Step into leadership: Call for committee volunteers

The Special Group for Psychology, Health and Social Care (PHASC) is an integral part of the British Psychological Society, providing a professional base for psychologists working across diverse fields within and between health, wellbeing, and social care. It is one of the few pan-BPS member networks, and spans clinical, counselling, occupational, educational, and business psychology disciplines, united by a shared commitment to improving outcomes for individuals and communities through evidence-based practice and psychological insight.

The group advocates for and supports the role of psychology in health and social care settings, ensuring that psychological expertise is recognised and integrated into service planning, policy development, and service delivery within a range of sectors such as mental health, learning disabilities, neurodevelopmental disorders, ageing, and social inequalities.

In the last year, there have been a number of changes to the composition of the PHASC committee. From June 2024, Dr Peter Woods took on the role of co-chair and operations lead, Professor Zenobia Nadirshaw shared the co-chair position as co-chair emeritus, and Karen Mills, Valerie Hero, Michelle Templeton and Olawale Adebayo joined the committee, subsequently taking on the roles of secretary, communications lead, and events team respectively. 

A very valued member of the committee, Professor Ken Laidlaw, who had brought extensive leadership and committee experience to the special group, resigned in order to pursue a range of other interests. And finally, the committee was very fortunate to be assigned Anne Kerr from the BPS as our member network lead. Her help and patient support have been crucial to the smooth operation of the committee and its activities over the last year.

Now, from the end of June 2025, the committee is poised for more change. With much regret, Peter Woods has announced his decision to step down from PHASC at the end of his term of office. In addition, both Zenobia Nadirshaw and Harry Davies will be leaving the committee at the end of June having served for the current six-year maximum term.  

All three highly regarded colleagues have served on the former PASC, now PHASC, for many years; and contributed enormously to shaping and developing the way in which the special group and its committee have evolved and matured. The committee offers them our heartfelt thanks for their contributions to PHASC, and for all their time, dedication and hard work. We wish them the very best for their future endeavours.

Could you join our committee?

As a result of these changes, expressions of interest are invited from the PHASC membership for the positions of committee chair and for new committee members. The special group microsite has been updated to reflect this and the details can be found online at:

Committee chair

Committee members

The closing date for expressions of interest is 26 June 2025. 

The active engagement and support of the PHASC membership is crucial to the success of the special group; all PHASC members are urged to consider these opportunities and promote them to their contacts.

Further information

For further information about PHASC, its committee, or the positions currently available, please contact Anne Kerr by email at  [email protected]