A very warm welcome to PPN KSS!

The PPN KSS started just over a year ago when I took up my post as Clinical Programme Manager. Together with Adrian Whittington, the Chair of the Network, and the Psychological Professions Leadership Group, we hosted two successful Steering Group engagement events earlier this year in Crawley.

These were well attended with lots of interactive activities, where psychological professionals and key stakeholders from across the region, including experts by experience, engaged in lively discussions. We generated ideas for the vision of the PPN, collaborative projects and engagement via PPN Subnetworks.

We have since been going from strength to strength...

We had our Inaugural Conference last month at Gatwick, with great representation from the psychological professions workforce and many stakeholders from across the region and beyond. You can read more about the launch here, as well as hearing from our keynote listener, Helen Leigh-Phippard.

We will now be focusing on our collaborative PPN Projects, which were all launched at the Inaugural Conference  – forming an identity together as psychological professions (PPs), creating a career map for the PPs, developing leadership in the PPs, forming evidence into practice partnerships, promoting psychological practice in physical healthcare, exploring the contribution of PPs to promoting wellbeing in communities, and, promoting the value of consultative / systems (aka indirect) working.

You can access the project summaries and how to get involved here.

The PPN Team has grown and we now have Eloise Tierney, Research Assistant, and Lynette Chatfield, Programme Administrator, supporting the programme, as well as Cristina LaCara, Darzi Fellow. You can read more about us here.

The PPN KSS Steering Group will be meeting quarterly in 2019, and we would like to encourage you to get involved in the work of the PPN and have a voice via the PPN Projects or PPN Subnetworks. So far three PPN Subnetworks are being developed for Experts by Experience, Counsellors and Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners. Please read more about PPN Subnetworks and how to get involved in setting one up here.

Our website and membership sign up are live at www.kss-ppn.nhs.uk
We will keep you updated through our comms which includes a bi-monthly e-newsletter. You can find out more about how to submit your contributions to the next newsletter here.

Please encourage others to become members of the PPN KSS, and follow us on Twitter @KSSPPN. Growing the network into a thriving community of psychological practice will provide us with a joined up, strategic voice to help shape and improve psychological healthcare in collaboration with service users and their carers.

Alice Plummer, Clinical Programme Manager