Welcome to the website of the London and Home Counties (L&HC) Branch of the British Psychological Society.

With over 11,500 members, we are the largest branch of the BPS with all the potential for running a lively and interesting branch that that offers. Even though we have only been operating as a branch since the summer of 2006 we have been trying to establish a serious presence in the world of psychology and be a valuable resource to London psychologists. What we are able to do is based on the efforts of the voluntary work of your enthusiastic committee and the help of volunteers.

The branch exists to promote and advance psychology as a whole and plans to enable both professional and academic psychologists to meet regularly to exchange ideas, present papers, run workshops, invite guest speakers, develop potential research collaborations and perhaps more importantly, make contact with other colleagues in the region. It may also help to facilitate Continuing Professional Development opportunities and career support for the large number of student and graduate members in the area.

Our aim, therefore, is to bring London based psychologists, trainees and students from all disciplines of psychology together to promote and advance psychology as a whole.

Who the branch encompasses
Formed in April 2006, The London and Home Counties Branch is a free service offered by the Society to all members living or working within this geographical area. Our catchment area covers Central London, Luton, Harpenden, St Albans, Enfield, Watford, Uxbridge, Harrow, Romford, Slough, Twickenham, Bromley, Ilford, Dartford, Canterbury, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells. Members of the society who are not included in these areas, but feel being a member of the London branch would be more convenient for them are welcome. Please email the BPS at Leicester with your request.

Recent activities
Since September 2006 we have held a series of monthly scientific meetings that have been very well attended and usually oversubscribed. These can be found in the Events section of the website. Some of these are of general interests delivered by practitioners and academics, some are part of a research based series focusing on the finding s of the presenter’s research study and are more academically focused.

We have also held regular career related event for students and have also been able to host presentations by three world famous American psychologists - Professor Phillip Zimbardo on The Lucifer Effect: Understanding how Good People turn Evil in February 2007, Professor Martin Seligman on Positive Psychology and Positive Interventions in November 2007 and Professor Albert Bandura on Reducing Urgent Global Problems by Psychosocial Means in April 2009. It is important and gratifying that these events have been valued by the branch members as about a thousand tickets were sold for each of these talks.

In addition we held a conference in March 2009 called Psychology for All which attracted over 450 delegates and 150 contributors. There were 42 workshops, 30 research labs and an exhibition hall. The keynote speakers were Professor Richard Wiseman who spoke on "The Psychology of Luck", and Ruby Wax who spoke on searching for someone to blame or how Ruby found Psychology". This conference brought members of the public face-to-face with psychologists, allowing for the direct dissemination of psychological knowledge with opportunities for promoting the benefits of psychology to individuals and society, displaying the scientific and professional interests of psychology as well as promoting the opportunities for learning and gaining qualifications in psychology.

A DVD has been made of the Professor Seligman talk. For the Professor Bandura talk and for the Psychology for All conference, DVDs are in production. Please go to the page on Forthcoming Events for further information.

Our plans
We plan to continue the monthly scientific meetings and career planning events for students and look at other activities which members of the branch would value such as Networking and facilitating research collaborations. We also plan to hold a research students’ symposium offering students the opportunity to deliver a paper on their research in a wider forum than is generally possible.

The L&HC website is a step towards spreading our activities and establishing more direct communication with our members. We would like to hear from you about the services you feel your branch might be able to offer and which you would like. So please get in touch by emailing us and letting us know your views and wishes. If you can help on some of the events too, we would like to hear from you.

Karen Powell-Williams
Chair