The Psychological Professions Network, South East England (PPN SE) is working on a number of projects with regional and national impact. The project ideas originate from regional interested parties engagement events.
Here is an overview of our PPN-SE project work:
- A Career Map for the Psychological Professions
Each of the psychological professions has a different training route, and there was no single resource to access career information about the different professions. This can be confusing for those who wish to find out more about the career choices on offer.
In order to address this gap, we have created an interactive career map that uniquely provides an electronic resource to inform career choices for those wishing to join the psychological professions workforce, or those wanting to find out more about the psychological professions. The career map can be found on our website here.
- Widening Participation Project
Professor Margo Ononaiye, led a widening Participation project for the PPN-SE which aimed to ensure ongoing commitment to increasing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) within the psychological professions.
“I was hearing people doing good work, but there was nobody bringing together all the information and nobody giving a coherent language to what was being done. I felt that something as important as this needs a team behind it and narrative behind it to make it work.” – Professor Margo Ononaiye
“There are lots of pockets of work being done but to make long lasting change there needs to be more integration into the profession itself with the people who make the decisions taking an active stance.” – Tessa T. Thomas
There were two main outcomes of this project:
- An Equality, Diversity, Inclusion Resource Bank
- The EDI Audit Kit
This work culminated in a in-person event at the University of Reading in February 2024, although evaluation of the application of the toolkit is still underway.
- Psychologically Informed Crisis Care Project
The PPN-SE has commissioned a six month project, drawing on a nationally funded NHSE initiative focussing on mental health crisis care. The purpose of the Psychologically Informed Crisis Project is to complete a paper for NHSE looking at the visions listed below. Alongside this the Crisis Fellow's will be organising and facilitating a Crisis Community of Practice in which Crisis colleagues can come together to share best practice and support other Crisis Colleagues.
To support these purposes of this work, the two Crisis Fellows will be focusing on the 6 keys visions below:
- Describe, understand and share the current context and recommendations of psychological provision in crisis care, to enable and encourage good practice across the South-East. Include workforce, NICE guidelines and best practice.
- Promote the lived experience feedback to inform any training and best practice recommendations.
- Promote a vision of gold standard psychologically informed crisis care
- Outline the benefits of this vision for interested parties – commissioners, service managers, crisis service clinicians, and people who use crisis services
- Establish a strong South-East network of interested people to take the vision forward. Within each trust, establish influencing groups who can mobilise key decision makers and use resources to share key messages
- Transform the narrative about psychologically informed crisis care being essential, not just desirable
This project was completed in September 2024. Join the Launch of the Psychological Informed Crisis Care Report – Tuesday 12th November (10:00am-12:00). Register here: https://forms.office.com/e/ek4H5zEHDu
- Practitioners Fellowship Project
The PPN-SE has commissioned a six month project looking at the newer psychological practitioner roles, specifically Children Wellbeing Practitioners (CWP's), Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP's) and Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner (MHWP's).
The PPN-SE practitioner fellow, Kirsten Brown (Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner, MHWP) , with the support of the PPN-SE core team, will produce a comprehensive report that will review:
- What the wellbeing practitioner role landscape looks like for psychological professionals in the SE region any gaps/barriers to these roles.
- Establish a community of practice and run at least 2 networking events during this period to mobilise and enthuse this workforce (this may be by joining forces with the already established Psychological Practitioner group).
Psychological Professions Into Action
‘Psychological Professions Into Action’ aims to bring together the 12 psychological professions across England into a more cohesive and connected community that can have the biggest possible positive impact for the public. Through national online conversations and physical events, this project has engaged and connected the psychological professions nationwide to create a refreshed understanding of each other’s roles, their collective value, and to begin to establish new ways of working as a more cohesive group, towards shared goals. This project is commissioned by the Psychological Professions Network, Kent, Surrey and Sussex on behalf of Health Education England, and facilitated by the crowdsourcing research company Clever Together.
Three national workshops were held and now closed, and every single idea and comment that was shared has been read and analysed. The data has influenced the Psychological Professions Vision for England (2020-2024). Our co-created framework will be shared during psychological professions week taking place Monday 16th November to Friday 20th November. Further information can be found on the Psychological Professions into Action website here and you can watch a video to find out more here.
If you want to get involved in future projects, please let us know at