Suitability Statements

Suitability Statements are due by 4 December 2026.

Please allow yourself and your nominees plenty of time to get them organised.

See the questions that are asked

Getting a fully completed Suitability Statement

Suitability Statements are completed on this website. If your nominee is, for whatever reason, unable to use this website please ask them to contact us.

It could adversely affect your Application if your nominee:

• cannot answer several of the questions in the Suitability Statement
• cannot comment on the areas covered by the type of Suitability Statement you are asking them to write
• can only provide a standard reference document which does not address the questions in the Suitability Statement

If the employer of the person you intend to nominate has a policy to only provide their own standard reference, please consider nominating someone else.

If there is no-one else you can nominate, the person can email their standard reference to us. But please tell us about this in advance, and please provide contact details in your Application of the person who will actually send the standard reference.

Who can I nominate?

Some courses have specific requirements for the format of Suitability Statements and who can provide them.

• Please see the Courses section for the requirements of individual courses

Academic Suitability Statement

Your Academic Suitability Statement should be written by someone who can comment on your academic work.

Where possible they should be from an academic institution where you have studied and they should have direct experience of your academic ability and performance.

If you have not worked/studied with your nominee in the last 3 years, you need to explain why you have nominated them (in the Background Info section of your Application).

Experience Suitability Statement

Your Experience Suitability Statement should be written by someone who has direct experience of, and is able to comment on, your performance in a relevant role. Your role should be relevant to clinical psychology and be in a clinical context i.e. in a therapy setting (and/or research context if appropriate).

The Experience Suitability Statement should be from your current employer where possible.

You may decide to nominate a previous employer if, e.g. 

• you are not currently working in a relevant role, or
• you have only worked in your current role for a few months, or
• your current employer can only provide a standard HR reference.

However, you must explain why you are not nominating your current employer (in the Background Info section of your Application).

Personal connections

You should not normally ask your close relations, members of your immediate household or your business partner to provide a Suitability Statement. In other words, you should not nominate someone you have a personal connection with.

If you cannot avoid nominating such a person, you must explain why and state the nature of your relationship (in the Background Info section of your Application).