SGIP Continuing Professional Development Plan 2022-2025

This significantly raised our member offerings and benefits from previous years when, at our most active (2019), we ran a learning and networking session at our AGM event and 1-2 Branch events.

In 2021 we ran 5 webinars, 2 events around our AGM; 12 Peer Practice hubs, 1 Special Topic Peer Hub and 1 workshop.

We also saw our membership increase from 761 in 2016 to 1017 in 2020 , a 34% increase in membership (this may well be indicating an increase in interest on the part of BPS members in learning more about Independent Practice).

Our experience in providing development for our members to date

We have learned a great deal from the commissioning and running of these CPD activities.

Whilst webinars have increased our direct engagement with members and have been valued we want to now be able to offer members not just individual webinars but the knowledge and skills inputs and reference resources on the core Independent Practice core topics.

SGIP Capacity and Ambition

Following on from a meeting with Thomas Elton, Manager of the BPS professional Development Unit, and Helen Barnett, Head of Member Network Services, we now want to adopt a systematic approach to the prioritisation of IP Knowledge and Skills topics and to create an evolving CPD programme for IP's. Essentially, our ambition is to create a 3-to-5- year development plan for BPS Independent Practitioners.

We can happily run Peer Practice Hubs and some webinars on topics generated by members "off our own back" to maintain and build the direct contact and engagement mentioned above, but we lack the capacity to commission, host and deliver high quality materials and interactive learning opportunities.

Although we are fast growing group, we have a very small Committee of IP's (which means of course that we have our own businesses to run).

As a consequence, we lack the time and in depth expertise (and annual funds) to design or commission events that would meet the BPS CPD Approval Scheme standard, (which ensures that programmes by external providers have been judged to meet particular professional standards).

And yet we want to provide members with exactly that - core IP knowledge and skills to the highest of standards and accessibility. We want our members to be saying SGIP and BPS provide trusted, credible resources and courses for psychologist IP's.

As we scan the Psychology IP market, we can see that a number of other professional bodies provide exactly the sorts of learning resources we are desiring.

We know that the Professional Development Unit are looking to work with subject matter experts and commission work that cut across all psychological domains.

This mirrors our ambition, and we believe IP topics will be of keen interest across the whole range of BPS Divisions.

We surveyed our members in 2020 and 2021 on what we consider to be the probable prime learning and development topics in terms of establishing and running a successful Psychology Independent Practice, to enable us to prioritise the prime subjects for the 2022 CPD programme. The topics we are asking members to prioritise are:

• Practical Aspects of setting up and managing an independent practice
• Getting your independent practice known
• Ethical issues and considerations in Independent Practice
• Networking and support for IPs
• Legal considerations in independent practice
• Financial aspects of independent practice
• Different models of Independent Practice

Outputs for Members

What we are envisaging is that if we decide that the Financial Aspects of becoming an IP, for example, is top priority for 2022 we would seek your professional help in year one of the CPD plan to:

• explore collaborative working with other professional bodies, through memoranda of agreement etc, to be able to adapt their resources for IP's
• identify bona fide websites and create simple signposting process on our microsite
• plan and deliver an "Expert Webinars" provided by an expert in the specific fields pertaining to being an IP
• develop (or adapt existing) fact sheets on what steps to take to establish the financial aspects of being self-employed or running a small business as a psychologist.(we hope to have the Committee numbers to seek the expertise of members on website and factsheets they have found trustworthy and useful to their practice)

Years 2-3

Once we have developed a successful sourcing, commissioning and delivery process (along with a really effective marketing and communications campaign) with the BPS professional Development Unit we may have the capacity to move towards E-Learning.

We are aware that this is expensive so we would want to build a proof of investment case by piloting material resources and sound webinars in the first instance.