  • Results or Findings These should be presented in a clear and concise manner. Clarity of presentation is more important than wowing the markers with fancy inferential statistics
  • Discussion A brief discussion of the project’s findings. How do they relate to the research question? What were the limitations of the research project? What recommendations can you make for service provision and future research?
  • Reference list
  • Required appendices
  • Dissemination Strategy This is a short section that details your dissemination strategy. It may give the journal of choice for your submission and give evidence of your thoughts about the appropriate vehicle of dissemination. Alternatively, you may have agreed to produce an article for a service publication (e.g. newsletter) or produce a report for the service
  • Ethical reflection The report should also contain a separate section where the ethical issues which were pertinent to the project are considere
  • Ethics section Include your proposal to the ethics committee (if appropriate) and any ethical committee application forms, your information sheets and consent forms, the approval letter of the ethics committee (all appropriately redacted)
  • Other appendices as appropriate

The report of the SRP should be no more than 6000 words. This word count is for the introduction, methodology, results/findings, discussion and conclusions. This does not include the abstract, dissemination strategy, ethical reflections, the ethical section, any tables, the references and any other appendices. Within the ethics section it is expected that it contains any appropriate ethical material including, where relevant, the ethics application, information sheets, consent forms, and approval letter from the ethics committee. For qualitative projects, quotes from participants are included in the word count.

Thus the 6000 words for the main body of the report could be divided up like this:

  • Introduction: 1500 words
  • Method section: 1200 words
  • Results: 2000 words
  • Discussion and Conclusions: 1300 words

It is expected that the dissemination strategy with be approximately 500 words and that the abstract will be no more than 200 words.

The word numbers given above provide you with a rough guide only. Marks are not allocated per section of the SRP but, rather, the SRP will be marked as a whole document (see the SRP trainee feedback marksheet for details).

Qualitative projects will typically need more words in the results section than quantitative projects do. This will automatically affect the balance of word numbers between the results, the discussion and the introduction. It is important that you (in consultation with your supervisors) make this balance work well for your particular project. It is perfectly acceptable in qualitative projects to combine the Results and Discussion sections. You will not be penalised for this. It would then be usual for this joint Results and Discussion section to be followed by a much shorter Conclusion section.

A full set of the ethics materials – appropriately redacted to exclude identifiers – does need to be included (this may be scanned). The ethics materials should not impinge on your ability to do justice to the research write-up. For this reason, the ethics section is not included in the word count. However, it is expected that you are succinct in your ethics section. Examiners should be able to see the approval letters from your ethics/R&D applications.

It is important to use the write-up to demonstrate transparency in the research process and thoroughness in your critical reflections on the process, and to engage with relevant methodological literature.

Writing tips and draft reading

Please try to ensure that drafts are written to a timetable agreed with supervisors well in advance. This will help supervisors give feedback in a thorough and timely way.

The value of a carefully-written report cannot be overstated. Do pay close attention to editing and proof-reading and leave plenty of time for this part of the process. Apostrophes, spelling, grammar, paragraphing and the clear expression of ideas are all crucial to the overall impression. Be aware that draft readers will not have time to do proof-reading and editing: this is your job! You will also need your report to be written in APA style. Copies of the APA style guide are available in the trainee room.

Submission process

Details of the submission process will be sent to you nearer the time, although some general guidelines are available in the online handbook. This includes a list of the required documents for a complete submission.

Presentation guidelines

Following the submission of your SRP, you will be required to give a short presentation of your work to fellow trainees, supervisors and members of the wider faculty. This should be thought of as a public presentation and afterwards trainees are given the option to make their presentations available publicly through the course website. You should bear this in mind when choosing what to present and include on your slides.

Copies of the SRP proposal form, the proposal feedback form and the topic form are available from the SRP coordinator.

SRP trainee feedback form (2015 cohort)
SRP examiner booklet (2015 cohort)

Self-Assessment Exercise (SAE)

03/07/2019 /

Introduction

The Self-Assessment Exercise (SAE) is designed to help trainees identify what their strengths are and what their areas for development are from the beginning of their training. It enables trainees to become active and engaged participants in their own learning and development and provides an opportunity to engage in different exercises to understand themselves and their needs better.

The assignment comprises a brief written reflective report and a ‘clinical viva’ with the markers (usually the trainee’s individual clinical and research tutor). The report is based on a series of essential and desirable activities with the viva being based on the report. It is a ‘broad skills’ assignment.

Actively assessed domains

The SAE will actively assess the following domains: –

  1. Collating information and knowledge
  2. Critical analysis & synthesis
  3. Strategy for application (deciding)
  4. Responsive to impact & learning from experiences
  5. Communicating information effectively

Preparing for the assignment

Trainees undertake a number of essential and desirable formative activities prior to submitting the written component of the assignment. This begins with a broad self-appraisal exercise (see form below) and then includes a range of other self-assessment exercises covering a range of knowledge and skills (e.g. statistical ability, writing skills, basic clinical engagement skills, and engaging with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) student code of conduct). Trainees are expected to identify strengths and areas of development needs or challenge together with strategies to address identified areas of development or challenge and write about these in the 1,500 word report which is submitted to markers in advance of the clinical viva meeting (more details can be found in the ‘how to’ guide).Trainees are offered the chance to meet with their individual tutors on two occasions to discuss and reflect on their progress on these activities prior to submitting their written report.

Preparation for the ‘clinical viva’ will involve the trainees being familiar with what they have written in the report and be able to answer any questions about how they reached the conclusions they have in the report about their strengths/needs and strategies to address.

Structure of the Assignment

The written component of the SAE is completed using the SAE form (link below) and comprises a 500 word initial self-appraisal section and a 1,000 word consideration of the outcome of the self-assessment process. Trainees also append the outcome of all formative activities undertaken (with the exception of the Quick Scan assessment) to the submission. Trainees who have additional considerations (e.g. adjustments the programme needs to be aware of) that they wish to discuss as part of the SAE can be permitted to submit a form with a higher word count (see trainee ‘how to’ guide for details).

The clinical viva focuses on discussing with the trainee their identified strengths and development needs and the path by which they identified these as being most important.

Process of Assessment

The submitted SAE form is read by the tutor pair prior to the viva. During the viva the tutors ask questions based on the contents of this form.

Trainee performance in the viva is assessed by the markers who will jointly determine domain ratings together. The trainee feedback form, including the outcome, will be sent to the trainee following the viva.

If a Pass is awarded the trainee is not required to do anything further with the SAE. If no fails, but at least one ‘pass with conditions’ rating is awarded for a domain, the overall mark will be pass with conditions. Under these circumstances the trainee will be required to make some amendments to their SAE form (which will be detailed to them in the trainee feedback form) and resubmit these. If approved, the mark will then be converted to a full pass. A fail will require the trainee to have a second attempt viva and they may be required to make changes/amendments to the SAE form in advance of the viva.

Assessment guidance and forms

SAE – guide to materials
SAE – how to guide
SAE – trainee feedback
SAE – trainee form

Exercises and tools

SAE – initial self appraisal exercise
SAE – Moodle resources

Placement Presentation and Report (PPR) guidance for markers

03/07/2019 /

Introduction

The Placement Presentation and Report (PPR) is an assessment linked to placement activity. It consists of:

  • a 1500-word initial report which is handed in at the end of each core placement
  • a presentation by the trainee and subsequent discussion with the trainee and markers (to be held after placements 2 and 4)
  • a 5,500-word main report (handed in following the presentation and discussion). The initial 1,500 word report will be combined with this main report bringing the maximum acceptable word count to 7,000 words. Should the initial report be less than 1,500 words, the word count for the main report should still be a maximum of 5,500 words. Word count is not transferable between the two reports

The initial report

The initial report should be between 1,000 and 1,500 words. The word count should be presented on the document and any reports not within this word count will be returned to the trainee. This report should reflect some aspect of a formal clinical/service related communication which was conducted in relation to the piece of clinical/service related work the trainee decides to present. This could include a final letter to a client, report of the outcome of a group or an evaluation of an intervention/training targeted at staff. It should include a brief statement concerning: how the work came about, context of the service and consideration of consent. The main content of the initial report could contain background information; assessment methods; formulation/synthesis of psychological understanding; intervention and outcome. A figure or diagram may be attached but should not have a substantial written component. The introductory paragraph and references (where appropriate) are to be written in APA style. The remainder of the initial report does not have to conform to APA style.

The initial report will be submitted at the end of each of the four placements. For those initial reports submitted after the first and third placements, the office will hold the report and it will not be considered for assessment until the presentation element of the assessment takes place. Where a placement is subsequently failed, the trainee will not be able submit a PPR from that placement and, consequently, the initial report will be returned to the trainee. The trainee will not be allowed to retrieve an initial report, once submitted, even though it might not be examined for up to six months (or longer if a trainee intercalates), unless in exceptional circumstances and this will be authorised by the Chair of the Exam Board. The initial report will not be accepted by the office unless a declaration form completed by the clinical supervisor is also submitted for that work, indicating that it is an accurate representation of the trainee’s work and that appropriate consent has been obtained from those involved to us the material for the assignment. Should the trainee not pass the placement (but not fail it, for example, if the trainee has been seriously ill and therefore not been able to complete the placement), a decision will be made by the Chair of the Exam Board, in consultation with another Director and the trainee’s review tutors, on whether an initial report can be submitted. Where it is felt that a trainee is not able to submit an initial report from such a placement, two may be submitted from one placement. Where this is not possible, a decision will be made by the Chair of the Exam board in consultation with others as to how to proceed.

The presentation and discussion

The two markers for the PPR will be taken from the DClinPsy list of approved markers who have undertaken specific training on the requirements of the PPR and its assessment procedures. The marker pair will be made up of at least one clinical psychologist working in the speciality in which the trainee is presenting and at least one marker who has examined the PPR before (this may include a member of the programme team). Markers will have a minimum of one year post qualification experience and none of the markers will be known to the trainee in any of the following capacities: placement supervisor, individual clinical/research tutor, personal tutor or having any other close personal or professional relationship with the trainee. A system has been created to allow both the marker and trainee to indicate any such relationships.

A member of the programme team will chair the presentation process. The Chair’s role is to keep the PPR to time and, where necessary, provide guidance or an alternative viewpoint on any areas of disagreement between markers.

The marker pair will receive the relevant initial report, the one from the work which the trainee will present to read prior to the trainee presentation. It is expected that the markers will discuss (without the trainee present) the contents of the report prior to the presentation. The markers will not usually have had sight of this report prior to this time. The other initial report will not be formally assessed but kept by the office in case it is needed in case of failure by the trainee of the first PPR.

