Reflections upon Stage 2 Training as an Independent Practitioner

Sally Lopresti, BSc (Hons), MSc, MBPsS, Independent Forensic Psychologist in Training

 As discussed in my last article (23 July 2012), I was employed as a forensic psychologist in training (FPiT) by HM Prison Service until May 2008. Since that time, I have been working as an independent FPiT.  In this article I will reflect on the positives, as well as the pitfalls of independent work and the ways in which it has helped, and hindered, my progression towards chartership and registration as a forensic psychologist.

Of course, there are many models of independent practice and so my experiences may not directly relate to those of other trainees who are working independently. To give you some background, since 2008 I have been self-employed as a sole trader. I am an associate of Psychological Services UK Ltd (PSUK) whose Director is also my coordinating supervisor. The way our business model works is that PSUK is instructed to undertake assessment and treatment work, and the work is then allocated to its associates. The majority of my work is instructed by solicitors and tends to relate to preparing psychological risk assessment reports for the purpose of parole hearings. However, I have also worked in association with, and under the instruction of, HMPS; undertaking risk/need assessments and cognitive behavioural treatment with offenders. As an associate rather than an employee, I invoice PSUK after I complete each piece of work.

So, what are the benefits of being an independent FPiT?

Home working: I work from home. This means that I don’t have to commute, saving both time and money.  When I travel to visit clients I charge for mileage and travel time. I’m fortunate enough to have a dedicated office within my house which means that I still ‘go to work’. There are lots of benefits to home working which I suppose will be of varying value depending on your overall lifestyle and priorities. At the risk of making my life sound really dull, I get to hang washing out, receive parcels (no more red cards through the letterbox) and keep the dog company! I don’t have to worry about fitting in trips to the hairdresser, vet or dentist because I have the flexibility to shift my working day around to suit myself.

Managing my own workload: I get to dictate to a large extent how much work I want to take on. This has to be done with some degree of planning in order that the company director knows which cases to allocate to me. However, it has meant that I have been able to dedicate chunks of time to focusing on chartership work and submissions. When I was working for HMPS I really struggled to focus upon chartership because my workload was so high and there were always more immediate deadlines to be attended to.

Flexibility to seek out a variety of opportunities: As well as undertaking work in association with PSUK, I have sought out experiences elsewhere. In some cases these have been in order to fulfil the requirements of chartership (for example, undertaking some research at a London prison), but others have been in order to further my own professional development and build upon professional links with other practitioners and institutions (for example, lecturing on a MSc forensic psychology course, and marking psychology papers for an examination board). Self-employment allows me to be my own boss and, within the confines of my own financial commitments and the need for my practice to be supervised, the world is my oyster, so to speak.

 And the pitfalls of being an independent FPiT?

Home working: Working from home takes great discipline and my experience is that I never achieve as much in a day as I plan to, so financial projections may not play out. I’m lucky that I have colleagues (other PSUK associates) with whom I get along extremely well and we make a point of meeting up on a monthly basis for peer supervision, as well as the more frequent emails and telephone conversations that provide some element of human contact. This helps not only to mitigate the loneliness element of home-working, but also provides an opportunity to share and challenge ideas; a key part of maintaining good standards of practice.

Hidden costs: Not all independent FPiTs are necessarily self-employed. However, if you are you need to consider the costs associated with our work. I pay my own BPS and DFP membership, my annual maintenance fee, supervision fees and the costs of submitting exemplars for assessment. I also pay for my office supplies, professional indemnity insurance, my CRB checks, my registration with the Information Commissioner’s Office (Data Protection) and any training or conference fees. As a self-employed practitioner I get no paid annual leave, sick leave, maternity pay or pension.

Income uncertainty: Being self-employed means that, when times are good, I can earn significantly more than was possible as a FPiT within HM Prison Service. However, work can go through fits and starts, which can be an issue when there are regular bills to be paid. Good personal discipline in financial planning can go a long way to mitigating this, and in my own case I’m part of a dual income household where my partner has a more regular income that reduces the financial risk associated with this.

Access to resources: Did you know that SPSS costs well over £1800 for a 12 month licence?! In order to complete my Core Role 2 exemplars, I had to beg and borrow to complete my statistical analysis because I simply couldn’t afford to purchase it. I’m thankful that the BPS is now providing a much greater degree of access to journal articles because finances no longer prevent me to the same degree from engaging in professional development or undertaking research in a given area.

