Scottish Branch

Kate Skellington Orr (Chair, Scottish Branch)

This has been another exciting and productive year for the BPS in Scotland. We continue to have an active Committee with 14 members and a number of observers from other Divisions who join us on a regular basis to ensure flow of information between the Member Networks (Subsystems) in Scotland.

Our dedicated Policy Officer for Scotland continues to work hard to ensure that we engage with the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive over matters of importance to the full range of psychologists working in Scotland. In recent months, a letter was issued to Nicola Sturgeon, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, regarding the possible creation of the post of Chief Psychologist within the Scottish Government. Although the suggestion was politely knocked back, the Minister acknowledged in her response that "the psychological perspective is essential for the effective delivery of all services in both physical and mental health", and noted the valuable contribution that Scottish psychologists are making to improve the health of the Scottish population. In the coming year, the Scottish Office Steering Group, which brings together the Chair of the Branch with the Chairs of the Divisions in Scotland, will continue to pursue opportunities to further promote psychology in Scotland.

As new Chair of BPS Scotland (the Scottish Branch of the Society) I have been keen to extend our reach to new members and encourage greater participation in the various events that we organise throughout the year. Our Annual Conference, this year held in Falkirk, attracted over 100 participants with guest speakers including Kate Davidson (University of Glasgow) Andrew McLellan (Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland), Mick Power (University of Edinburgh) and Pam Maras (BPS President). We again attracted a large number of student delegates and are proud of our growing links with the student community in Scotland. We continue to organise an annual undergraduate student conference, open to all 4th year psychology students in Scotland (as presenters) and 3rd year students (as observers). Thank you to the University of Edinburgh, Department of Psychology, who hosted the fifth Undergraduate Student Conference in March of this year, and to the Higher Education Psychology Academy Psychology Network who sponsored the event.

We are always keen to encourage and support events that offer Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunities for our members and, this year, we were pleased to sponsor the 12th European Symposium on Suicide and Suicidal Behaviour (ESSSB12) held in Glasgow in August. We are also providing support for the newly established BPS Scotland Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) Survivors Working Party, which is working to review the Scottish Executive’s strategy for survivors of childhood sexual abuse and to assess its implications for psychologists working in Scotland. The Working Party, made up of enthusiastic volunteers from different branches of psychology who already had some involvement with CSA survivors, or who heard about the strategy via BPS Scotland, will report back to the BPS Scotland Committee and Scottish Subsystems with recommendations for actions needed by psychologists to implement relevant parts of the strategy. Further details of this activity, along with information about forthcoming Branch activities can be found in the latest issue of our regional newsletter, The Bulletin (/scottish/newsletter.cfm)

Sadly, this year will be the final year of service from some of our most valued Committee members including our Honorary Secretary, Dr Tony Anderson, our Treasurer, Dr Daniela Schulze and our Conference Organiser, Dr Pauline Banks. I wish to finish by thanking them all for their considerable contribution to the success of the Branch in recent years and also thank the other members for their support, hard work and enthusiasm which we will continue to build upon in 2008.