The trainees will be told on the day of the presentation, around 30 minutes before they are due to present, which presentation they will be asked to deliver. More guidance on what the presentation should cover is contained within the document Placement Presentation and Report (PPR) information for trainees. They will present for 15 minutes, and this will be kept to time by the chair of the presentation process. They will then have around 10 minutes of discussion with the trainee in which the trainee is encouraged to discuss and reflect on their work. After a brief time in which the markers reflect together (without the trainee) on the presentation and the evidence collected, the trainee is invited back in to receive verbal feedback. A copy of the feedback is sent out to trainees following the presentation process with a copy stored electronically by the programme office. Feedback given by markers includes strengths and areas for development. Trainees are required to reflect on the feedback points in the main report section of the PPR. All scoring schedules are detailed in the scoring booklets.

If the presentation is considered unacceptable (i.e. trainee discloses something which raises serious professional or ethical issues), the process needs to be halted. Markers are asked to progress through the process to their private discussion time and during this time to make contact with the PPR Co-ordinator/Chair of the Exam Board. Consultation will take place between the PPR Co-ordinator/Chair of the Exam Board and the markers as to why it has been necessary to halt the process and seek advice. The Chair of the Exam Board will consult with colleagues (including the Clinical Director if the concern raised is a serious professional concern). If the concern is deemed sufficient to require action by the employer, the PPR assessment process will be suspended whilst advice is sought from the employing body as to how to proceed. Other outcome options following consultation with the Chair of the Exam Board are the resumption of the original presentation process, the presentation of the PPR material from the alternative placement and/or referral to the Exam Board about how to proceed. If it is decided that the trainee needs to present their alternative PPR material, this will be scheduled in as soon as is practically possible with a different marker pair.

If the trainee presents extremely poorly (so would score Unacceptable on the Presentation Skills competency), this will be communicated to the trainee after the private discussion between the markers (with advice from the Chair of the Exam Board if required). In this situation, the trainee will have one more attempt to give the presentation at that specific day of presentations where scheduling will allow. If s/he fails at this second attempt, then a fail has to be recorded for the whole PPR and the trainee must re-take the assessment (i.e. have an alternative initial report available and present the relevant presentation). The date for re-assessment will be confirmed by letter from the Exam Board. The re-assessment will be scheduled with a different marker pair. As the presentation skills competency is the only one which is not also assessed during the marking of the initial and main PPR reports, it is appropriate to inform the trainee at this point that they have failed.

It is important to note that trainees who cannot attend the presentations due to illness must provide the programme with a medical certificate. Failure to provide such a certificate will result in the presentation being awarded a fail mark. This will then indicate that the PPR is failed.

Main report

The main report should be no longer than 5,500 words. The main report and the initial report combined should be no longer than 7,000 words. This excludes any reasonable; appendices. Any work exceeding this will be sent back to the trainee immediately for editing. The report should reflect the piece of work already presented and will include the initial report (the word count for this is included in the maximum 7,000 word count), and a larger (main) report which can be structured to reflect the piece of work conducted. However, included within this larger report must be some reflections of the discussion at the presentation session. As with most written assignments on the course, the Main Report should be written to conform to APA style. The only exception to this is within the Main Report is that tables and diagrams can be included within the text as opposed to at the end of the report.

Assessment issues

All aspects of the PPR relating to one candidate will be marked by the same set of markers. The initial reports and main reports, as written pieces of work, will be available for external marker scrutiny in the normal way. All the presentations will also be video recorded and will therefore also be available for scrutiny. The programme’s external markers will be sent an example of a low, average and high submission (consisting of the initial report, video of the presentation, feedback and main report). The recordings of all instances where the trainee has failed the presentation skills aspects or, in the exceptional case, where trainees’ presentations have been stopped for professional reasons will be sent for external marker review. The two internal markers are required to reach an agreed grade for every competency assessed so externals should not have to adjudicate where markers disagree. If internal markers cannot reach agreement, a third marker will be introduced.

Where an identifier or identifiers are found in the work the markers are asked to note them and inform the chair of exam board/PPR co-ordinator. markers are asked to consider whether the identifier significantly compromises the confidentiality of the individual or service and take account of it in the evidence collecting process either under the Professional Behaviour or Standard Setting Competency. Where the identifier is found in the written elements of the assignment, the trainee will be asked to resubmit that part of the assignment.

The detailed marking schedule is available to markers during marker training & during the examination process. A blank copy of the feedback sheet given to trainees, which shows the competencies and score calculation system, is available here. In summary, the evidence collected from presentation and report are marked against a competency rating system. The competencies assessed are: knowledge and skills; reflection and integration; professional behaviour; analysis and critical thinking; effective verbal communication (only in presentation); resilience; standard setting; and effective written communication (in initial and main reports). A single grade (unacceptable, weak, appropriate for stage of training, advanced for stage of training, or exceptional) is given for each of the relevant competencies for the evidence collected from the presentation and main report as a whole, with a composite final grade across each competency being agreed by both markers. This grading then translates into a score. The pass mark is 50. A piece of work that is ‘satisfactory’ throughout (but no better) will receive a score in the mid 50s; pieces of work that are satisfactory in parts but have at least two areas of weakness will fail, and pieces of work that are good throughout will score in the low 70s. Specific guidance is given in the PPR documentation sent to markers on the final scores of work where one (or more) competencies are judged as unacceptable. However, it is important to note that one grade of ‘unacceptable’ would be sufficient to see the work overall failed. Where a piece of work fails, the trainee will be given guidance after the fail has been discussed at the Exam Board as to whether they can represent and resubmit the same piece of work or whether an alternative piece of work should be submitted. Assignment of the ‘unacceptable’ grade on any competency will mean the whole assignment needs to be resubmitted.

Placement Presentation and Report (PPR) information for trainees

03/07/2019 /

The PPR is for the 2014 cohort and earlier only. The structure of the PPR is as follows

Initial Report submitted at end of each core placement (min 1000 – max 1500 wds excluding references & appendices)
Presentation and Discussion to be held after placements 2 & 4
Main Report Submitted following the Presentation / Discussion (maximum 5500 words excluding references & appendices)

The initial report and main report together are no longer than 7000 words. Word count cannot be transferred between the different reports if one is longer or shorter. The word count limits quoted above are upper limits for each report with the exception of the Initial Report which has a lower word limit also. Submissions falling outside of the word limits will be returned to trainees for editing and may be subject to the deadlines policy.

The assessment process

The PPR is assessed by two examiners. They collect evidence from all the different parts of the PPR process for each competency. With the exception of presentation skills, all the competencies will be rated at the end of the process (presentation skills will be rated by examiners at the time of the presentation, but the grade will not be given out at the presentation). The examiners are asked to give you a grade for each competency based on the evidence they have collected across the whole PPR process (with the exception outlined above). They will also give you some written feedback for each competency (sent out with your letter from the exam board following ratification of PPR marks). This is intended to be helpful and to be part of your overall learning and development. The grades are converted to a final mark which corresponds to the University marking procedure (i.e. distinction, good pass, pass, fail, poor fail).The grades examiners are asked to award for the competencies can be found below:

UNACCEPTABLE (U) The piece of work shows an extremely poor ability in this competence that requires urgent attention. NB: If this grade is given to any competency it automatically leads to the PPR being failed
WEAK (W) The evidence collected suggests that this competency is below the expected standard at this stage in training.
APPROPRIATE for stage of training (P) The evidence collected suggests that the competency is of an acceptable/appropriate standard for the stage in training, but does not excel in any way.
ADVANCED for stage of training (V) There is evidence that good skills in the competency exist, which are above what is expected for a piece of work submitted at this stage of training.
EXCEPTIONAL (E) Strong evidence has been collected that the trainee has developed this competence to a degree well beyond what would be expected at this stage of training. Use this grade only for outstanding or highly exceptional work.

The competencies being rated in the PPR are based on research exploring the competencies required for training (Phillips, Hatton & Gray, 2001). They are not the BPS competencies. Appendix I outlines how the PPR competencies map onto the BPS competencies and also gives a definition for each competency.

Choosing material for your PPR

It is important to choose a piece of work which demonstrates your development as a practitioner and allows you to provide evidence of the competencies being assessed. The piece of work chosen can take many different forms, but could include a clinical case, an aspect of a case, indirect work, consultation work, group work or any other piece of clinical/placement based work you have undertaken. The piece of work you choose should demonstrate your ability to reflect on the work undertaken; present a rationale for the work which links theory and practice; consider professional, clinical and ethical issues. It should also be a vehicle for you to provide evidence of your competencies for your examiners.

Examiners will be looking for evidence of presentation skills, ability to manage volume of information, reflections, effective communication skills, understanding of professional/ethical issues, ability to apply knowledge and skills and resilience.

A good or complete outcome from a piece of clinical work is not necessarily required as part of the PPR process. Often key learning points can arise from pieces of work where there have been challenges which might not have reached resolution prior to the end of your placement. How you demonstrate your learning and competency development is what the examiners are interested in.

In summary, key factors to consider when choosing material for your PPR are:

  • whether the piece of work will allow you to provide evidence of all the competencies
  • whether you can clearly demonstrate your learning and development
  • it is OK to consider drawing on one or two key aspects of a more complex piece of work, but let your examiners know this is what you are doing and why
  • you have been able to gain consent to use the piece of work for your PPR

Clinical tutors will discuss with you at your mid-placement meeting the work you are considering using for the PPR. You will also have an opportunity within each teaching block to discuss the piece of work you are intending to use for the PPR with a clinical tutor and your peers. Feedback will be given as to the suitability of the material you are intending to use.

If you are unsure about the suitability of the material you have chosen, please contact your clinical tutor as soon as possible to discuss it further.

Please ensure that any client/service related material you use as part of the PPR process is made anonymous in the write up to protect client confidentiality.

Consent

Please ensure that you have gained appropriate consent to use any confidential information and as a minimum you have undertaken the following:

  • Shared the information from the PPR client information sheet with the intended individual(s) you would like to seek consent from
  • Adapted the method of giving the information to match the ability level of the person/people seeking consent from to ensure that any consent given is fully informed
  • Approached a suitable alternative person if the individual does not have capacity to consent i.e. a main carer (family member or keyworker) or an advocate who could act in their best interest
  • Your supervisor is fully aware of the steps you are taking to gain consent and your progress in achieving this
  • You have recorded the whole process undertaken in the individual’s clinical notes or in process notes if undertaking consultation or service related developments

Some services/supervisors have developed forms to be completed for client notes. Please complete them in line with the processes outlined above.

