Lancaster University

Course Code: 13

Doctorate in Clinical Psychology
Division of Health Research
Lancaster University
LANCASTER
LA1 4YT

Telephone: 01524 592970
Fax: 01524 592981
Email: dclinpsyadmissions@lancaster.ac.uk

Research Director: Dr Jane Simpson
Acting Clinical Director and Admissions Tutor: Dr Anna Daiches

The Lancaster Doctorate in Clinical Psychology is committed to producing qualified clinicians and we encourage trainees to be client-centred. We are committed to maintaining a friendly and supportive programme culture that enables trainees to develop into competent and confident reflective practitioners who take a rigorous approach to their work in both clinical and research contexts. For our full vision statement, please see our website. We explicitly welcome applicants from minority groups and operate the "double tick" system for any applicants with a registered disability. There is no minimum class of degree nor amount of previous clinical experience required to be considered for selection to the course.

The base for the Course is located within the Division for Health Research on the main campus, which is approximately three miles outside the historic city of Lancaster. Lancaster enjoys excellent rail and motorway links and a close proximity to the Lake District. The majority of teaching takes place on the main campus. The Course utilises a wide range of placements throughout Lancashire, Cumbria, Merseyside, and Greater Manchester. Placements are provided in a diversity of settings including: primary care, community-based services, hospitals, day units, children's hospitals, child development centres, rehabilitation centres and forensic units. The Course is contracted to NHS North of England. Trainees are well represented on the majority of Course committees and policy groups.

Our aim in training is to strike a balance between the interests of the individual trainee, formal professional training requirements, academic requirements appropriate for a doctoral level qualification, and the broader and developing needs of a clinical psychologist within the National Health Service. The academic content (with a strong leaning to applied psychology) is well integrated into the practical side of the Course. Trainees have the opportunity to develop a range of clinical competencies via experience with: children and families, adults, older adults, and people with learning disabilities. In the final year of training a nine month placement reflects trainees' areas of interest (eg community psychology, health psychology, psychodynamic psychotherapy) in conjunction with their identified learning needs.

Entry Requirements

It is expected that 24 trainees will be admitted in the 2012 intake. Candidates must, at the time of application, be eligible for Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) with the British Psychological Society. Only those candidates who have GBC will be considered. If you are an Open University graduate and are awaiting confirmation of your GBC status at the time of application, please contact Dr Anna Daiches to discuss this further.

The programme does not consider the AP(E)L credit system or accept self funded applicants.

Short-listing Procedure

The application forms will be considered and all candidates with Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership and the minimum English language requirement will be invited to sit our written task on campus. Applicants from outside the European Union must meet the same eligibility requirements as those specified by the NHS Bursary Scheme. Candidates who have been successful during the selection process but who do not meet these criteria cannot be offered employment as a trainee clinical psychologist by the Lancaster DClinPsy Programme. Candidates should check this, in advance of any application on the NHS Bursary Scheme website.

English Proficiency Requirements

The English Proficiency requirements for the programme are:

IELTS - International English Language Testing Service - from the British Council and the University of Cambridge - 7 minimum.

TOEFL - Test of English as a Foreign Language - from the Education Testing Service in the USA - 93 minimum score on the internet-based test.

Selection Procedure

We anticipate that our selection procedure will be as follows:

Short-listed applicants (see above) will be invited to sit an hour long written task on 7 March 2012. The timing of this test will be determined by the course and details made available on our website at the earliest opportunity. Candidates should inform the Admissions Tutor as soon as they hear they are eligible to sit the task if they have any disabilities that need special consideration. All efforts will be made to accommodate candidates with specific needs.
Past examples of the written task are available on our website.
The outcome of the written task will be issued to candidates in the week commencing 12 March 2012. Candidates who declare a disability and score 60% in the written test will be invited to a one day selection event along with those who obtained the top 72 scores. This event will take place in the week beginning 28 May 2012. The selection process will consist of four tasks:
1. A competency based interview lasting up to 25 minutes.
2. A clinical simulation task which involves watching a short video clip of a group of people discussing a common personal issue or problem. This process is not rating clinical skills or theoretical knowledge but human responses to an interpersonal issue. This process will last up to 15 minutes.
3. A formal presentation about "any challenging experiences you have had outside of your working life which demonstrate your readiness for clinical psychology training". The presentation will last 10 minutes followed by questions.
4. An in vivo decision making task based on an ethical dilemma. This task will take up to 15 minutes and involves deciding on the best way to resolve this dilemma then presenting this to a panel.
Panel members assessing the four tasks will include programme staff, local clinical psychologists, members of Lancaster University Public Involvement Network and current trainees.
The selection process is a competency based procedure. On selection day we will be looking for: effective professional-style communication; reflection and integration; empathic understanding; resilience; analysis and critical thinking and professional behaviour.
Panels are also assessing whether the candidate respects diversity and believes in clinical psychology as a force for positive change. All competencies will contribute equally to the candidate's score. The results of the written task will not be taken into account at this stage.
Current trainees will be available throughout the day, providing an opportunity for questions, informal de-briefing and support.
During the interview day candidates will also be asked to complete their Criminal Records Bureau application. Details of this process will be included in the invitation to attend for interview. Please contact the Admissions Tutor, for advice, in advance of the written task if you expect disclosures to be made during CRB checking.
All candidates will be given a time and date to telephone for individual feedback on their performance from one of their interview/presentation panel members.
All candidates will be contacted by telephone to be told the provisional outcome of the interview. Formal notification of the outcome of the interviews will be issued by Lancaster University Postgraduate Studies Office. Offers of employment will be made subject to occupational health assessment, CRB enhanced check and references from the applicant's current employer. The references are required by our employing NHS Trust, on their own forms. we will contact your referee's by email immediately after a verbal offer of a place has been made. Applicants are required to note their current employer plus contact details as part of the process of signing in to the selection event. A second referee will also be required by our Trust; this may be a previous employer or any other nominated person. A formal offer of a place on the programme cannot be made until these are received and deemed satisfactory.

Should this procedure change, all short-listed candidates will be informed. Comprehensive information about the selection procedure is available on our website.

Funding

All trainees are currently employed by Lancashire Care NHS Trust as trainee clinical psychologists on a three-year training contract on Band 6 (£25,528). NHS Trust conditions of service apply. Placements may involve extensive travelling either as a result of the location of the placement or the nature of services provided (eg community-based services in rural areas). Likely weekly travel costs are up to £26 per week. The Course provides assistance with travel and subsistence expenses. Applicants should note that Lancaster University is the formal Course base; trainees are not funded to travel to base, nor to placement or research locations that are a lesser distance than home to base. University fees are funded by NHS North West. Applicants are not accepted on the Course on a personal self-funding basis.

Course Structure

Academic Structure

The formal academic programme is broadly organised on the basis of one full day teaching per week for the first two and a half years of the Course. In addition, trainees normally receive one full day per week for private study/research time. Trainees are encouraged to attend all teaching sessions but can take annual leave on up to five teaching days per year if arranged in advance with their tutors. Several sessions throughout the year are mandatory and these are clearly marked on all teaching programmes which trainees receive in advance. Wherever possible, the content of teaching is co-ordinated with the nature of the trainees' current clinical placement (eg teaching on working with children and families is undertaken while gaining clinical experience in this area). Psychologists from the North West Region deliver a significant proportion of many of the areas of teaching. The academic programme is pursued by a combination of lectures, seminars and workshops. In addition, limited funds are available to enable trainees to attend external courses, workshops and conferences.

Clinical Structure

Clinical placements are undertaken throughout the three years. A co-ordinated placement allocation programme operates across the three North West Courses (Lancaster, Liverpool and Manchester). Currently, all trainees undertake the same sequence of placements at the same time. At the present time, clinical training normally commences with a placement working with children and families, followed by placements focusing on work with adults, then older adults, and finally people with learning disabilities. Each of the first four placements is normally six months long. In the third year, trainees undertake a placement of approximately eight months' duration. The allocation of placements reflects assessed training needs and trainee preferences. All supervisors use guidelines designed to make explicit the role of the trainee and supervisor within each placement. These guidelines specify minimum supervision time, procedures for agreeing the goals of each placement and recording the quality and quantity of experiences gained during the placement. Each trainee is allocated a member of the clinical team who will undertake all placement visits over the three years of training. Course staff visit each supervisor and trainee once or, sometimes, twice during each placement to discuss progress.

Research

The 2012 intake will be required to submit one service related project (SRP) and one large-scale (thesis) research project. The service related project need not be directly linked to any placement. Although smaller in scale than the thesis, it is expected that SRPs will not rely solely on descriptive statistics and will involve an independent submission to an ethics committee. The SRP is no more than 12,000 words. It is an 18-month long project, submitted in the February of the second year of training.

