As a civil service profession, psychology is embryonic. But NOMS head of forensic psychology Jo Bailey leads the largest cadre of psychologists in government. By Matthew O’Toole
Jo Bailey is not, she is at pains to point out, head of profession for all psychologists in government – but she is head of the forensic psychologists working inside the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), the civil service’s largest single cohort of psychologists. NOMS, the Ministry of Justice agency which incorporates both the prisons and probation services, is not just a big employer of psychologists within the civil service; it employs more forensic psychologists than any other organisation in the country – 250 fully qualified, and 370 more in training. Predictably, forensic psychology – the branch which focuses on the criminal mind – represents the bulk of the psychologists in NOMS. “We do have some occupational psychologists and some counselling psychologists and we also commission non-directly employed services such as clinical and health psychology as required,” says Bailey. “But of those who are directly employed, they are largely forensic psychologists.”
What do these hundreds of NOMS psychologists actually do? “They are largely involved in the two main agendas of reducing reoffending and public protection,” Bailey says. “So that means [conducting] risk assessments – that’s risk of harm to self and others – and obviously, once you’ve identified a risk, trying to intervene to reduce that risk.” The majority, she says, are based inside prisons dotted across the country, while others in regional offices take responsibility for identifying needs and commissioning services, and a smaller proportion work for the policy directorate at NOMS headquarters in London.
Whether they work in NOMS or any other department, Bailey explains, psychologists must meet highly specific criteria before being recruited. The standards for forensic psychologists are still more exacting. “To be a forensic psychologist in government you need to have a first degree in psychology that’s recognised by the British Psychological Society, and then you need to be eligible for full membership of the Division of Forensic Psychology or registered as a forensic psychologist with the Health Professions Council (HPC),” she says. That means that forensic psychologists will usually have an MSc followed by two years of supervised practice.
The length of the training process has, Bailey admits, made recruitment more difficult. “Training changed radically back in 2001 and it’s taken quite a number of years for that training route to mature and for people to start coming out the other end,” she says, admitting that the numbers of forensic psychologists qualifying – and available for recruitment into full jobs – is still relatively small. Hence, NOMS does a significant amount of its training in-house: “We tend to recruit people as trainee psychologists, at which point they have their first degree and maybe some additional experience, and then they do their ‘on the job’ training with us.” In that regard, NOMS seems to be doing its best to counteract the sluggishness of the training process – though it’s not clear if the rest of the government psychology world is having the same problem.
Another problem that plagues NOMS psychologists, according to Bailey – and one not applicable to the rest of government – is a growing tendency for offenders to use their own psychologists to oppose NOMS assessments. “From a litigation point of view, we tend to find that a lot more of our client group are employing their own psychologists to counter what they see as the government view,” she says. “There tends to be a much more adversarial approach at parole board hearings.” She notes that the related increase in demand for forensic psychologists in private practice and in special secure units has also unhelpfully tapped into the NOMS recruitment base.
The government psychology profession is still very much in nascent form (see box, right), and Bailey – who admits to being focused on the forensic discipline – feels that the development of such a cross-government network would be valuable for a variety of reasons. “It’s very easy to get psychologists pigeon-holed, so that – in our case – they just do assessment and treatment of offenders. Whereas actually psychology as a discipline has got a lot more to offer than that in terms of consultancy and research,” she says, adding that government policy would benefit from more widely deploying the insights and expertise of psychologists. And, she says, civil service psychologists would benefit from a greater esprit de corps. “Having a bit more cross-fertilisation among other government departments and other applications of psychology would be quite healthy.”
Psychologists: Who are they?
Psychologists with qualifications accredited by the British Psychological Society working for a range of government departments and agencies; job titles and grades vary across the civil service. As yet, there is no total number available for government psychologists
What do they do?
Government psychologists perform a range of functions, from psychological assessments of offenders (see main article) to policy advice based on psychological research