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Division of Forensic Psychology (DFP)

By Jane L. Ireland (Chair, Division of Forensic Psychology)

It has been a very busy and focused 2007 for the divisional committee following the development and subsequent launch of our strategic and business plan earlier this year. Prior to 2007 we did not have a clear strategy and instead had been working with ‘mission’ targets and well-meaning ‘wish lists’. Consequently we held a strategy event which helped us identify eight areas of core business along with measurable targets that we would focus on over the next three to five years, business which would bring us more closely in line with the overall strategic objectives of the Society. We decided to explicitly link our own strategy into the Society's strategy in recognition that as a division we form part of a wider Society and we should therefore be clear on how our workings are serving the needs of the Society and not just the Division.

The remainder of 2007 has been focused on addressing the strategic objectives that we have set ourselves. Thus, for the purpose of this report it is perhaps most helpful if these eight areas are outlined with a summary of progress included. They are as follows:

STRATEGIC AREA 1: Improving communication with members

The Division has now appointed two website editors with training provided by the Society. Our website is now under construction and we are aiming to use this to provide additional information to our members and to explore the possibility of an online discussion forum. The division has also surveyed its entire membership with these results published and already forming part of our divisional business. Finally we have trialled a new format for the DFP Annual General Meeting to try and engage members more.

STRATEGIC AREA 2: Improving and documenting communication to external and Society bodies

We have identified the spread of DFP representation across the various Society committees and we are happy to report that we are very well represented. We have recently commenced implementation of an audit of members involved in representing our division to ensure that we are receiving written reports on their input prior to expenses being paid. This is simply to ensure that the division is receiving formal feedback from representatives. The Division also continues to be very well represented in government consultations, with the work proactively managed by our divisional consultations lead, Martin Fisher. Recently it was reported that the Division have been responsible in leading over 50 percent of government consultations for the Society which is a truly excellent achievement.

STRATEGIC AREA 3: Publications

Forensic Update has continued to be produced regularly with the content changed considerably over the last 12 months to reflect feedback from members and in particular the results of the DFP membership survey. This has been produced under the careful guidance of our editors, Glenda Liell and Geraldine Ackerman. We are also pleased to inform members of the ‘re-launching’ of our other publication, Issues In Forensic Psychology. Issues had experienced difficulties in obtaining copy and the editor, Louise Falshaw, has worked closely with the DFP Committee to try and proactively resolve this. Richard Shuker has also joined the Issues team as a core editor. Consequently we have had two excellent publications of Issues in the last 12 months with a proposal underway to develop a published book series. This is really a reflection of the amount of interesting academic and practice work that our members are involved in.

STRATEGIC AREA 4: Position papers

The Division has committed to producing one position paper a year on a topic of interest and identified need. Just developed has been a proposal for a paper on the ‘Psychological Assessment of Terrorists’ which has been submitted to the Professional Practice Board and we are hoping will be led by Professor Jackie Bates-Gaston, Chief Psychologist for the Northern Ireland Prison Service.

STRATEGIC AREA 5: Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

CPD has been a prioritised area of work for the Division this year and we have focused on setting up a series of sponsored events for full members. April 2007 saw a one day conference on aggression attended by 147 Chartered Forensic Psychologists. A further event has been planned and advertised for November 2007 on practice issues with an event in March 2008 on domestic violence. The DFP CPD team have gone through a change of personnel recently with our CPD chair Debbie McQueirns stepping down after many years of hard work, now replaced by Martin Fisher. They remain a well established team, however, who are very focused on divisional targets.

Connected also to this area is more focused planning for our Annual Conferences. We now plan conferences a number of years in advance (and indeed we are planned up to 2011!). We also now have formal contracts with conference providers since we have decided to utilise university or BPS Conference teams, and we have costings agreed prior to events. As a division we recognise the importance of our conferences for members and to this end we are allocating funds to have internationally-recognised keynote speakers. The 2008 conference, for example, will see Professor Don Dutton, Professor John Livesley, Professor David Finklehor and Professor John Taylor.

STRATEGIC AREA 6: Finances

The Division has agreed a costed business plan, with the development of this led by our treasurer, Giles McCathie. The business plan is linked directly to the strategic plan to ensure that we are allocating our finances appropriately. There had, prior to our strategic plan, been a tendency to spend funds in reaction to issues as they arose and not necessarily linked to what are now strategic areas. This had also resulted in the division building up a considerable amount of funds in reserve which presents its own difficulties with the BPS where, as a charity, we can only hold so much reserve funds. The business plan has thus costed out our spending for the next three to five years, with spending focused on benefiting the membership. All expenditure now has to link to a strategic area and aim prior to being agreed.

STRATEGIC AREA 7: Training routes and qualifications

The division has sought in the last 12 months to make the distinction clearer between the DFP Committee and the DFP Board of Assessors (BOA). There remains confusion within the membership, it seems, between the remit of these two committees, with in-training members often seeking a view on Stage II (supervised practice) training from the DFP committee as opposed to the DFP Board of Assessors. We hope that we have made it clearer to members that the DFP BOA has a different reporting structure within the Society.

Although the DFP committee is not involved in developing and assessing Stage II training exemplars we are still involved in supporting our affiliate (training) membership. In the last 12 months we have:

This area has been linked to the development of position papers but focuses more on ensuring that we have adequate DFP representation across all Society committees and working parties. We are progressing well in this area. We are also actively ensuring that CPD events are focused on practice issues as well as research and academic issues with a CPD sponsored event planned for 2008 on legal practice issues.

Thus it can be argued that 2007 has been a particularly productive year for the division. The development of a core and measurable strategy has really assisted us to focus on core business and to promote the workings of the division both within the Society and externally. As a divisional committee we are very much looking forward to 2008 where we can build on and consolidate the progress that we have already made.