If a significant proportion of your write up is likely to cover and report on work with staff and it is possible they could recognise themselves in your write up (e.g. series of supervision/consultations) you will need to seek the consent of the individual staff members. As above please discuss with your supervisor and document carefully the steps you have taken in the most appropriate place (e.g. process notes/supervision records).

If you wish to present a piece of work based on a series of consultations and or supervision sessions with another professional which requires you to outline information gained about a client through this process, it is important that client consent is gained even though you have had no direct contact with them. It is important that you ask the professional concerned to approach the client on your behalf. Below are some suggestions about wording/considerations to support the professional to do this:

  • That as part of their work and to ensure the quality of their work they have discussed the clients’ case with a psychologist to gain a psychological perspective.
  • The psychologist is in training and wants to use the content of the discussions between me (the professional) and the psychologist as part of a piece of work they have to submit as part of their training.
  • The focus will be on how the trainee is developing their skills in terms of how they have been helping/supporting me, but they will also need to give some background details about the discussions I have had with them about the work we have done together.
  • The psychologist has asked me to ask you if this is OK. They will make sure that any details they give are anonymous.
  • They have given me an information sheet to give/go through with you so you are able to make an informed decision about whether this is OK or not.
  • The client can choose to say no – which will not affect their treatment in any way.

An information sheet is available for clients to help them make an informed choice about whether or not to consent to their material being used as part of the PPR process. This information sheet is appended to this document at the bottom of the page.

Please remember to give an indication that consent has been obtained and any steps taken to facilitate the process in the introduction to your Initial Report. It would be appropriate to append any adapted materials to the Initial Report to demonstrate part of the process you undertook to gain consent.

Initial report

Maximum word limit 1500 words (excluding references and appendices). Please note that the word limit is an upper word limit for this part of the PPR. Pieces of work with fewer words are acceptable (but no lower than 1000 words). Unused word count cannot be transferred to the main report.

The initial report is submitted at the end of each placement. You will need to ask your supervisor to complete a supervisor declaration form and return it to us via email (downloadable from the bottom of the page).

The initial report is designed to be as close to a written communication you have undertaken in the programme of your work as possible e.g. a final letter to a family/individual client, report of the outcome of a group, report of a period of staff consultation to the commissioner of the work etc. It can include additional material such as illustrations/pictures if this is appropriate to the communication and is suitably anonymised is required.

The initial report is submitted at the end of each placement and stored by the office. It cannot be altered between first hand-in and submission of full report. However, reflections on the initial report (e.g. omissions, ideas subsequent to doing the initial report or reflections on the style/structure for example indicated by service you are in) that may have come out of the presentation and discussion can be added to the main report. This is intended to be helpful to help you develop a sense of your own report writing style.

Examiners will read and use your initial report to orientate themselves to your work prior to your presentation. Evidence from the initial report will be collected at the same time as your main report. The key area of competence examiners will be assessing when they read your initial report is your ability to adapt your writing style to the intended audience (Written communication competency). They will also collect evidence of other competencies if present in your initial report.

The initial report can take various formats to reflect the piece of work you are reporting on. It must always be introduced by a short appropriately anonymised statement (written in APA style) to orientate the examiner to:

  1. The service you are working in
  2. How the work came about
  3. The audience the content of your initial report is aimed at i.e. a letter to family/referrer/report of a group etc
  4. What the content of the initial report is i.e. report, initial assessment letter, therapeutic letter at stage x, report of consultation, report of service development initiative
  5. How consent was obtained to write up the piece of work (with any anonymous information appended if appropriate e.g. consent form, letter/e-mail from relevant individual). Please see section on consent

The remainder of the initial report should be written in the style you used on placement.

Please add in additional context where appropriate within the main body of the initial report to facilitate the examiners understanding. It is important that enough context is given to allow the initial report to make sense on its own i.e. a person with no prior knowledge of the piece of work is able to understand what kind of service the material is from, who the document is aimed at and what the issues were and how they were addressed. However, please be aware that the initial report is designed to capture a certain point in your work and is not meant to cover the entirety of the work undertaken. The additional context added is to facilitate understanding of the time point you are capturing.

Below are some examples of introductions to initial reports:

I was based in child & family psychology service in an urban area. A referral from paediatrician X was received requesting advice and input for the family around anxieties attending school. Below is an extended letter written to the family following my input with them. Consent was gained through discussion with parents and as the client was considered too young to give fully informed consent.

My placement was in a behavioural intervention team in a learning disability service. A referral was made by a local voluntary provider team leader Y for input around behavioural management issues with client Z. Following consultation with my supervisor and the team leader it was agreed that the main focus of my intervention would be with the staff team. Below is an account of the work carried out with the staff team written for the staff team to access. I consulted the staff team at a training event for their consent to use this piece of work for my PPR. I distributed the information sheet to them all as part of the process. The team consented to my using the material for the PPR. The client was unable to give their consent due to a lack of capacity, I consulted with their family advocate to seek consent to use the client’s material in my PPR. The family advocate consented to my using their family member’s material for my PPR.

I was based in a tier three Community Adolescent and Children’s Mental Health (CAHMS) service. A review of referrals by the CAMHS team indicated the need for running a group for adolescents with autistic spectrum disorder, aimed at improving social functioning. This was conducted by the trainee, together with a qualified clinical psychologist and an advisory teacher. Below is a short account of the content of the group sessions and client outcomes, along with some of the process issues highlighted within the group. Consent from the group and my co-facilitators was sought through discussion and distribution of the PPR information sheet. All consented to my use of the material from the group.

The Older Adult psychology service my placement was in provides regular consultation sessions to the staff working on [name] inpatient ward to discuss any clients they have concerns about. One of my tasks on placement was to lead these consultations sessions. The following report provides a summary description for the service manager on how I have conducted the consultations over the course of the placement, in what ways they have been helpful, and how they should proceed in the future, together with some relevant examples. Consent to use the information gained through the consultation sessions was gained through discussion with individuals attending the sessions and their seeking consent from their clients.

My placement was in an Adult Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) in a regional town. I was asked to run an anger management group for six clients during my placement. The following document was the summary of the group work which was sent back to the referrer of one of the clients once the group had finished. Consent to use the group material for my PPR was discussed with the group in the initial group session and revisited at the final session where I gained consent from the group.

Presentation & Discussion

The presentation is 15 minutes. For this reason it would be good to plan and develop a clear structure for your presentation. It may be that you choose to present one aspect of your work which demonstrates all of the above e.g. an issue/dilemma your work presented you with, or an overview of the piece of work. Areas to consider when developing your presentation include:

  • Orientating your examiners to the piece of work e.g. very brief intro/background/service context (please bear in mind examiners will have access to your initial report just prior to your presentation.)
  • Outlining what you intend to address and/or outline your rationale for focusing on particular aspects of the work (important if you are choosing to focus on a part of case rather than all)
  • Key points from the work e. how you approached the piece of work/assessment material / formulation/synopsis of work/ outcomes
  • Key learning points for you & your personal reflections on your own development
  • Professional/ethical issues
  • Critical reflections of the work
  • Theory-Practice links

PowerPoint or other presentation aids are encouraged. Photographs or video material of clients are not encouraged even if identifying features are masked. Facilities for PowerPoint presentations will be available at the PPR presentation day. Please ensure you have your presentations on a memory stick and have also e-mailed them to yourself via your Lancaster University e-mail account for the presentation day. If you require any alternative presentation aids (e.g. OHP projector, flipchart, bluetac, pens etc) please inform the office two weeks before the presentation day. If you ask the office after this they cannot guarantee they will be able to provide the aid requested. Therapeutic material/props (e.g. puppets/pictures) can be used if they support and enhance presentation. Please do not use/bring if they are just for the examiners to look at following the presentation.

Please be clear in your presentation when you are using words which are your clients words and when you are using your own words to prevent confusion. Please ensure that you anonymise all client material to preserve confidentiality. Please make it clear you have done this in your presentation and that you are using pseudonyms.

Where you have chosen not to include a formulation, please be prepared to discuss why you haven’t included one (e.g. not applicable to approach used i.e. SFBT).

The presentation is 15 minutes. You will be given a one minute warning and asked to stop at 15 minutes. It is advisable to practice your presentations so that they do not over-run.

Following the presentation there will be 10 minutes of discussion with you about your piece of work led by the examiners.

You will then be asked to leave the room while the examiners discuss your work and agree feedback points (approximately 10 minutes). Following this you will be invited back into the room to receive brief feedback and be given your feedback points to address in your main report. The feedback points given will be based on your presentation. They consist of three strengths and three areas the examiners would like you to address in the context of your main report. Please ask for clarification at the time the points are given if you are unsure of anything concerning them.

Examples of possible feedback points:

  • Please expand on the issue you raised concerning boundaries. Please discuss in relation to the impact on the work (both professional and personal), your reflections and policy/best practice guidance.
  • We would like more evidence of your ability to adapt your work to best meet the needs/ability level of the client. Please also consider and discuss the implications of this issue in relation to working with his population.
  • Please describe, discuss and comment on how the experience you described in your presentation in relation to the therapeutic alliance has impacted on your development as a clinician. What have you learnt from it?
  • Please clarify your understanding of and application of XX theory to your piece of work. Please critique the approach you took and reflect on at least one other approach which you could have applied.

The feedback points will be copy typed and be made available to you as soon as possible (we aim to send them out by e-mail on the same day as the presentations).

The presentation will be video-recorded. The recordings are made available to examiners to help them decide what grades to award. Trainees will have access to the presentation, discussion with examiners and feedback recording as soon as possible following the presentation day. You will be asked to sign a disclaimer stating that you will not use the recording for anything other than your own learning (e.g. not post on YouTube).

Be aware that presentation skills is one of the competencies being examined and that the examiners are collecting evidence about your presentation skills.

Main report

The main report can be up to 5500 words long (excluding references and appendices). Please note the word limit quoted is an upper word limit, shorter reports are acceptable. The carrying over of word count not used in the initial report is not allowed. The main report style and format should conform to current APA guidance. Please write the main report in the first person.

The structure for the main report is deliberately fluid to allow:

  • for variation in pieces of work
  • for inclusion of material pertaining to the examiner feedback
  • for one aspect of work within a complex case to be reported on (rather than all)
  • your examiners insight into your ability to structure a piece of work (written communication competency)

The main report forms a significant part of the PPR process. It is important to ensure that you have provided evidence of your development/ability in relation to the competencies in the main report. In order to operationalise this, below is an outline of the key areas to cover in your main report divided into two main areas.

