Potential Procurement of Forensic Psychologist Training Routes

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) is an agency within the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). Its role is to commission and provide services in the community and in custody ensuring best value for money from public resources. Psychologists have been directly employed by Her Majesty's Prison Service and the National Probation Service for many years. At the time of writing NOMS employs over 600 psychologists, of whom 250+ are in training. Practicing Qualified Psychologists are required to be on a statutory register with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) under Section 60 of the Health Professions Act 2000.

NOMS is considering conducting a 2 strand procurement exercise for the provision of bespoke training routes for its trainee forensic psychologists in England and Wales.

Strand 1 - Provision of circa 64 HCPC accredited routes to qualification (duration up to 3 years but general expectation to complete training in 2 years):

Qualified Registered Psychologists with the HCPC must have proved their competence beyond MSc Level in the following 3 Core Competencies of Psychologists: Clinical Assessment and Intervention; Communication of Psychological Knowledge and Training and Development. Practice experience: In addition to the requirements of the HCPC criteria NOMS would expect the programme of study to follow a logical process that weights the different elements of competency appropriately. This would provide a staged and effective training experience to develop confidence and competence within the Trainee's cohort. The format will allow for a minimum of 360 days of supervised practice to be completed in the HCPC qualifying period.

Strand 2 - Provision of circa 25 Top-Up to Practice Doctorate & BPS Chartership / Full Membership of DFP (duration up to 2 years but general expectation for trainees to complete in 18 months):

It is also expected that the MoJ will require the facility for existing trainees who have reached HCPC registration to gain a Practice Doctorate in Forensic Psychology that will allow for full Membership of the Division of Forensic Psychology and Chartership with the British Psychological Society.

This will require trainees to produce a research dissertation of Doctorial and Publishable standard and lead to the Doctoral qualification. To support trainees in producing the standard of research exemplar required, all trainees are required to have access from the provider to: a) 12 hours of teaching (remote methods acceptable) on research design and methodology. b) 12 hours of teaching (remote methods acceptable) on data analysis suitable for this level of research, both quantitative and qualitative. c) 6 hours of teaching on 'effective applications for research and ethics approval'. d) 6 hours teaching on 'planning for publication of research'. e) minimum of 10 hours academic supervision over the life of their research project. f) at least 1 full review of the final draft project with constructive feedback.

Additional information: Key Principles for Delivery of Strands 1 and 2:

Transparency and an effective route of challenge for the assessment and marking processes.

A planned and maintained time table for delivery of work for both trainee and provider.

While meeting the requirements of HCPC and BPS Chartership the training routes also meet the business requirements of NOMS.

Adequate quality assurance and contract management processes.

Routes have sufficient responsivity to meet the reasonable needs of individual trainees, but without unnecessary 'drift' of trainee progress.

Where appropriate, delivery of knowledge acquisition should be via efficient methods such as e-learning, webinars and video conferences to allow flexibility for trainees and reduce incidental costs.

Face to face gatherings will be minimal and justified by the benefits to learning outcomes.

A 'cohort support culture' should be encouraged to enable trainees to stay motivated and learn from each other.

Assessment of competence should be jointly agreed between NOMS and the Provider before final submission for external examination leading to qualification.

Lots: To reduce the amount of travel required by students, MoJ is considering dividing each Strand into 3 geographical lots:

North (Scottish border down to theoretical line drawn from Liverpool to North Lincolnshire)

Midlands (down to theoretical line from Gloucester to Colchester) and

South (anything below that including South Wales).

It is anticipated that providers will be able to bid for one, two or three lots and for one or both strands. It is expected that any face to face delivery will take place within the geographical location of the contracted lot. It is anticipated that payment for provision of each of the training routes would, at least in part, be dependent on completed delivery of the various components that make up the provision.

The purpose of this notice is to: a) Inform the market of the potential opportunity regarding Trainee Forensic Psychologists; b) Invite interest from and engagement with the market during development of the requirement and c) request information that may inform the procurement strategy. If you are interested please complete and return the attached questionnaire to [email protected] by close on 23rd February 2017.

Please note the scope and structure of this procurement may be further developed following feedback from market and stakeholder engagement. Potential suppliers will not be prejudiced by any response to this PIN, or failure to respond. This notice does not constitute a commitment by the MoJ to undertake a procurement exercise. In the event that MoJ decides to commence a procurement for the provision of training routes for Forensic Psychologists, a separate contract notice will be published in the OJEU. Any resulting procurement will be managed electronically via the MoJ e-sourcing suite and details of how to register will be provided in the OJEU Contract Notice.