Development and Recognition of Supervisory Skills

1
Development and Recognition of Supervisory Skills

• Lucy Horder, The British Psychological Society
• luchor_at_bps.org.uk

Group of Trainers in Clinical Psychology, Annual
Conference Manchester, 8 November 2005
2
Context and Background

• A Society-approved supervisor accreditation
  scheme will offer formal recognition of the
  valuable supervisory skills upon which courses
  are able to draw.
• In the longer term, a common framework for
  supervisor training will have a positive impact
  on the pre-registration training of clinical
  psychologists.

3
Shared Principles

• Minimal additional burden upon training providers
  and the administering committee (possibly CTCP).
• The potential benefits to members need to
  outweigh the cost of becoming accredited.
• This scheme would be aimed at psychologists
  (members) who are supervising clinical psychology
  trainees, rather than at Chartered Clinical
  Psychologists who are offering supervision.
• Scheme needs to be transferable to other branches
  of applied psychology, e.g. to psychologists who
  are supervising educational psychologists in
  training.

4
Supervisor Training

• Nationally agreed set of learning outcomes and
  minimum standards.
• Map learning outcomes against learning and
  teaching strategies and methods of evaluation in
  a training programme specification document (cf.
  programme specifications).
• Template specification document to be produced
  and made available to training providers via BPS
  website.
• Specification document to be used as core
  evidence for scrutiny of supervisor training
  provision by CTCP, in the longer term as part of
  quinquennial cycle of accreditation visits.

5
Benefits to courses

• Potential means of quality controlling
  supervisory resources, within context of a close
  fit with existing practice.
• Offers a useful way of harnessing new supervisory
  capacity as it becomes available (i.e. new
  DClinPsy graduates 2 years post-qualification
  experience).
• Transferability of supervisory skills across
  regions, and ease of engaging supervisors new to
  region.
• No suggestion that courses should look towards
  only using accredited supervisors for future
  placements.

6
Benefits to supervisors

• Entry on to Register (name of Register to be
  agreed).
• National recognition and transferability of
  supervisory skills.
• Potential tie-ins with Knowledge and Skills
  Framework and implications for Agenda for Change.
• Tie-ins with the Societys own CPD scheme.

7
Entry to the Register

• Training provider forwards pass list to the
  Society, signed by e.g. Clinical Director of
  course.
• Training provider gives supervisors who have
  successfully completed training
  certificate/letter confirming this.
• Supervisor completes application form (online?)
  and forwards certificate/confirmation letter plus
  registration fee to the Society.
• Registrar checks this against pass list provided
  by training provider, and processes the
  supervisors entry to the Register.

8
Experienced supervisors

• Training providers are probably best placed to
  assess more experienced supervisors on an
  individual basis.
• This might take the form of completion of a
  reflective log, or attendance at an update or
  top-up training event.

9
Future development work

• Production of basic accreditation criteria for
  supervisor training courses (learning outcomes
  plus e.g. support mechanisms).
• Mechanism for external scrutiny of courses
  evaluations of supervisors, both via standard
  training and experiential routes (cf. External
  Examiner system).
• Agreement of registration fee (to be agreed)
  cost neutrality and acceptable individual outlay.
• Debate issues around maintaining registration and
  links with CPD scheme.

10
Discussion points and next steps

• Agreement of a schedule for DROSS pilot activity
  and evaluation. Pilots to include
• Development of QA criteria and assessment of
  training providers achievement of these by CTCP.
• External Examiner system.
• Local evaluation of experienced supervisors
  against agreed learning outcomes/competency
  statements.
• System for administration of the Register.
• Endorsement of the above by CTCP and MPTB.
• Formal launch of Register at the November 2007
  GTiCP conference.