The South Wales Programme has a long and established pedigree. It was set up in 1975 and in 1992 it was one of the first courses in the UK to become a Doctoral Programme. The Programme has strong links with Health and Social Care Services across West, East, South and Mid Wales and maintains these through close partnership working with Health and Social Care colleagues. The Programme also enjoys an excellent relationship with the School of Psychology at Cardiff University and receives valued support from its commissioners, the Welsh Assembly Government which has devolved powers and a forward-looking approach to health and social care provision throughout Wales.
The Programme is three years full-time and leads to the award of Doctor of Clinical Psychology validated by Cardiff University. This qualification confers eligibility to apply for registration with the Health Professions' Council (HPC) and Chartered Clinical Psychologist status with the British Psychological Society (BPS). Trainees are full-time employees of Cardiff and Vale University Health Board (UHB) and registered postgraduate students of Cardiff University.
The Programme aims to produce trainees who are reflective scientist-practitioners capable of working within a range of health and social care settings and in diverse social and cultural contexts. It prepares trainees for the development and redesign of professional roles within health and social care services. Thus increasing emphasis is placed on work within multi-professional/multi-agency contexts, working psychologically within teams and taking on leadership roles.
Emphasis is placed on the development of trainee competence through the implementation of individualised training plans devised in collaboration with trainees. This individualised approach to training is one of the Programme's particular strengths. The Programme is generic in nature and underpinned by a lifespan developmental approach. About half of the Programme time is spent on clinical placement with the rest divided between academic course work, research and personal study. Against a firm background of core training delivered within adult mental health, older adult, learning disabilities and children and young people modules, trainees are then able to consolidate and further develop competence through an extended elective module. Core psychological models covered are cognitive-behavioural and systemic. Opportunities for developing competence in working with cognitive-analytic, psychodynamic and person-centred models are also available.
Trainees are able to gain experience in working within a variety of clinical contexts through the completion of five clinical placements encompassing the required range of proficiencies and core competences. Supervised clinical experience is provided by Clinical Psychologists working in Health and Social Care services across West, East, South and Mid Wales.
The Programme's staffing consists of a Programme Director, Academic Director, Clinical Director, Research Director, Principal Leads for each year cohort, Senior Clinical Tutors and a Senior Research Tutor. Tutors also undertake clinical work within Health and Social Care Services and hold honorary positions with Cardiff University. The tutor team receives excellent administrative support from the Programme Administration Manager and two Programme Secretaries.
The Training Programme is located at Archway House in North Cardiff. Archway House has excellent public transport links and offers office space, lecture/seminar rooms, good library and IT facilities, work areas for trainees and excellent kitchen/dining facilities. Trainees also have access to the resources of the School of Psychology and Graduate Centre at Cardiff University which is located in central Cardiff. Cardiff offers many attractions as a backdrop for studying. There are international sports facilities encompassing rugby, cricket, football, athletics, swimming, sailing and kayaking in three new international stadia, the international sports village and the recent Cardiff Bay development. There are three national-standard concert venues and many other entertainment and cultural facilities such as art galleries, museums and cultural centres. First-rate rock-climbing, inland kayaking, mountain biking and hill-walking are available locally.
Trainee & Staff Area (novell login)