Breadth of work: My ‘bread and butter’ work tends to relate to assessments and interventions, providing me with ample experience of Core Role 1.  Undertaking work in relation to the other core roles requires me, as an independent practitioner, to be proactive in seeking out opportunities. Fortunately, I had completed exemplar work for Core Roles 3 (consultancy) and 4 (training) prior to leaving HM Prison Service.  I was able to use professional connections I had made during my time in HMPS to secure access to participants in order to undertake Core Role 2 (research) work. The potential for a good breadth of work as an independent practitioner is great, but I think you have to work a bit harder at it.

 My advice to others?

I’m glad that I gained my earlier experience within HMPS because it provided me with a range of opportunities in terms of training, access to the client group and multi-disciplinary working. However, I haven’t looked back since becoming an independent practitioner. I have a huge appetite for learning and improving and find that I have more time to focus upon my own professional needs now, in order that I can in turn provide a better service to my clients. My words of warning for those considering independent work relate mainly to ensuring that you can secure a coordinating supervisor, making sure that you factor in the hidden costs of being a self-employed FPiT, and being prepared for the level of self-directed learning and networking involved.

Reflections upon Stage 2 Training within HM Prison Service

Sally Lopresti, BSc (Hons), MSc, MBPsS, Independent Forensic Psychologist in Training

It’s been a good couple of weeks for me. I received confirmation that I passed my final core role and I’m about to submit my monolithic pile of practice diaries and supervision log entries to the Chief Supervisor for final scrutiny. Chartership and HPC registration feel as though they are finally within reach.

I’ve agreed to write a series of articles for this great new blog. These will reflect upon my experiences as a forensic psychologist in training (FPiT) both as a HMPS employee and as an independent practitioner. I will also address each of the core roles in turn, sharing my understanding and experiences of each of them, as well as thoughts on the feedback that I’ve received from assessors.

I’m ashamed to say that I started my training back in 2004. I was employed by HM Prison Service and working in a high security prison at the time. I was one of the first FPiTs to join the ‘new’ competency based route. The new route was very different to previous routes and it took me, my supervisors and colleagues a long while to fully grasp what was required. I think this was in some part due to the lack of clarity offered at the time by the DFP; this has improved greatly, in my opinion, since John Hodge came into role as Chief Supervisor. In retrospect however, I am also able to point the finger firmly at myself for taking such an avoidant approach to anything chartership-related.

The remainder of this article is a reflection on my experiences as an FPiT within HM Prison Service and the benefits, but also the pitfalls, of trying to complete Stage 2 in a prison setting. It’s important to note my caveat, which is that I left HMPS in May 2008 and I understand that there have since been a number of changes to the way in which psychological services are structured within the service. I think, however, that the majority of the points I raise remain valid.

Breadth of experience

When I look back at my career as an FPiT within HM Prison Service, I am enormously appreciative of the breadth of experience I gained. When I say ‘breadth’, I’m referring to the job roles that I held, the core roles that I fulfilled, the client group that I treated/assessed/supported and the range of professions that I worked alongside.

I joined HMPS in 2002 as a psychological assistant.  The following year I was successful in gaining promotion to the grade of FPiT. In the five years that followed I filled the following roles: research psychologist (assessing staff coping styles), drug treatment programme facilitator, drug treatment programme treatment manager, lead risk assessment psychologist, and discrete unit team leader (Segregation Unit, Healthcare and Close Supervision Centre). Throughout this time I was also a wing psychologist on the vulnerable prisoner unit, working predominantly with sexual offenders and prisoners with mood and personality disorders.

When I consider my experience within the context of each of the Stage 2 Core Roles, I had ample opportunity to engage in Core Role 1 work (interventions and assessments) for example. As well as delivering and managing drug and alcohol treatment, I completed Category A and parole reports, which included the use of structured risk assessments such as the HCR-20 (Historical Clinical Risk), the SARN (Structured Assessment of Risk and Need – sexual offenders) and the SARA (Spousal Assault Risk Assessment).  Later in my HMPS career, I had the opportunity to engage in treatment work within the Close Supervision Centre.

The Head of Psychology at the time (pre-2008) was a respected and resolute member of the establishment’s senior management team. The input of psychological services was valued by the No. 1 Governor and the forensic psychology team was involved in a range of initiatives across the prison.   For example, I had the opportunity to play an instrumental role in setting up the establishment’s new Risk Assessment and Management Unit, which incorporated the parole, sentence planning, OASys and psychological risk assessment sections. I took the psychological lead in this process which involved creating a new way of feeding psychological assessment and treatment work into the sentence management process. I was responsible for overseeing the improvement of OASys assessments, which involved supervising OASys reports, as well as engaging in professional development / support supervision sessions with the OASys assessors.

