Supervisor and Reviewer Newsletter

Zoe is a HCPC Registered Sport and Exercise Psychologist, BASES Accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist and Professor of Engagement and Learning at LJMU (0.95 FTE). Zoe was Chair of the Psychology Division and Board member until November 2020 before handing over to Dr Adam Gledhill and taking up her new role as Chair Elect of BASES. Zoe is co-SEPAR lead and SEPAR advisor. z.r.knowles@ljmu.ac.uk

Prof Richard Thelwell

Richard is a Professor of Applied Sport Psychology at the University of Portsmouth and Head of School for Sport, Health and Exercise Science. In addition to being an HCPC registered practitioner psychologist, he has a wealth of supervisor and reviewer experience. Richard has led the development of the SEPAR for the past 3 years with the support of many esteemed colleagues within BASES.

richard.thelwell@port.ac.uk

Chris Marshall 

Chris, is BASES accredited and HCPC registered as a practitioner psychologist. Over the last 12 years Chris has worked for the EIS, the FA and the ECB providing athlete and coach support at numerous international events and throughout development pathways. He is now an independent psychologist working in Cricket, Professional Boxing and Rugby Union. chris.marshall@thefa.com

Prof Chris Harwood, FBASES

Chris is a Professor of Sport Psychology at Loughborough University. He is a HCPC registered practitioner psychologist and a longstanding supervisor and reviewer for practitioner training pathways in the UK. Over the last 25 years, Chris has worked as a practitioner, coach and parent educator across a wide range of sports, but most consistently within youth sport across tennis and football contexts. C.G.Harwood@lboro.ac.uk

As reviewer representatives for the BASES SEPAR, our main role is to effectively and appropriately represent the views of all reviewers at the SEPAR committee meeting. In so doing, we hope to be able to create a platform for all views to be aired about the quality and processes of supervisees’ work, as well as to feed in experiences and perspectives of reviewing on SEPAR such that standards and experiences for reviewers, supervisors and supervisees can be optimised. In a two-way process, our role is also to feedback relevant information from BASES and the SEPAR committee to ensure that reviewers both enjoy the process of reviewing but also feel connected to the SEPAR process. Appropriate and consistent reviewing of candidates is a crucial part of their SEPAR journey as it acts as a helpful yardstick of progress, alongside a useful platform to check and challenge further plans of development. Our role aims to ensure that reviewing is consistent, supportive and appropriately challenging. 

Our role is to represent the interests of supervisors on the SEPAR committee. As well as feeding information in and out of committee meetings, we aim to facilitate networking amongst supervisors, share best practice, and be a point of contact for supervision queries or concerns.

There are currently 35 registered SEPAR supervisors with BASES. Since the first SEPAR cohort enrolled in January 2020, supervisors have been navigating their way through supporting trainees, paperwork and initial submissions (not to mention contingency planning once hit with the lockdown in March). We recognize at times this has been challenging and would like to thank everyone for their perseverance and commitment during this time.
Our role is to represent the interests of supervisors on the SEPAR committee. As well as feeding information in and out of committee meetings, we aim to facilitate networking amongst supervisors, share best practice, and be a point of contact for supervision queries or concerns.

• Supervisor training was described as excellent, clear and well-presented. It was however suggested that some kind of “live” support (either individual or as a group) might have been useful early on.
• The BASES office were praised for their communication and support, and reviewers were praised for excellent response times to the initial submission.
• Supervisors did however note some uncertainty around the paperwork and what was required for the initial submission, and it was suggested that some clearer guidance and prior examples would have been useful.
• We also asked supervisors how trainees had “identified” them, and 64% respondents already knew their trainees. Recommendations were made for expanding the information on the BASES website about available supervisors, with the option to indicate which supervisors have “spaces” or are “full”.
• Since ~45% supervisors were not networking with other supervisors, it was felt that quarterly reflective meetings might be helpful, along with an online forum for supervisors. There was also good support for a supervisor mentoring programme.

In response to the final two points in the survey, BASES SEPAR committee are developing a ‘consultant finder’ to include both SEPAR Graduates and SEPAR Supervisors and Slack channels are being developed as a means for supervisors to keep in touch. Please remember the SEPAR Leads are available to support Supervisors and Reviewers in their roles.

Our next steps are to explore the best ways of supporting supervisor networking and peer reflection, so we will be in touch with more information in due course. In the meantime, please do contact us if you have any other suggestions, concerns or just want to say “hello”! 

