University of Bath

Structure and Content

After an initial induction in year 1, the pattern of learning becomes two days a week in teaching or study time and three days a week on placement, with more study/research time allocated over the summer months outside of teaching term.

Academic

Year one will cover core competencies and the knowledge required for clinical practice with adults of working age and later life, plus research teaching to develop your projects.

Year two will cover working with children and young people, people with learning disabilities and neuropsychology.

Year three will focus on specialist areas of clinical psychology and emphasise the development of higher-level competencies and meta-competencies including supervisory, management and leadership abilities.

Teaching is delivered using a range of methods, including: 

• Lectures
• Workshop-based training
• Problem-based learning
• Reflective practice
• Group and individual supervision
• Small group sessions and debates 

The clinical/research/academic integration will be enhanced by teaching conducted both by programme staff and clinical psychologists from across the region, as well as national experts and people with personal experience.

Placements

Half of the time during training is spent in supervised clinical practice.

Placements across the three years will enable trainees to develop core and advanced competencies. These broadly cover the following areas: 

Year One: Developing competencies working with adults of working age and adults in later life.

Year Two: Developing competencies working with children, young people, people with learning disabilities and issues pertaining to development.

Year Three: Developing more specialist and advanced competencies through elective placements, often including a clinical health placement.

Most placements are six months in duration, but in some instances, it is possible to have extended, 12-month placements. This may involve ageless services in the first year (covering competencies for working age adults and later life), or specialist services in the third year, where certain therapeutic models (e.g. DBT) or client groups (people who are harder to engage or have more severe and complex needs) require more extended contact

There may be some flexibility however in timings and placement arrangements according to training needs and interests, provided competencies in the core areas have been attained.

Development and assessment of clinical skills is regularly completed using live supervision via observation and recording of sessions. All trainees are issued with recording equipment early in the programme to facilitate this.

Research

Consistent with the aim to train competent scientist-practitioners, and our commitment to evidence-based practice, the course has a strong research element. There are three main research projects within the course: 

• Main research project,
• Literature review project, and
• Service-related research project.

All research projects need to be completed by May of the third year.

Research assignments should ideally be of a standard and in a style suitable for publication in an appropriate journal, rather than as a thesis which then has to be rewritten for publication. It is hoped that this will help trainees develop skills in writing for publication and ensure that much of the high-quality work conducted by trainees finds its way into journals.

Trainee projects are often presented at national and international conferences, such as the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy conference.

Assessment

Assessments are an integral part of the degree. Our programme has worked hard to ensure that assessments are varied and interesting useful learning experiences in their own right.

Summative assessments include:

• Five Case studies
• Clinical placement assessments in all six placements
• Main research project and project proposal
• Literature review project and project proposal
• Service-related research project and project proposal
• Viva Voce

Formative assessments include: 

• problem-based learning exercises
• presentation at final year research conference
• reflective narrative of development as a clinical psychologist.

People with Personal Experience (Experts by Experience)

As a programme we ensure that People with Personal Experience of the range of difficulties clinical psychologists treat are involved in all aspects of the programme.

We have a programme advisory group whose representatives are involved in:  

• Representation on all programme committees
• Equal partners in our selection interview panels
• Providing advice for our trainees in their research
• Input into teaching sessions and supporting both internal and external teachers in developing the curriculum

Engaging with national discussions regarding the expert by experience viewpoint in training and practice through the GTiCP Expert by Experience Group.

Anti-racist practice and equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives

We co-developed our EDI strategy with trainees from every year of the programme, and from this have developed operational strategies to implement EDI developments in the academic, clinical and research areas of the programme. Such developments include staff and NHS supervisor training, including EDI competencies in our placement and academic assessments, running a mentoring scheme for aspiring clinical psychologists from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic background. Some of our trainees conduct research in the areas of cultural diversity, and anti-racist approaches in clinical psychology. 
 

Staff

Please see staff profile pages on the University of Bath website for further information about particular areas of interest.