When the main report is sent out to your examiners, they are also sent the initial report and asked to read it again before they read the main report. You might want to consider this and the information your examiners have had access to in your presentation when writing your introductory paragraph to the main report.

The balance of how many words you allow per area/point will depend on the piece of work you are reporting on and the feedback points from the Presentation and Discussion. It is expected that areas highlighted in the feedback points will potentially carry more words, but will not form the sole foci of the main report. Depending on the feedback points you may wish to weave the points into the main narrative or address them in separate sections.

Examples of how trainees have previously structured their main reports are below:

  • A traditional case report format i.e. background information, hypotheses, assessment, formulation, intervention and outcome.
  • A ‘step by step’ approach documenting the journey through the piece of work and influences on decision making and their learning at different points
  • A structure explicitly guided by the competencies (although be careful that this doesn’t lead to a disjointed report)
  • Or a mixture!

Outlined below are areas you may wish to include/consider in order to provide evidence of the competencies in your report (please note this is not meant to be an exhaustive list):

  • Key learning points
  • Reflections on the processes of the work undertaken and how this is helping you to prepare to be a fully qualified clinician e.g. nature of the client group, the supervisory process, the nature of the work etc.
  • Any ethical/professional/clinical/diversity issues in the work & what you have learnt from them.
  • Critical analysis/evaluation of the literature & where/how this work sits within the literature/policy context (local, regional & national). To include a formulation/ synthesis of psychological understanding (with diagram where appropriate).
  • Critical evaluation of outcome including critical reflections on the approach taken to measure change and critique of the relevant literature

Preparation for the PPR

Be mindful of all pieces of work you undertake on placement as they could be potential material for the PPR. Keep a reflective diary of the work you undertake – this will help you with the PPR process, particularly when you are trying to remember key decision making or shift points.

Gather information, literature and policies as you go along – again this will help stagger your prep for the PPR and help prevent being an additional stressor at the time of the PPR presentations.

Please be prepared to have materials available which support the PPR process before you leave your placements. This is in case you may need to append extra information to your main report (e.g. outcome of neuro assessment). Please be aware that you need permission from the author of any letters/reports/documents to use as part of the examination process. Please ensure that your client has given their consent for confidential material to be used. Please anonoymise all information to be stored and be mindful of how and where you store this information (i.e. if stored electronically that access is password protected. Hard copies of information are held in a secure place e.g. in a locked filing cabinet).

PPR organisational processes

Prior to the PPR presentation day you will be sent a list of examiners together with a form asking you to declare if any of the examiners are known to you in any capacity. We will not be asking you to declare in what capacity they are known to you to preserve confidentiality (e.g. personal tutor). We do not need to know about anyone who you know very casually or have met only once or twice. We only need to know about individuals where the examination process would be compromised by their prior knowledge of you. The examiners will also be sent a trainee list and asked to declare if any trainees are known to them. Again we will not be asking for details about in what capacity trainees are known to them. This is to prevent us inadvertently allocating a trainee to an examiner where they are known to each other. It is important for this information to be returned as quickly as possible to allow the slot allocation to take place.

Slots for the PPR day will be randomly assigned by the office taking into account the information received about individuals who are known to each other.

Trainees will be notified of their allocated time slot at least two weeks in advance of the day. Please note this is the time slot only not which stream (e.g. child/adult).

Please try to arrive 30 minutes before your allocated slot on the day. Information detailing which stream you have been allocated to is available 30minutes before your slot. (i.e. child or adult, OA/Health/Neuro or LD).

Programme staff will act as chair people for the PPR process. Clinical tutors also act as reserve examiners. In the event that a clinical tutor will need to be an examiner, they will not examine trainees they are responsible for either in a clinical tutor position or research tutor position.

Draft reading

Draft reading is not offered for the initial reports by the programme team. As this piece of work is expected to be very similar to work undertaken on placement, please approach your supervisors to draft read the initial report.

Draft reading will be offered by the programme team for the main report submitted for PPR1. Draft reading for the PPR2 will not be offered unless there are identified additional support needs.

Absenteeism for PPR day

If you are absent on the day of the presentation because of illness you will be asked to provide a medical note from your GP to this effect in accordance with University guidelines for absenteeism for examinations Please report your ill health in the usual manner. If you are aware in advance that you will not be able to attend the presentation day due to extenuating circumstances, please advise the Chair of the Exam Board as soon as possible. Similarly if you are delayed on the day of the presentation for whatever reason, please inform the office as soon as possible. Individual circumstances will be considered by the Chair of the Exam Board and PPR co-ordinator in relation to rescheduling the presentation process.

Identifiers in the PPR

Trainees are required to make anonymous all identifying information relating to the client/service in their PPR. If identifiers are found in submitted work, the trainee will be asked to resubmit the piece of work with the identifier removed. If the identifier is found in the Initial Report, the trainee will be asked to resubmit the initial report with their main report. If the identifier is found in the main report, the trainee will be asked to resubmit the main report as soon as possible.

An identifier is classed as anything which could ultimately compromise the identity of the individual(s)/service reported on in the piece of work. This could include the inadvertent use of individual’s real name, name/location of service based in/visited, address (part or whole) of individual/service, name of supervisor, name of NHS trust.

Examiners are asked to bring the existence of identifiers to the attention of the PPR Coordinator/chair of the Exam Board as they need to be noted together with action taken under the Exam Board business, Examiners are asked to consider the significance of the identifier and record it either under Standard Setting (minor use of identifier) or Professional Behaviour (significant use of identifier).

Failure of the PPR

If an Unacceptable (U) grade is given for any competency rating, then the PPR is automatically failed. If a U grade is awarded for any competency other than the Presentation Competency, the exam board will make a recommendation based on feedback from examiners about how to proceed with resubmission.

If a trainee presents extremely poorly on the presentation day (e.g. because of anxiety) to the extent that the examiners would consider awarding a U rating for the Presentation Competency, the trainee will be informed of this immediately and will be offered an opportunity to present again (where possible on the same day). If following this second attempt the examiners still feel a U rating is justified, then a fail for the PPR is recorded and the PPR assessment would need to be retaken at a different time. This matter would then be referred to the Exam Board for a decision on how to proceed.

If examiners are concerned about the content of the presentation given (i.e. trainee describes something which could be deemed as professional misconduct), they are asked to seek advice from the PPR Co-ordinator/Chair of the Exam Board at the time of the presentation. Outcome options following consultation with the Chair of the Exam Board are the resumption of the original presentation process, the presentation of the PPR material from the alternative placement and/or referral to the Exam Board about how to proceed. If it is decided that the trainee needs to present their alternative PPR material, this will be scheduled in as soon as is practically possible with a different examiner pair. Or, if the concern is deemed sufficient to require action by the employer, the PPR assessment process will be suspended whilst advice is sought from the Clinical Director/employing body as to how to proceed.

Study time

The PPR for all trainees will take place in a two week study block. Trainees are strongly encouraged to not take leave during allocated PPR study time.

PPR results

Trainees will receive a letter informing them of the outcome of their PPR from the exam board following the board meeting in the January following the PPR process. Trainees will also receive examiner feedback on the individual competencies.

References

Phillips, A., Hatton, C., Gray, I., Baldwin, S., Burrell-Hodgson, G., Cox, M., Hoy, J., McCormick, R., Rockliffe, C. and Wilson, J. (2000). Core competencies in clinical psychology: A view from trainees. Clinical Psychology ,1, 27-32.

Phillips, A., Hatton, C. & Gray, I. (2001). Which selection methods do clinical psychology courses use? Clinical Psychology, 8, 19-24.

Phillips, A., Hatton, C. & Gray, I. (2004). Factors predicting the short-listing and selection of trainee clinical psychologists. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 11, 111-125.

Outline of PPR competencies

PPR Competencies BPS Competencies maps onto
Presentation skills
considers verbal and non verbal communication plus associated planning and performance skills in presenting		 communication & teaching
Written communication
considers style in relation to appropriateness for intended audience, coherence, structure and flow.		 communication & teaching
Knowledge and skills
focuses on the demonstration of knowledge i.e. that the trainee has the appropriate information and understanding. In turn they are able to apply the knowledge in the form of clinical skill and techniques		 assessment / formulation / intervention / evaluation / communication & teaching / service delivery
Analysis and critical thinking
considers creativity in transferring theory and adapting its application to practice across context(s) together with a focus on problem solving and the ability to synthesise information from multiple sources		 assessment / formulation / intervention / evaluation / service delivery / personal & professional development
Reflection and integration
focuses on evidence of a reflective stance taken in relation to the work and the process of integrating learning from the reflective process.		 personal & professional development / transferable skills
Professional behaviour
focuses on evidence of professional behaviour during the examination process (including the presentation) and in the work described.		 personal & professional development
Resilience
considers the ability to face challenges confidently and persist appropriately despite setbacks and or complexity.		 personal & professional development / transferable skills
Standard setting
focuses on the setting of appropriately high standards in the quality of one’s work and behaviour.		 personal & professional development / transferable skills

Other documents

The PPR information for clients sheet attached below gives clients background on the PPR and the way in which information is used. Also attached is the PPR supervisor declaration form which should be signed by supervisors to confirm that the work presented for a Placement Presentation and Report is an accurate and true reflection of the clinical work undertaken whilst on placement.

PPR information for clients
PPR supervisor declaration form

Criteria for placement failure

03/07/2019 /

Introduction

The criteria for failure reflect the requirements of the profession, as set out in the following standards produced by the regulatory body (Health and Care Professions Council – HCPC) and the professional body (British Psychological Society- BPS):

  • Health and Care Professions Council Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics See document link below
  • Health and Care Professions Council .
  • Health and Care Professions Council (2015) Standards of Proficiency for Practitioner Psychologists. See document link below
  • British Psychological Society (BPS) (2018) Code of Ethics and Conduct See document link below
  • British Psychological Society (BPS) (2017). BPS practise guidelines  . See document link below
  • British Psychological Society (BPS) (2019). BPS Committee on Training in Clinical Psychology (CTCP) Accreditation Standards  See document below.

If a trainee does not fulfil these requirements on a practice placement by the end of that placement, to a standard acceptable to the placement supervisor and the programme staff, this will result in a recommendation to the exam board that a failure of that practice placement is recorded. This recommendation is made by means of the evaluation form “Supervisor’s Evaluation of Trainee” (SAT). The supervisor will recommend to the Examination Board whether, overall, the placement (i.e. the trainee’s achievement of expected learning outcomes) falls into the category of ‘unsatisfactory’ rather than ‘satisfactory’. These judgements and the subsequent recommendation are informed by the above standards, the training of the programme staff, the training of the supervisors, and by the goals and intended learning outcomes as articulated in the placement contract agreed between trainee and supervisor (and approved by the visiting clinical tutor) at the start of the placement. These requirements are operationally defined as criteria for placement failure and are set out explicitly in this document below.