New development from the Psychology Division – MSc programme endorsement

Advanced plans are underway to launch a ‘Pre SEPAR Approved Programme’ for single discipline MSc courses. This work is currently led by the Deputy Chair of the Psychology Division. On endorsement we will list the courses on the BASES ‘Course finder’ site and highlight good practice within these programmes. There will be paid opportunities for SEPAR Supervisors/Reviewers to review submissions from HEIs. If you are interested in supporting this project, please contact Dr Adam Gledhill Adam.Gledhill@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

BASES webinar series

A reminder that the multidisciplinary webinar series is available retrospectively for all members. Dr Denise Hill as Division CPD rep (now Division Deputy Chair) has completed a mapping exercise for these sessions against SEPAR Competencies that will be added to the website soon.

Update on core workshops - Prof Zoe Knowles

SEPAR offers SEPiTs core workshops within their registration fees on 1) reflective practice 2) professional ethics 3) safeguarding in conjunction with BASES SE programme. These have recently been converted to online content with live sessions and were successfully run in October and November. This conversion has been quite a task for the core workshop team (Dr Andy Miles, Prof Brendan Cropley, Dr Emma Huntley, Prof Zoe Knowles, Mr Andy Borrie) alongside their day jobs! As part of the move to online approach, a page will be created for candidates and supervisors/reviewers to access so you are aware of content. As has been raised previously, Andy Miles will shortly run a drop in session for SEPAR Supervisors/Reviewers to pick up on any queries/ideas for development. This will be recorded for those who cannot make it.

The Mental Health programme of videos and workbooks developed by Dr Paul Gorczynski and Dr Anthony Papathomas has been released to all SEPAR candidates. It is an exceptional programme of CPD. Distribution included 2020 APEC candidates as a gesture of goodwill, given disruption to the workshops they would pick up within the SEPAR fee that have not been able to run due to COVID. APEC candidates in future cohorts can access the MH modules but this would ‘use up’ workshop credits. A page for the resources will be developed and Supervisors/Reviewers will have access to these resources to inform their SEPiT supervision. The Mental Health workshops (independent of the content) are now available for booking and the modules will soon be available to organisations and HEI’s to purchase. Please consider the utility of these in your programmes/wider work – the cost offered is not for profit. I would draw your attention to the Mental Health Literacy BASES Expert Statement and the BASES 2020 Global Webinar series session (see below) from Paul and Anthony too.

Call for tutors – Understanding your Client workshop

The final core workshop is entitled ‘Understanding your Client’ and will be modified from that of the BASES SE workshop exclusively for SEPiT’s. Ideally, this workshop should be completed before the mid-point submission and focuses on case study development. We are planning to run this in early 2021 for the first time. We are thinking of presenting a typical case study presentation (conference style) with consideration also given to adapting this to a non-scientific format and that of a creative approach too. Andy Miles would be keen to hear from SEPAR Supervisors/Reviewers to tutor these half-day events – contact him on andymiles@m2m2.co.uk – payment will be made for tutoring.

New development from SEPAR – Going Global!

We have undertaken an exercise with regard to the feasibility of offering SEPAR for international candidates following considerable interest (without active promotion!) from eligible candidates overseas. There are challenges as regards DBS checks and ensuring candidates meet the appropriate SEPAR entry, but we have explored with the HCPC, the eligibility to register on completion of SEPAR. BASES is keen to work internationally and explore ‘reciprocal arrangements’ as highlighted by our MoU with AASP. More on this soon and we welcome representations from Supervisors with regard to interest and how this could work practically.

BASES endorsement

We are planning to host the Psychology Division Day for 2021 in May online led by the Divisions new CPD rep Dr Mustafa Sarkar. As BASES continues its commitment to free webinars to support the sport and exercise community during the CoVid Pandemic we welcome offers to hold webinars from Supervisors/Reviewers. Please contact Mustafa via mustafa.sarkar@ntu.ac.uk

For those not aware BASES offered endorsement of courses that will now include mapping to SEPAR Competencies and handling of all bookings and administration with a full marketing programme. If you wish to advertise an event/consider endorsement see here.  

Lee, S.A., Fogaça, J., & Harrison, M. (2020). Can Writing Be Wrong? Collaborative Autoethnography as Critical Reflective Practice in Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology. Qualitative Report, 25(10), 3562-3582.

Azimi, S., and Tamminen, K. (2020) Parental Communication and Reflective Practice among Youth Sport Parents. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology. 1-24. 10.1080/10413200.2019.1705433

Cropley, B., Baldock, L., Hanton, S., Gucciardi, D. F., McKay, A., Neil, R., & Williams, T. (2020). A Multi-Study Exploration of Factors That Optimize Hardiness in Sport Coaches and the Role of Reflective Practice in Facilitating Hardy Attitudes. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 1823. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01823