Other consultancy roles included attendance at sentence planning boards, mental health reviews, suicide /self-harm risk reviews, segregation reviews and officer recruitment interviews. The opportunities to undertake Core Role 3 (consultancy) and Core Role 4 (training) work were plentiful.  

Core Role 2 was, in my experience, the more difficult of the core roles to undertake within HMPS. This was not because of a lack of access to participants. Rather, it just didn’t seem to fit within the day to day priorities of the business. For me, it was very much additional work that I did on top of ‘the day job’.

Training and support

Being an independent practitioner, I am far more appreciative in retrospect of the level of training that I had access to as a HMPS FPiT.  I now have to self-fund Stage 2, as well as CPD events and opportunities. My two year part-time MSc in Applied Forensic Psychology (2003-2005) was fully funded by HMPS, although there was an assumption that the week’s work would fit into the remaining four days when I wasn’t attending the University of York. I saw this as the pay-off for having the course funded, but it made for a challenging couple of years.

I was also fortunate enough to receive training in motivational interviewing, therapeutic (CBT) skills, the PCL-R (Psychopathy Checklist – Revised), the WAIS-III (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale), supervisor skills, the HCR-20 (Historical, Clinical Risk), SVR-20 (Sexual Violence Risk) and SARA (Spousal Assault Risk Assessment), to name but a few. This is nothing to be sniffed at; the courses typically cost £500+ to attend.

In addition to the training I attended, my BPS/DFP membership was funded by HMPS, as were my Stage 2 fees. In the heyday of my HMPS career, I had regular access to my coordinating supervisor and was surrounded by a range of other chartered forensic and clinical psychologists with a variety of backgrounds and experience which they seemed happy to share with me.

Of course, I wouldn’t want readers to think that HMPS does all of this out of the pure goodness of its heart! The training costs are all factored into the pay package. The working hours were long and there was an expectation that I would take on responsibilities that were arguably above my pay grade. When I left my FPiT role in 2008, having been at that grade for five years, my salary was in the region of £18,000 gross per annum. I had been responsible for service delivery, meeting key performance targets, line management of other FPiTs and had supervised prison officers who were earning £10-15k more per annum than I was.

So why leave?!

My reasons for leaving were particular to my own circumstances and those of the prison at the time. The senior management had changed and our Head of Psychology had left. The culture and regime changes brought about by the change in management led to a significant amount of disillusionment on the part of many of my colleagues, as well as a sense that the profession was becoming increasingly devalued within that particular setting. One by one the remaining chartered psychologists left. The Stage 2 FPiTs highlighted to managers that we were effectively unable to practice without a supervisor and so we successfully arranged for an independent forensic psychologist to visit the prison on a monthly basis in order to provide the minimum requirement in terms of supervision.  I was consequently offered the opportunity to join the chartered psychologist in her independent practice and didn’t hesitate (well, not for long!).

Looking back, my experience of being an FPiT in HMPS involved a huge amount of learning and experience; not just in terms of how to be a psychologist, but also regarding how to consult, supervise and work in a truly diverse and multidisciplinary setting.  In my view, I am a far more assertive, confident and competent practitioner than I would have been had I not undertaken most of my training within that prison.

I wouldn’t rule out a return to HMPS in the future, but I’m not ready yet. My time in HMPS was a real baptism of fire. I worked extremely long hours, including unpaid overtime and often felt as though the task was pretty thankless. I didn’t prioritise chartership because everything else felt so hectic and more timebound. Days (particularly as a manager within the team) were spent dealing with crises and evenings were spent getting the bread and butter work done. I’ll always remember my Head of Psychology coming to say goodnight to me on her way out of the department at 8pm one evening. She remarked “Are you working late again? Still, it’s the key to success” (paraphrased). I’m not sure I can agree with that; I don’t think it’s sustainable in the long term and if I had my time again I would take a much healthier and robust approach to my work-life balance.

My advice to others?

Seek out employment opportunities within HMPS if you can; especially at the beginning of your training. However, make sure you will have regular access to a coordinating supervisor and that you make time for your Stage 2 submissions. I suspect the relatively newly introduced Stage 2 Quarterly Supervision Plans will help in making sure you’re moving forward in your training.

Next article – same time next month: Stage 2 training as an independent FPiT.