It is worth noting that, prior to the evaluation of the trainee’s placement performance, there are opportunities to monitor trainee progress, both via weekly supervision sessions and also reviews with clinical tutor;. Where there are placement difficulties, the course has specific guidance on procedures to be followed and these  can found on the Placement difficulties handbook webpage.

In the case where the supervisor recommends that, overall, the placement ratings are ‘unsatisfactory’, the External Examiner will be asked to comment and will be sent samples of the trainee’s work and the Placement Audit and Log book (PALOG), prior to the Examination Board.

The Examination Board will consider the SAT form, the PALOG and its relation to the Placement Contract, the views of the External Examiner and any other relevant material, before making its recommendation to the University. The Criteria for Placement Failure (below) will form a focus for the Examination Board discussion and recommendation

Criteria for Placement Failure

1. Clinical experience

Within the contract there will be goals relating to:

  • Range and number of clients
  • Client problems and settings
  • Individual and/or group work
  • Types of clinical involvement e.g. assessment, intervention, consultancy, direct/indirect work, models to be used

It may be that goals need to be slightly revised, particularly at a placement review with a visiting member of course staff, to encompass unforeseen developments. For example, if certain types of referrals are not available, alternative work may be found; if work with client(s) proves to be much more detailed than originally envisaged, then simply adding to client numbers may be inappropriate. That is a matter for discussion during the placement  review.

However, if by the end of the placement, the trainee has been unable to fulfil the clinical goals to the satisfaction of the supervisor, then following consultation, the supervisor may decide to recommend an ‘unsatisfactory’ rating on this aspect of the work.

2. Clinical Competence

The contract will contain goals that relate to all areas of clinical competence, within the limits of what areas of competence are reasonable to expect to develop on a specific placement (e.g. it will not be possible to develop skills in working with children on all placements). However, the goals of all four placements over the three year programme, will, in total, provide each trainee with a complete set of opportunities to achieve all of Health Professions Council (2015) Standards of Proficiency for Practitioner Psychologists, and to acquire all of the competencies to satisfy the British Psychological Society (2019) Committee on Training in Clinical Psychology: Criteria for the accreditation of postgraduate training programmes in clinical psychology.

This is why the achievement of the goals/ expected learning outcomes articulated in the placement contract are so important to judgements about whether the trainee’s performance on placement should be deemed satisfactory or not – they relate directly to the achievement of the requirements of the profession as listed in the introduction to this document.

Some of the requirements are in areas that are not specific to a practice placement area. For example, skills in teaching, research, consultation and organisational work can be acquired on most placements. These areas will focus on, for example, opportunities for team work, meetings to be attended, services to be visited and liaison with other professionals. The acquisition of these proficiencies, in particular, are cumulative of the three years of training, and it is with this in mind that achievements on any one placement will be assessed. However, all areas of proficiency will be assessed through the lens of a developmental framework. As such, the rating “requires attention” on the SAT form (which is available to assessing supervisors for all the specific areas of competence, although not on the overall rating) will refer to those areas of competence where it is recommended that subsequent placements and their respective contracts should focus. As a result, the “requires attention” option is not available to final placement supervisors, as the trainee should satisfy all proficiency and competence standards by the end of their final placement.

It is not possible to be prescriptive about number of goals not achieved (or ‘seriousness’ of a single goal not met) to warrant an ‘unsatisfactory’ rating. Instead, once it is identified that a trainee is at risk of failing on a placement, there is a process that is followed to make the specific concerns of the supervisor (after discussions with programme staff as well as the trainee concerned) clear and explicit, which will in turn also involve the creation of clear, explicit and achievable goals during the remainder of the placement. Only if a trainee fails to achieve these goals will an unsatisfactory rating be awarded. It allows the assessment of trainees in this respect to be sensitive to the cumulative process of professional training and the complexities of professional standards.

3. Ethical and Professional Behaviour

In all aspects of clinical work the trainee must comply with the HCPC Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics, and the BPS Code of Ethics and Conduct, Ethical Principles and Guidelines. Within these documents, and within the Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP) Professional Practice Guidelines there are descriptions of how practitioners are expected to behave. The HCPC also provides guidance on conduct and ethics to students (as listed above). Unprofessional or unethical behaviour on the part of trainees may lead to disciplinary action. Such behaviour might also lead to consideration within the programme’s Fitness To Practise processes but is also grounds to consider placement failure. All three (or any combination) of these avenues may be appropriate to pursue at the same time, should the breach of ethical or professional boundaries merit it. Such professional matters are so crucial to training they are considered within the programme as part of the Induction to the programme.

Appropriate professional behaviour on placement is a wide issue and something that should be ‘shaped’ and discussed within supervision. The areas that the supervisor will be regularly monitoring and discussing will include:

  • Reliability (time keeping; diary management; placement administration)
  • Organisation of workload and managing priorities
  • Degree of independence appropriate to the stage of learning
  • Ethical issues such as consent, confidentiality, record keeping, keeping within the legal framework.
  • Risk/safeguarding identification and management

Again, whilst it is not possible to be specific about any one problem behaviour that would lead to an ‘unsatisfactory’ rating, over all the items listed the supervisor will be expecting appropriate professional and ethical standards of behaviour. Should the trainee not demonstrate behaviour to the satisfaction of the supervisor, e.g. (i) where the trainee is frequently late or absent for meetings or (ii) does not take confidentiality into account within clinical practice, then this should, in the first instance, be the subject of discussion in supervision. If the trainee does not respond to feedback, does not change their approach to behave in a sufficiently professional way, and does not meet very specific goals (that may be set down after consultation with staff and supervisor at mid-placement visit) then the supervisor may give an ‘unsatisfactory’ rating on this section of the SAT. As highlighted above, disciplinary and/or fitness to practise concerns may arise simultaneously and be pursued separately from any determination about pass or failure of a placement.

4. Overall failure of a placement with a final summary rating of ‘unsatisfactory’ on the SAT

There may be a number of sections or only one section of the SAT that the supervisor considers ‘unsatisfactory’. There are no prescribed number of ‘unsatisfactory’ categories that will lead automatically to the SAT form recommending a failed placement to the Examination Board.

The implications of the failure to meet a single goal may be as important as the number of goals not met. For example, (i) if with client work the trainee, despite extensive supervision, cannot formulate the problems of any of the clients then this may lead to overall failure of the placement by the Examination Board (ii) if there is a single example of gross professional misconduct this will usually lead to failure of the placement (and most likely the programme). The trainee’s clinical tutor will be available to support the supervisor and trainee in the event of placement difficulties and to discuss, with the supervisor, particular aspects of the SAT form and to give guidance as appropriate in consultation with the Clinical Director as necessary.

Practitioner psychologists | (hcpc-uk.org)

Standards of conduct, performance and ethics | (hcpc-uk.org)

Code of Ethics and Conduct – The British Psychological Society (bps.org.uk)

BPS Practice Guidelines (2017) – The British Psychological Society

BPS Committee on Training in Clinical Psychology Accreditation standards

Marking for assignments in relation to a specific learning difficulty (SpLD)

02/07/2019 /

In line with university guidelines, DClinPsy trainees with a diagnosis of a SpLD have their diagnosis highlighted to academic markers by the use of the university’s standard coversheets.

This requests that markers are aware of the relevant guidelines and will be sent as applicable to those marking assignments.

In addition to the university coversheet, an explanatory programme-specific addendum (see below) will be sent to markers to clarify the requirements.

Lancaster DClinPsy Guidance to Markers in relation to trainees with a Specific Learning Difficulty (SpLD)

In line with university guidelines, trainees with a diagnosis of dyslexia, dyspraxia, and dysgraphia have the opportunity to highlight their diagnosis to academic markers by the use of the university’s standard coversheet, hereby requesting that markers are aware of relevant guidelines. As effective written communication is a specific competence required by clinical psychologists, and in line with BPS guidelines on assessing work of trainees with SpLD, the programme would like to highlight that markers are requested to provide constructive feedback where issues relevant to the disability are apparent in the work, but NOT to make allowances in the marks given for written communication due to this. Reasonable adjustments, such as study skills support and proof reading, are accessible to trainees prior to submission.

Identification of work

All work which is sent to examiners or assessors will be identified by means of a coversheet advising the examiner/assessor that the candidate has been diagnosed with a SpLD and referring to these guidelines.

General guidelines for marking work by candidates with dyslexia

An individual with dyslexia has difficulty both with the expression of his/her ideas in written form and with the correct use of language. It is commonly recommended, therefore, that wherever possible assessors award marks that reflect the candidate’s understanding of the subject rather than the level of linguistic skills. However, it is not intended that academic rigour be sacrificed, and where the marking criteria award marks for presentation or language special consideration should not be given.

However, some errors might still mean a fail is appropriate. For example, psychologists are often engaged in report writing which requires sources to be correctly referenced. As this is a skill necessary to fulfil the psychologists’ role, an adjustment would not normally be made.

For example, a candidate for the Qualification in Forensic Psychology might include in their evidence a report written for a parole board. This is a key requirement of the forensic psychologist’s role and they must be able to do this in order to be a competent forensic psychologist. Adjustments might be made to assist the candidate in preparing such a report to the required standard. However, it is possible that a candidate may lack the necessary skills to communicate in writing to the parole board and, in such circumstances, it would be appropriate for the assessors to fail the work.

University Assessment marking guidelines for students with a SpLD

Academic Standards

You may have concerns about compromising academic standards when making allowances for dyslexia. You should be reassured that the need to maintain academic standards is a fundamental premise within the law. There must be no difference in the requirement for students with dyslexia to provide evidence of learning than for their peers and reasonable adjustments cannot involve failure to penalise lack of knowledge or understanding. Also, where aspects of performance such as accurate spelling and grammar are part of the competence standards for a module, reasonable adjustments do not have to be made.

Providing feedback to trainees

Be sensitive toward individuals and their work in your feedback. Constructive criticism that is sympathetic to the students’ difficulties can help individuals to progress.

ILSP Assessment Coversheet Marking Guidelines (accessible to staff only)

Structure of Assignment and Thesis Activity

02/07/2019 /
2018 cohort onwards - full time route

Trainees are engaged in assessed academic activities across the three years of training in parallel to the teaching and placement activities. Whilst the exact timings will differ for each trainee, a typical timetable of this activity for a trainee on a full-time pathway is detailed in the table below.