The large-scale research project is undertaken throughout the second and third years of training. Trainees are required to produce a thesis consisting of the following components: (1) An ethics committee research proposal; (2) A literature review, written in academic journal format; (3) A research paper describing the study, written in academic journal format; (4) A critical appraisal of the research project. Trainees are expected to submit their work to appropriate academic journals. Trainees are given a three month period at the beginning of the third year free from placements in order to focus on their research.

A research curriculum that spans the three years is integrated into the main teaching programme, and is designed to meet the research needs of trainees as they progress through the Course. In addition, for both SRPs and theses, trainees and research supervisors receive individual research support from the Course team, which includes the reading of drafts. The extent and nature of this research support is guided by the needs of individual trainees and supervisors but is also formally specified in our competency and consistency framework. Throughout the three years trainees are encouraged to develop skills in a range of research methodologies.

Assessment

In addition to the SRP and thesis (described above), trainees are required to submit four pieces of academic work.

Clinical Activity Presentation and Reports (PPRs) - trainees are required to submit a 1,500 word summary of clinical activity at the end of each of the four core placements. In September of Years 2 and 3 they will present and discuss one of these pieces of clinical activity with a panel consisting two qualified local clinical psychologists. Following a two-to-four week period, a 7,000 word report will be submitted.

Critical Review - the Critical Review can take a number of different forms (meta-analysis, narrative review, qualitative meta-synthesis etc) and is submitted to follow a specific journal format. It has a 7,500 word limit and is submitted towards the end of the first year of training.

Professional Issues Assigments - trainees choose their own title for these and the titles are approved by the exam board. They comprise a 2,500 word essay and a 2,500 word report on a topic relating to one or more professional practice issues.

Trainee Support

In addition to supervision while on placement (including visits from clinical tutors) the course uses a number of complementary support systems to facilitate trainees' personal and professional development:

Type of Trainee Support	Psychologists and Others Involved	Frequency of Meetings with Trainees
Bi-Annual Review (plus placement visits/regular support)	Programme staff: one member of research team plus one from clinical team oversees the three years.	Each trainee is seen, by the same two staff, through the three years.
Personal Development and Reflection	Anna Daiches and Tim Atkin organise the PDR experiential curriculum that is tailored specifically for each year group. Previous cohorts have requested Cognitive Analytic Therapy groups and psychodynamic groups.	Each trainee cohort participates in regular sessions.
Personal Tutor System (optional)	Local clinical psychologists (all volunteers). No staff are involved, although an external co-ordinator has been appointed.	Variable; largely trainee led. Private study time is used for this.
Personal Therapy (optional)	North-west therapists who volunteer to go on the programme database of therapists. The system is monitored by Paul Withers.	Trainees may choose to opt into this and pick their own therapist. Private study time is used for this. A fee is usually payable.
Buddy System (optional)	An opportunity for trainees to link up with individuals from other cohorts, prior to and during training, facilitated by Anna Daiches.	Variable
Peer Support	Trainees	Minimum - weekly
Immediate link for trainees - directing to appropriate care source, monitoring and advising.	Disability Officer and Pastoral Care Tutor: both roles taken by Katherine Thackeray, Programme Administrator.	As needed

Staff

Jess Abrahams - Programme Assistant, Academic
Ruby Allamby - Programme Assistant, Placements
Dr Cathy Amor - Senior Clinical Tutor
Tim Atkin - Senior Clinical Tutor
Dr Jo Black - Clinical Tutor
Dr Anna Daiches - Senior Clinical Tutor/Research Tutor/Acting Clinical Director
Dr Jenny Davies - Clinical Tutor
Dr Clare Dixon - Clinical Tutor
Dr Fiona Eccles - Lecturer in Research Methods
Dr Ben Harper - Clinical Tutor
Sarah Heard - Research Co-ordinator
Dr Suzanne Hodge - Lecturer in Research Methods
Dr Emma Munks - Clinical Tutor
Dr Craig Murray - Lecturer in Research Methods
Christine Pedder - Programme Assistant, Teaching
Dr Jane Simpson - Research Director
Dr Richard Slinger - Clinical Tutor
Dr Ian Smith - Senior Clinical Tutor and Lecturer in Research Methods
Katherine Thackeray - Programme Administrator
Dr Stephen Weatherhead - Clinical Tutor/Lecturer in Research Methods
Jennifer Whitfield - Programme Secretary

Please note that all the above information was correct at the time of going to press. Any changes to this information will be made available on our website.