ARTICLE

A renewal of ethics
Mark Burton, joint winner of the Societys 2013 Award for Promoting Equality of Opportunity, provides an action framework for responding to contemporary crises
We are living in a time of crisis: economic, ecological, social and political. Some of the consequences poverty, exclusion, and the reduction and restructuring of education, health and welfare define the working context of most psychologists. Other consequences are less visible, either because their physical consequences (climate change, for example) are not yet immediate, or (like superexploitation in the majority world) they do not affect us in this country directly. But taken together the changed and worsening situation calls for a renewal of the ethical basis for practising psychology. This must go beyond professional ethical codes, setting out a basis for a scholarly activism that is orientated to community and social renewal while taking sides with the increasing numbers of the oppressed and excluded.

of psychology and beyond the discipline. Community psychology is certainly concerned with peoples actions, experiences, thoughts and beliefs, but its interest is at the level of the community rather than the individual. As such, it offers a corrective to the psychologisation that can occur within psychology, and indeed the wider so-called psy-complex.

The mess were in

was very honoured to be awarded the Societys Award for Promoting Equality of Opportunity 2013. But isnt that a rather problematic concept? In a world thats ill-divided, in the words of an old song from my home town of Manchester, isnt the idea of equality of opportunity a diversion? Rather than addressing the root causes of disadvantage, oppression and exclusion, the idea of equality of opportunity cuts short the debate, ameliorating the effects of structural and systemic inequalities, compensating for the inequalities of circumstance that have already been allowed to occur. This is a bit of a simplification and I dont want to detract from the value of such ameliorative action, after the fact. But by only having such a focus the danger is that a wider, transformational, liberatory orientation is effectively silenced. To illustrate, British equalities legislation puts a duty on public authorities to combat discrimination, but while including discrimination on the basis of disability, age, gender, sexual orientation and race, it leaves the dimensions of class, income and location to one side. Living in city where, according to Save the Children (2011), more than a quarter of our children are growing up in severe poverty, Im perhaps particularly aware of the limitations of conventional equality of opportunity thinking. I will instead talk about an ethical orientation that has evolved over the course of my career. It is grounded in community psychology, an orientation that perhaps best exemplifies what I see as a necessary perspective of being both

A perfect storm of economic, ecological, social and political crises is upon us, crises that threaten not just our standard of living but the very basis for human life. The present conjuncture, however, is not just a list of problems, but a time of crisis for dominant ways of understanding and managing our society, and indeed the world system. For the problems we now confront are indeed systemic in nature, whether we are thinking of the extraordinary, tolerated, levels of inequality, or climate change, or the privations inflicted on elderly and disabled people using our publicly funded service systems. Taken together the changed and worsening situation calls for a renewal of the ethical basis, not just for practising psychology, but for our whole society. First lets explore two very different manifestations of the present malaise. Care Working in the field of intellectual disability, I have seen for myself cases of staggeringly poor practice in general hospitals and in the deaths of apparently healthy people from undetected conditions, and the reluctance, nay refusal, of much of the primary care health service to carry out its basic responsibilities to carry out positive health checks, screening for treatable conditions. In terms of the unnecessary deaths of learning disabled people, typically due to a failure to identify and treat remediable illness, the reduction in life expectancy is estimated to be around 13 years for men and 20 years for women

question references resources

To what extent are psychology and psychologists 'part of the problem'?

Liberation Psychology Network: http://libpsy.org Escobar, A. (2007). Worlds and knowledges otherwise: The Latin American modernity/coloniality research program. Cultural Studies, 21(2), 179210.

Anderson, K. & Bows, A. (2010). Beyond dangerous climate change: Emission scenarios for a new world. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 369(1934), 2044. doi:10.1098/rsta.2010.0290 Burton, M. (2004). Viva Nacho! Liberating psychology in Latin America. The Psychologist, 17(10), 584587. Burton, M. (2013). In and against social

policy. Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice, 4(2). Retrieved 14 August 2013 from www.gjcpp.org/en/ article.php?issue=14&article=69 Burton, M. & Kellaway, M. (1998). Developing and managing high quality services for people with learning disabilities. Aldershot: Ashgate. Corporate Europe Observatory (2010). Concealing their sources who funds Europes climate change

deniers? Brussels. Retrieved 14 August 2013 from tinyurl.com/n7f4zq3 Dussel, E. (1995). The invention of the Americas: Eclipse of the other and the myth of modernity. New York: Continuum. Dussel, E. (1997). The architectonic of the ethics of liberation. In D. Batstone, E. Mendieta, L.A. Lorentzen & D.N. Hopkins (Eds.) Liberation theologies, postmodernity, and the Americas. New

York and London: Routledge. Dussel, E. (2000). Europe, modernity and eurocentrism. Nepantla: View from the South, 1(3), 465478. Dussel, E. (2013). Ethics of liberation: In the age of globalization and exclusion. Durham, NC,: Duke University Press. (Original work published in Spanish 1998) Fatheuer, T. (2011). Buen Vivir: A brief introduction to Latin Americas new