Typical timetable of trainee assignment and thesis activity over the programme

Self-Assessment Exercise
(SAE)		 Placement Assignment Live Skills (PALS#1) Further Live Skills Assignments (PALS#2, PALS#3, PASE) Service Improvement Poster Presentation (SIPP) Thesis Preparation Assignment (TPA) & Thesis
YEAR 1
Sep – Oct		 Initial self-appraisal  written

 

Formative roleplay & other  self-assessment activities

 Start first placement Thesis supervisor allocated
Nov – Dec Submit SAE form

 

SAE clinical viva

 Start videoing  placement work for PALS TPA proposal form submitted
Jan – Mar Finalise choice of work for PALS. Collate information and video. TPA introduction draft read

 

TPA literature review section submitted
Apr – June Submit PALS#1 Second placement begins.

 

Decide on PALS#2 or PASE.

 

If PASE obtain approval at placement and submit PASE proposal form

 

IF PALS begin videoing work

 Finalise thesis topic

 

Identify Field supervisor

 

TPA thesis proposal section submitted
Jul – Sep Continue work on PALS#2 or PASE Thesis proposal reviewed

 

Thesis contract / action plan meeting

Identify ethics committee(s) to apply to. Get relevant forms and deadlines for submission.
YEAR 2
Oct – Dec		 Submit PALS#2 or PASE

 

Third placement begins.

 

Decide on  PALS#3 PALS#2,or PASE (if not already  completed)

 

If PASE obtain approval at placement and submit PASE proposal form

 

IF PALS begin videoing work

 SIPP assessed project work week and presentation Hand in complete draft ethics proposal.
Finalise ethics proposal and submit for ethical approval.Decide on topic for Systematic Literature Review chapter and begin collecting references
Jan – Mar Continue work on PALS or PASE

 

Submit PALS or PASE.

 Obtain ethical approval for thesis study.

 

Draft introduction and method of Systematic literature review chapter
Apr-Jun Fourth placement begins.

 

If PASE obtain approval at placement and submit PASE proposal form

 

IF PALS#3 begin videoing work

 Draft introduction and method to Empirical paper

 

Data collection

 

Begin analysis
Jul – Sep Continue work on PALS or PASE

 

Submit PALS or PASE.

 Complete data collection

 

Review literature for Systematic review

 

Identify topic for critical appraisal chapter
YEAR 3
Oct– Dec		  Draft results and discussion of systematic literature review chapter

 

Complete analysis of data

 

Draft results and discussion of  empirical paper
Jan – Mar Draft critical appraisal

 

Final drafts of  other chapters

 

Final formatting of thesis

 

SUBMIT THESIS
Apr – Aug Viva voce examination

 

Corrections to thesis as required
Part time route

Structure of Assignment and Thesis Activity

Part time route

Trainees are engaged in assessed academic activities across the four years, 4 months of training in parallel to the teaching and placement activities. Whilst the exact timings will differ for each trainee, a typical timetable of this activity for a trainee on a part-time pathway is detailed in the table below.

 

Timepoint in training Self-Assessment Exercise
(SAE)		 Placement Assignment Live Skills (PALS#1) Further Live Skills Assignments (PALS#2, PALS#3, PASE) Service Improvement

Poster Presentation (SIPP)

 Thesis Preparation

Assignment (TPA)

& Thesis
Year 1

Sept – Oct

 Initial self-appraisal  written

Formative roleplay & other self-assessment activities.

 

 Start first placement

 

      
Nov – Dec Submit SAE form

SAE clinical viva

 Start videoing  placement work for PALS      
Feb – May    

 

Finalise choice of work for PALS. Collate information and video.

      
JUNE   First placement ends    
July    

 

 Second placement begins.

 

    
Aug   Submit PALS#1 Decide on PALS#2 or PASE.

If PASE obtain approval at placement and submit PASE proposal form

 

IF PALS begin videoing work

    
Year 2 Sept – Oct         Thesis supervisor allocated

 

Oct – Feb 1.5 study days per week – work on TPA and PALS#2/PASE
Nov – Dec         TPA proposal form submitted
Jan         TPA introduction draft read

 

Continue work on TPA
    Continue work on PALS#2 or PASE    
March     Second placement ends

 

 Formative SIPP

 

 TPA literature review section submitted
April     Third placement begins

Submit PALS#2 or PASE

 

  
April – Aug     Decide on  PALS#3 PALS#2,or PASE (if not already  completed)

If PASE obtain approval at placement and submit PASE proposal form

IF PALS begin videoing work

   Finalise thesis topic

Work on thesis proposal

 

Identify Field supervisor
Year 3          
Oct     Continue work on PALS or PASE

 

   TPA thesis proposal section submitted
Nov – Dec       Thesis proposal reviewed

Thesis contract / action plan meeting

Identify ethics committee(s) to apply to. Get relevant forms and deadlines for submission.
DEC     Third placement ends  
Jan     Fourth placement begins

If PASE obtain approval at placement and submit PASE proposal form

Submit PALS#3 or PASE.

    
JAN – March     IF PALS#3 begin videoing work

Continue work on PALS or PASE

 

 Summative SIPP Hand in complete draft ethics proposal.
Finalise ethics proposal and submit for ethical approval.Decide on topic for Systematic Literature Review chapter and begin collecting referencesMarch – Aug 1.5 study days per week to include some thesis study allocation
April – June     Continue work on PALS or PASE

 

   Obtain ethical approval for thesis study.

Draft introduction and method of Systematic literature review chapter
July – Sept     Continue work on PALS or PASE

 

   Draft introduction and method to Empirical paper

Data collection

Begin analysis
Year 4          
Oct     Fourth placement ends  
Nov     Final placement begins

 

Submit PALS#3 or PASE.

   From Nov take majority of thesis study allocation in addition to 0.5 study days a week
Oct – Dec         Complete data collection

 

Review literature for Systematic review

Identify topic for critical appraisal chapter
         
Jan – April          

Draft results and discussion of systematic literature review chapter

 

Complete analysis of data

Draft results and discussion of  empirical paper
May – June         Draft critical appraisal

Final drafts of other chapters
June         Final formatting of thesis
July         SUBMIT THESIS
         
Year 5

Sept – Oct

 

 

 

 

DEC – end of training

         Viva voce examination

 

Corrections to thesis as required

 

 

Plagiarism

02/07/2019 /

The term ‘plagiarism’ relates to the ‘unacknowledged use of someone else’s work, usually in coursework, and passing it off as if it were his/her own’ (Dealing with plagiarism by students; an institutional framework; p.3). It includes collusion, commission, duplication of the same work for more than one assessment, inappropriate acknowledgement of text from another source and submission of another student’s work (regardless of that student’s consent). Fabrication of results relates to the presentation of data or results which have not actually been collected.

This document has been produced to dovetail with the university’s existing framework.

Background

Cases of plagiarism by trainees are rare, but given the programme’s status as a postgraduate professional doctorate, plagiarism has implications  in terms of fitness to practise. It is also important that inadvertent plagiarism can occur through a lack of knowledge of appropriate referencing devices.

Teaching

E-learning on what constitutes plagiarism (and why it is important not to engage in it knowingly or accidentally) is included in the induction to the programme. If trainees at any stage in their training need advice on whether text which they are producing constitutes plagiarism or not, they can discuss this informally with a member of staff. Trainees are also encouraged to use the university’s resources on avoiding plagiarism. The programme is committed to providing every opportunity for uncertainties and ambiguities to be clarified before the formal assessment stage. Consequently, this does mean that, should plagiarism be detected in a trainee’s work, lack of knowledge or uncertainty about whether this constituted plagiarism will not be considered an adequate or mitigating justification.

The university makes use of a number of practices  to detect plagiarism:

  1. Turnitin plagiarism detection software is routinely used to check all written submissions before they are sent to markers. This software checks both against published work and past coursework submissions so that any reliance on work submitted by previous trainees can be detected. This includes trainees or students on other programmes nationally.
  2. Guidance on plagiarism is sent to all markers of assessed work. This includes advice on what to do if plagiarism is suspected. It is the markers of assessed work who have the primary responsibility to detect plagiarism;
  3. Plagiarism is discussed at marker training workshops;
  4. Suspected plagiarised texts will also be checked using other databases such as Google Scholar and, if necessary, hand searching through relevant articles.

Where there are concerns around falsification of data, trainees must be willing to provide evidence of appropriate data collection.

Investigation process and sanctions

Where plagiarism is believed to be present in any piece of work authored by a trainee then a concern will be raised regarding this behaviour. The result of the concern meeting may be a referral to the the Division of Health Research’s Academic Officer for scrutiny. Should this happen, the Academic Officer will call a meeting with the trainee to discuss the alleged plagiarism. The trainee will be informed that a representative from either the LU students’ union or a colleague is welcome to attend this. The Academic Officer will then decide whether plagiarism has occurred. If it has, then a letter attesting to this will go to the registry and will be attached to the trainee’s file. The trainee will then be asked to respond to this letter to indicate how they will work to ensure that future work does not contain plagiarism. This letter will also be kept on file.  The Academic Officer may also recommend to the programme that a further concern or Fitness to Practise procedure be considered with respect to the trainee as a result of the plagiarism.

Appeals

02/07/2019 /

Trainees only have the right of appeal upon failure of the whole DClinPsy programme.

Where a recommendation from the programme’s Exam Board has been made that the trainee fails the programme, the trainee’s case is automatically referred by the Chair of the Exam Board to student registry, who will offer them the right of appeal. More details are available in the university appeal process. However, an appeal to the University can only be heard on specific criteria, for example that there were either extenuating circumstances that had not previously been made known or procedural irregularities. Appeals are not allowed on the basis of errors in academic judgement.

More detail on this is available in the University’s Manual of Academic Regulations and Procedures (MARP).

All decisions made by the  university’s Standing Academic Committee are binding on Boards of Examiners.

Subsequent to this, the final avenue for appeal against exclusions is via the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for students in higher education.

Advice on the various levels of the appeals procedures can be sought from trainees’ tutor team, mentor or a student union representative.

