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This includes a number of areas of activity, including the ability to make use of supervision
Clinical Psychologists should be able to practice as autonomous and accountable professionals, drawing on relevant policies and codes of practice, demonstrate personal accountability and exercise professional judgement.
They should be able to:
Manage consent and confidentiality
| An ability to obtain informed consent for interventions from clients |
| An ability to maintain confidentiality, and have and act on knowledge of the conditions under which confidentiality can be breached |
Accurate awareness of competence
| An ability to have and maintain competent practice through appropriate training/professional development |
| An ability to recognise the limits of competence and taking action to enhance practice through appropriate training/professional development |
| An ability to assess a situation, determine the nature and severity of the problem and call upon the required knowledge and experience to deal with the problem |
Ability to practice ethically and with accountability
| An ability to take personal responsibility for decisions and to justify them |
| An ability to respond to feedback from supervisors and other professional colleagues as well as service users and carers |
| An ability to understand the power imbalances that exist between client and professional and to recognise any potential problems in relation to power and "dual relationships" with clients and to desist absolutely from any abuses in these areas |
| An ability to safeguard the client's interests including when co-working with other professionals as part of a team and adhering to good practice regarding interworker/inter-professional communication |
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An ability to manage the emotional impact of work on one's own health recognising when personal impairment could influence fitness to practice and taking appropriate action (e.g. seeking personal and professional support and/or desisting from practice) |
Working in partnership
| An ability to work collaboratively and constructively with fellow psychologists and other professionals with diverse viewpoints |
| An ability to engage service users and carers in planning and evaluating interventions to meet their needs and goals |
| An ability to engage service users and carers in service development. |
| Ability to protect clients from actual or potential harm from professional malpractice by colleagues by instituting action in accordance with national and professional guidance |
| An ability to show leadership, both clinically and in terms of service development |
Ability to use supervision
Clinical Psychologists should have an understanding of the supervision process from the perspective of both supervisee and supervisor and be able to use this to inform their use of supervision.
They need to hold in mind that a primary purpose of supervision and learning is to enhance the quality of the treatment clients receive (although while in training, this is balanced with the need for the supervisor to provide a good quality learning environment).Clinical Psychologists should be able to:
Working collaboratively with the supervisor
| An ability to work with the supervisor in order to generate an explicit agreement about the parameters of supervision (e.g. setting an agenda, being clear about the respective roles of supervisor and supervisee, the goals of supervision and any contracts which specify these factors) |
| An ability to help the supervisor be aware of your current state of competence and your training needs |
| An ability to present an honest and open account of clinical work undertaken |
| An ability to discuss clinical work with the supervisor as an active and engaged participant, without becoming passive or avoidant, or defensive or aggressive |
| An ability to present clinical material to the supervisor in a focussed manner selecting the most important and relevant material |
Capacity for self-appraisal and reflection
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An ability to reflect on the supervisor's feedback and to apply these reflections in future work |
| An ability to be open and realistic about your capabilities and to share this self-appraisal with the supervisor |
| An ability to use feedback from the supervisor in order further to develop the capacity for accurate self-appraisal |
Capacity for active learning
| An ability to act on suggestions regarding relevant reading made by the supervisor and to incorporate this material into clinical practice |
| An ability to take the initiative in relation to learning by identifying relevant papers or books based on (but independent of) supervisor suggestions and to incorporate this material into clinical practice |
Capacity to use supervision to reflect on developing personal an professional role
| An ability to use supervision to discuss the personal impact of the work, especially where this reflection is relevant to maintaining the likely effectiveness of clinical work |
| An ability to use supervision to reflect on the impact of clinical work in relation to professional development |
Capacity to reflect on supervision quality
| An ability to reflect on the quality of supervision as a whole, and (in accordance with national and professional guidelines) to seek advice from others and to inform the training course where: | |
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there is concern that supervision is below an acceptable standard |
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where the supervisor's recommendations deviate from acceptable practice |
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where the supervisor's actions breach national and professional guidance (e.g. abuses of power and/or attempts to create dual (sexual) relationships) |