 

Office of the Independent Adjudicator for students in higher education
Manual of Academic Regulations and Procedures (MARP) Academic Appeals

Exceptional Circumstances Committee

02/07/2019 /

The remit of the programme’s Exceptional Circumstances Committee is to consider submissions by a trainee relating to events outside their control which may have resulted in them failing to complete assessed work to a standard of academic performance that might reasonably have been expected on the basis of their performance elsewhere during their study. The committee, which meets monthly, considers any submissions and reaches a judgement on whether the circumstances have been detrimental to a trainee’s academic performance. If so, it proposes a remedy for consideration by the Exam Board. The current Chair of the committee is Dr Euan Lawson, Senior Clinical Lecturer in General Practice, Lancaster Medical School. Other committee members are the clinical director, the chair of the pastoral development and implementation group, the chair of the examination board and the programme assistant – academic. If any of these members are unable to attend a meeting then their deputy may attend in their place. On each deadline date a request for any documentation is circulated to trainees. Any exceptional circumstances forms relating to a given assignment must be submitted within two weeks of that assignment submission. Exceptional circumstances cannot be submitted for an assignment submission that has not yet been made – in this situation the trainee should instead seek a deadline extension. Any queries regarding the administration/scheduling of the committee can be addressed to the Programme Assistant – Academic.

Some guidelines for submission of exceptional circumstances

  1. On the monthly deadline date a request for any documentation is circulated to trainees
  2. This documentation should comprise an exceptional circumstances form and supporting documents evidencing the medical condition or other adverse personal events for consideration as amounting to exceptional circumstances
  3. Circumstances likely to be considered ‘detrimental and requiring a remedy are only those that have not previously taken into consideration in terms of support for and adjustments to a particular assignment submission. Examples are:
    • Significant illness experienced by the trainee
    • Significant illness of an individual for whom the trainee has a caring responsibility
    • Death of a family member
    • Family breakdown
    • Significant unexpected life event
  4. Trainees must provide appropriate evidence to support their exceptional circumstances. This often takes the form of doctor’s notes or discharge letters.
  5. Trainees are advised to discuss their exceptional circumstances with their clinical and/or research tutor prior to submission. These staff members can advise on an appropriate submission and what would be considered sufficient supporting evidence.


Exceptional Circumstances form for students

Fitness to practise

28/06/2019 /

Being fit to practise is a prerequisite for an applied psychologist to deliver a service to the public. The following extract is taken from the Health and Care Professions Council’s brochure entitled “The Fitness to Practise Process”:

What is fitness to practise?
When we say that someone is ‘fit to practise’ we mean that they have the skills, knowledge and character to practise their profession safely and effectively. However, fitness to practise is not just about professional performance. It also includes acts by a registrant which may affect public protection, or confidence in the profession or the regulatory process. This may include matters not directly related to professional practice.

What is the purpose of our fitness to practise process?

Fitness to practise proceedings are about protecting the public. They are not a general complaints-resolution process. They are not designed to deal with disputes between registrants and service users. Our fitness to practise process is not designed to punish registrants for past mistakes. It is designed to protect the public from those who are not fit to practise. If we decide that a registrant’s fitness to practise is ‘impaired’, it means that there are concerns about their ability to practise safely and effectively. This may mean that they should not practice at all. Or that they should be limited in what they are allowed to do. We will take appropriate action to make this happen. Sometimes registrants make mistakes that are unlikely to be repeated. This means that the registrant’s fitness to practise is unlikely to be impaired. People sometimes make mistakes or have a one-off instance of unprofessional conduct or behaviour. We will not pursue every isolated or minor mistake. We are responsible for handling fitness to practise cases. These are known as ‘allegations’ and question whether professionals who are registered with us are fit to practise.”

Whilst students (also known as trainees) of the Doctoral Programme in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) at Lancaster University are not registrants of the HCPC, they are involved in providing a service to the public under supervision on their practice placements. It is therefore incumbent on the programme to ensure that students are fit to practise as student / trainee clinical psychologists, to provide the same safeguards to the public as the above HCPC processes do with respect to qualified clinical psychologists. It is also a responsibility of the programme to inform the HCPC of a student’s eligibility to register as an applied psychologist practitioner, so the programme is therefore required to have an assurance process of its own with respect to ensuring that when students are awarded the DClinPsy, they are also fit to practise and therefore eligible to register (it must also be noted that the HCPC make their own assessment of an applicant’s fitness to practise upon application to the register; this will be informed by our assessment but not limited by it, in that the HCPC may seek further information to make any determination). This is why we have instituted the following fitness to practise procedures.

The Trainee Advocate is a qualified clinical psychologist, independent from the Programme, who is available to offer advice and support to any trainee who is in a position where successful completion of the programme is in question, such as being subject to a fitness to practise investigation or having reached the criteria for academic failure. The Trainee Advocate/trainee discussions are confidential with the usual limitations to confidentiality when safeguarding issues arise. The Trainee Advocate is a member of the fitness to practise panel/committee which meets twice a year to review procedures and is therefore familiar with FtP processes and can offer objective guidance. The FtP committee is a separate entity from FtP panels which are convened specifically when individual fitness to practise concerns are raised. The Trainee Advocate is able to offer assistance throughout the FtP process, including appeals and is also able to signpost trainees to other available sources of support.  The Trainee Advocate position is currently vacant and we are actively seeking someone to fill this role. While it remains vacant we are offering support on a bespoke basis.

Procedures to Address Concerns about Fitness to Practise

Beginning Fitness to Practise Procedures

1.0 These procedures should be followed when a report/correspondence is received by a member of staff of the Doctoral Programme in Clinical Psychology relating to the fitness to practise of a student on the programme or a prospective student who has been offered a post of student clinical psychologist on the programme. These procedures will also be followed if a member of staff of the programme considers a verbal report from a practice placement provider or another stakeholder to raise sufficient concerns about the fitness to practise of a student, or encounters behaviour that gives such sufficient concern. The Request for Investigation Form provides a structure for reporting concerns about fitness to practise.

1.1 Assessment of whether the report or correspondence potentially requires a referral to the Fitness to Practise panel will be made by the member of staff receiving the report in discussion with another member of staff (working in the domain where the concerns originated e.g. research / clinical or general behaviour). This assessment will be presented to the Clinical Director and will be based on one or more sources of evidence as follows:

  • Written reports by University academic or clinical staff and/or practice staff from placement areas relating to unsuitable or unprofessional behaviour by a student. These reports can come from any area within the programme (clinical, academic, research etc.).
  • Concerns about fitness to practise raised within written examiner reports or feedback on assignments.
  • Allegations from a member of the public relating to unsuitable or unprofessional behaviour by a student or a prospective student who has been offered a post of trainee clinical psychologist on the programme.
  • Reports from other disciplinary procedures or panels where evidence raising concerns about fitness to practise has come to light.
  • Reports received of criminal convictions, cautions or police allegations/investigations (for example, as a result of mandatory DBS [Disclosure and Barring Service] check as a condition of employment).
  • Information from the Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust Self Declaration Form A, regulated or controlled positions, completed as a condition of employment.
  • On rare occasions someone raising a concern may wish to remain anonymous. On these occasions it is challenging for us to fully and fairly investigate and may prevent us from being able to assess the concern at all. This circumstance limits the ability of the trainee concerned to respond, it limits our ability to offer support to those raising a concern and it limits our ability to keep an open dialogue. If someone expressing a concern wishes to remain anonymous, we prefer an initial contact with a member of the staff team so that ongoing dialogue can be maintained. Where possible, we aim to support those raising a concern to disclose their identity. We will undertake a preliminary assessment, including the motivation for anonymity, which can, rarely, be malicious. This assessment will also include the potential seriousness of the concern (i.e., breach of any of the HCPC standards of proficiency, or standards of conduct, performance, and ethics). This would be conducted by a member of staff who has completed Fitness to Practise training.

This list is indicative, not exhaustive.

The Clinical Director will determine whether this assessment constitutes a prima facie case within 5 working days. As part of this decision-making process, the Clinical Director will identify whether any previous concerns relating to fitness to practise have been documented in the student’s personal file. If a prima facie case is determined the Clinical Director will appoint an Investigating Officer to conduct further investigation, which will potentially result in a referral to the FTP panel. Should a situation arise whereby the Clinical Director has identified a potential FTP issue, then a senior member of the Clinical Psychology Programme team, who has sufficient FTP experience will be appointed by the Chair of the FTP Panel to fulfil this function.

The investigation process must be fair, robust, and timely. Due to the dynamic and unpredictable nature of investigations a time constraint will not be set upon this process. It will be completed as quickly as possible: in most instances this will be within 6 weeks but may be longer. The student will be informed that an investigation has started and may be involved in this process.

Following the completion of the investigation, the Investigating Officer will consult with at least one other FTP trained member of the faculty to determine whether the concerns reach the threshold for referral to the FTP panel. The Investigating Office will then make the referral if necessary, FTP referral form. A referral will be made if a threshold is reached in relation to any of the following criteria:

The Programme will inform the student in writing that he or she has been referred to the panel, identifying the area of concern on which this referral is based, and explaining the process. Should the Investigating Officer determine that none of the above threshold criteria has been reached, then no referral will be made to the Fitness to Practise panel, but those involved will consider any measures necessary to address the concerns raised. This is because, whilst the Fitness to Practise process may not be appropriate, concerns may still mean that disciplinary or capability processes would still be appropriate, or the concern in question may contribute to considerations of placement or assignment failure. Should such measures be necessary, these will follow other established procedures either within the University (e.g. academic issues) or within the employer, Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (e.g. conduct on placement). The Programme will record all decisions about any concerns made at this stage, whether or not they meet the criteria for a referral to be made to the fitness to practise process. All such records will be maintained and made available to the student.

It should be noted that issues highlighted above could lead to dismissal from employment in Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust as a trainee clinical psychologist. The Programme specification highlights that in these circumstances trainees cannot continue to be registered on the Programme and their studies will be discontinued. Therefore, there would be no need for a fitness to practice investigation to take place. However, because staff dismissed from the Trust have a right of appeal, de-registration from the programme would only occur once the appeal had been resolved. In the meantime, registration on the Programme would be suspended, until resolution of the appeal. In the event of a successful appeal against dismissal, a fitness to practice investigation could be instigated in line with the criteria described above.

1.2 Should a fitness to practise concern requiring referral to the fitness to practise panel be identified, at this stage, those making the referral, in conjunction with the Clinical Director, will decide whether it is necessary for the student to be temporarily withdrawn from their practice placement, have their studies suspended within the University and placed on study leave (within the context of their employment within LSCFT). This is in cases where it is felt to be necessary to protect the public and/ or the student until the alleged case of fitness to practise can be heard and a decision ratified by the examination board.

1.3 As part of the programme’s duty of care to the student, where there are sufficient concerns relating to his/her health, a student will be asked to undertake an occupational health review prior to any formal hearing taking place. A student may refuse to undertake such a review, but will be made aware that if they do so not only would the panel be unable to access any mitigating factors that might be identified by such a review, but also that the panel may be concerned that the student was reluctant to ensure that their health was not impeding their fitness to practise. Depending on the outcome of any occupational health review, a decision will be made by the chair of the FTP panel as to what evidence from the occupational health review should be forwarded to a formal hearing. This decision will be made in full consultation with the HR representative from the employing trust. The student will always receive a full copy of the occupational health report.

1.4 It is possible that the programme is advised against instigating a fitness to practise process in case potential legal proceedings against a student are compromised. This situation could potentially be at odds with the panel’s duty to public safety. In this, or a similar situation, a panel shall be convened in order to consider the dilemma and relative risks, take legal advice if appropriate, and decide whether the fitness to practise process should proceed. This is to ensure the ongoing preservation of public safety.

1.5 All correspondence to the student, witnesses and panel members relating to a Fitness to Practise referral, panel meeting or outcomes of a panel will be sent electronically and in accordance with data protection requirements.

Fitness to Practise Panel: Composition & Process

2.0 The panel membership should comprise of:

  • An appointed chair of the FTP Panel, who will be a practising Consultant Clinical Psychologist appointed for a 2-year term. This term may be renewed for further 2-year terms of office as agreed by the FTP Panel.
  • There will be an appointed Deputy Chair or an appointed Deputy Chair Elect who work actively with the Chair with a view to succeeding as Chair in due course.
  • Chair of the DClinPsy programme Examination Board.
  • Another senior staff member of the DClinPsy.
  • An expert by experience appointed to the panel.
  • A qualified and appropriately registered member of a statutorily registered profession employed as a trainer in that profession within the University.
  • A representative from LSCFT Human Resources Department as employing body.
  • A member of Professional services from Lancaster University will be available to the panel but will not necessarily be present on the panel.
  • A Trainee Advocate, a Clinical Psychologist, independent from the programme.

All the above members or their nominated deputies must be present (in person or virtually) for a panel hearing to be quorate, with the exception of the trainee advocate and a member of professional services. In circumstances where a member of the panel is not present, the hearing will be rearranged. A member of the DClinPsy administrative team will also be present to assist with the administration of the panel. All members will have nominated deputies, to be available in case a member is already involved with the expression of concern in question, or unavailable for the panel. The chair of the FTP panel may also co-opt other members to the panel as necessary to review fully the issues of concern in the specific case (for example, an occupational health practitioner or a practice placement provider).

The student has the right to be accompanied by a person of their choice to support them through the process, and they will be advised of this in their letter inviting them to the hearing. This person will be present to support the student during the hearing and will be able to address the panel or represent the student. The panel may direct questions to all parties.

2.1 Hearings will be arranged on a formal basis. A panel will be convened within 40 working days of a referral being made. To aid scheduling, a provisional panel date will be scoped once the investigation has commenced. The hearing will be scheduled to last for a minimum of one day, but some hearings will require additional days to be scheduled. The student will be given a minimum of 20 working days’ notice of the hearing.

2.2 The evidence available to be presented to the panel will be sent to the student to consider a minimum of 15 working days before the hearing is scheduled to begin. The information sent to the student may need to be restricted in light of information governance requirements (e.g. data protection, confidentiality of NHS service users etc.), in which case amended information (e.g. using pseudonyms) which gives sufficient detail to allow the student to defend themselves without contravening the relevant information governance regulations will be provided. Any further evidence that is gathered for presentation to the Fitness to Practise panel subsequent to this will also be shared with the student as soon as it is administratively possible to do so.  The student is also permitted to provide their own written evidence to the hearing. This must be received by the FTP administrator at least 5 working days before the start date of the hearing. In exceptional circumstances, and on provision of a reason deemed satisfactory by the chair of the FTP panel, a student may request the rearrangement of the panel.

2.3 Prior to the hearing process the panel will consider all the written documentation made available to it regarding the referral and described in section 1 above. The panel will have read the documentation in advance of the hearing. A copy of all evidence available to be presented to the panel will be retained in the student’s personal file.

2.4 Both the chair of the panel and the student can request the attendance of witnesses at the panel hearing. The Chair of the panel may request the attendance of those individuals who have been involved in bringing the concerns to the attention of the programme, with comments invited from them to clarify any of the documentation. All witnesses attending will have submitted written statements to the panel, according to the timelines outlined in 2.1 above. Not all individuals who have submitted written statements will necessarily be asked to attend the panel hearing. Witnesses will be invited to attend at least 3 working days prior to the panel hearing. Failure by a witness to attend is not sufficient grounds for a panel not to reach a conclusion.

2.5 Hearings begin with the presentation of the case by the investigating officer. All panel members, the investigating officer, the student and the student’s representative (if applicable) will be present for this part of the hearing. The panel will have the opportunity to seek clarification and ask questions of the investigating officer. Following this, the student and/or their representative will have the opportunity to seek clarification and ask questions of the investigating officer.

2.6 The second part of the hearing is the presentation of the case of the student, in mitigation or defence of the expressed concern about their fitness to practise.

2.7 Following this, the chair of the panel will invite the individual witnesses to join (in person or virtually) the hearing. The panel will have the opportunity to seek clarification and ask questions of each witness.  The student and/or their representative will have the opportunity to seek clarification and ask questions of each witness. Each witness will only be in attendance for the section of the hearing when they are being specifically questioned.

2.8 The content of the entire hearing is confidential and professional rules will be observed. If the content of the meeting involves discussion of clinical practice, then any service users or third parties will be referred to by pseudonyms to preserve anonymity.

2.9 The student would usually be required to attend a fitness to practise panel hearing, though the chair may consent to them being absent if they judge them to have a reasonable explanation for such absence. Whether or not he/she is in attendance, the student may make written submissions in their defence and/ or in mitigation, according to section 2.2 above. This evidence will be considered at the Fitness to Practise hearing.

2.10 In the event that a student, who has been required to attend a hearing under these regulations, fails to do so at the appointed time without reasonable explanation, then he/she may be subject to disciplinary action under University regulations or in the context of LSCFT regulations. The fact of their non-attendance may also be included in the consideration of their fitness to practise, if it is relevant to the case being made.

2.11 Where a student fails to attend, then the Chair of the panel may decide that the panel will hear the case in the absence of the student. If the panel believes that the evidence is sufficiently clear, a decision and subsequent recommendations to the exam board will be made and notified to the student in the usual way. When the student is notified that they have been referred to the exam board, it will be drawn to their attention that the panel can act in this way if he/she does not appear.

2.12 At the conclusion of the hearing the Panel will determine the outcome and the extent and seriousness of the case and make a recommendation regarding any penalty or course of action to the Examination Board.. The student will normally be advised verbally of the recommendation of the hearing at the conclusion of the panel’s deliberations. They will then be sent a letter detailing the recommendation of the panel, including the rationale for this recommendation, within 15working days of the formal hearing. An audio recording of the hearing can be sent to the student on request. In the letter the student will be advised of their right to make a submission to the Examination Board (see 3.1 below).

2.13 The recommendations possible following a Fitness to Practise hearing are as follows:

  • There are no fitness to practise issues and the student is able to progress on the programme. This outcome does not require ratification by the examination board.
  • The student is able to progress on the programme, although fitness to practise concerns remain and are noted and recorded on the personal file. In any future referrals through the regulations these will be taken into account. An action plan and additional requirements to support the student will be put in place if deemed appropriate. This plan will describe in detail the targets that the student has to meet to provide evidence that the concerns have been addressed and progress has been made. This will be considered within a developmental context, e.g., an action plan may be more demanding for a student close to finishing the programme, in comparison to a student at the start of their training. The programme also has a responsibility to communicate these concerns and the attendant action plan with all practice placement providers contributing to the training of the student in question.
  • The student is not deemed fit to practise at this stage. The student may be required to interrupt their studies and/or be required to repeat/restudy an element of the programme to establish their fitness to practise.
  • The case is proven and the student is deemed unfit to practise. The student cannot redeem the situation and is unable to progress on the programme.

All decisions, with the exception of ‘no action’ need to be ratified by the Exam Board.

After a Fitness to Practise Hearing

3.0 The outcome of the hearing and the recommendation of the fitness to practise panel will be considered at the next appropriate Examination Board (allowing time for submission of information by the student (see 3.1 below). However, if an Examination Board is not scheduled within 11 weeks of the hearing, an extraordinary Examination Board will be convened within that time.

3.1 The student will be given at least 20 working days’ notice of the date of the Examination Board. The student can submit any new, relevant information to be considered by the Board alongside the submission of the Fitness to Practise Panel.  Any such submission must be received a minimum of 5 working days before is the Board is scheduled to meet.

3.2 The Examination Board will consider the recommendation of the Fitness to Practise hearing together with any new/relevant information provided by the student. The role of the Examination Board is to consider and ratify the recommendation made in respect of the student’s progress, including any outcomes for the student. The Board must also confirm, to its satisfaction, that due process has been followed at the hearing and that all relevant information has been fully considered.

3.3 If the Board either fails to ratify the recommendation of the fitness to practise panel or considers there to be additional information available that would potentially impact on the recommendation made by that panel, the Board can request that the original Fitness to Practise hearing is reconvened.

3.4 The student should receive formal notification of the Examination Board’s decision and the rationale of this decision. The examination board will also decide how best to communicate this decision, although it must be communicated promptly and within 5 working days of the Board meeting. A copy of any written correspondence will be retained in the student’s personal file.

3.5 Where the Examination Board ratifies a decision indicating that a student is not fit to practise and cannot redeem the situation, the student will be required to withdraw from the programme and will not be eligible for the full final award nor be eligible to apply for professional registration as a Practitioner Clinical Psychologist.

3.6 This set of procedures is consistent with Lancaster University’s own procedures, as set down in the Manual of Academic Regulations and Procedures (MARP). Please see the link for the postgraduate Examination Board Regulations

3.7 In the case of a student lodging an appeal against the decision of the Examination Board requiring him/her to withdraw from the programme on the grounds of fitness to practise, the appeal will be dealt with under the University’s Assessment Review Regulations (MARP E6.5). If the student appeals on the basis of the consequent termination of their contract of employment with the LSCFT, then this will be dealt with by the relevant procedures within LSCFT.

Summary of FTP procedures
FTP Request for investigation Form
FTP Referral Form
HCPC standards of conduct performance and ethics
HCPC guidance on conduct and ethics for students
The HCPC Standards of Proficiency for practitioner psychologists
BPS Accreditation through partnership handbook
Manual of Academic Regulations and Procedures (MARP)

© 2024 DClinPsy Handbook

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Close