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(Heslop et al., 2013), by my calculation reflectivity is reduced and CO2 concentrations have reached 400ppm, 1800 preventable deaths in England and unprecedented in human history and Wales every year. prehistory. We are on the threshold of But denial of the conditions for living, runaway global warming (Anderson & in its broader sense, is not just a problem Bows, 2010), and that is just one of the of mainstream health care. We have seen three planetary limits that we are now the appalling cruelty at Winterbourne crossing, along with biodiversity loss View, not just the result of a few malign and the biogeochemical flow boundary staff, but an incompetent system that failed (Rockstrm et al., 2009). This is an to treat those young people as citizens in emergency that puts all the other crises need of a combination of kindness and into relief. We dont know what window technical know-how if they were to might remain to mitigate runaway climate flourish. Nor, again, is this just a problem change, probably none, nor do we know facing the relatively small group of what window there might be to adapt. intellectually disabled people, as the Mid But we are very Staffordshire scandal likely on the shows. In that case threshold of the my initial instinct greatest is to blame the population crash neoliberal in the life of our commodification of species. care, together with The climate an allied approach crisis is curious. to performance There is the wellmanagement that known denialism lost sight of the real and even content of the caring psychological relationship. analyses of it Yet I fear there is (Weintrobe, 2012). a second dynamic at Global warming more than just one Much of it is work. How could it dimension of our present predicament funded by oil be that staff acted so companies and callously, leaving their right-wing US hearts at the entrance think-tanks (Corporate Europe of the hospital? Is this just reducible to Observatory, 2010; Goldenberg, 2013; the particular conditions of the NHS under Leonard, 2010) I call this vulgar the neoliberal regime or is there more to denialism. But there is also a finessed it? I remember the conditions endured by denialism, evident in the coexistence in vulnerable people in mental handicap government policy of climate change hospitals and geriatric hospitals under legislation together with the prioritisation the pre-Thatcher NHS and it was nothing of economic growth, incompatible with to celebrate at all. Care scandals are not emissions-reduction targets, not to new, despite being made more likely by mention the establishment of an office running the system instrumentally and for the exploitation of unconventional oil with tight resources. and gas. And to some extent we are all denialists its how we stay sane in the Our planet face of impending catastrophe. Until recently the ecological crisis was This manufactured ecological crisis just one more dimension of our present has an equalities dimension: continued predicament, but now I believe it to be inaction is condemning people to pain and the central problem. The Arctic is suffering, treating them as of less worth melting, methane is being released,

than others. But while this starts with people in places like the Andean altiplano, the Sahel or the coast of Bangladesh, it extends potentially to all of us certainly to my children and grandchildren an inequality constructed inter-generationally.

Ideology-action-structure
I have come to think about these issues in terms of what I call ideology-actionstructure complexes (I-A-S Cs) in which ideology, action (practices) and structure support one other. This reality is layered and contradictory, so some elements can at times appear to be in conflict even though they hang together as an overall hegemonic complex. I suggest the following list of the most important I-A-S Cs: I The rational administration of complexity: This is the administrative impulse to order and simplify rather than describing the dimensions and layers of complexity, working with the flow. By reducing complexity to a few elements, controlling them, the hope is to manage the complex system itself. I Taming natures: The wild, the natural, is to be controlled, to be mastered, enclosed and channelled, or suppressed. It is seen as or turned into resources. It is seen as separate from humanity, and humanity as separate from it. When valued it is appreciated in a distorted version of itself. I Linear progress: Progress is a culturally located idea, absent in some languages. It implies a linear path from the primitive to the modern, with no detours and no end. It is authoritarian since it defines out of scope other paths. After all, you cant stand in the way of progress. I The dominance of exchange and possession: As Marx and Engels said, All that is solids turns to air or rather money. What was once free is subject to exchange relations. That which was once common is now owned. All that is intangible is made concrete, possessed, processed and sold.

concepts for the good life and the rights of nature. Berlin: Heinrich Bll Foundation. Retrieved 14 August 2013 from tinyurl.com/l44vunf Fernndez Retamar, R. (1974). Caliban. The Massachusetts Review, 15(1/2), 772. Goldenberg, S. (2013, 14 February). Secret funding helped build vast network of climate denial thinktanks. The Guardian. Retrieved 14 August

2013 from tinyurl.com/ce5px5u Grosfoguel, R. (2008). Transmodernity, border thinking, and global coloniality: Decolonizing political economy and postcolonial studies. Eurozine. Retrieved 14 August 2013 from www.eurozine.com/articles/ 2008-07-04-grosfoguel-en.html Gudynas, E. (2011). Buen Vivir: Todays tomorrow. Development, 54(4), 441447.

Heslop, P., Blair, P., Fleming, P. et al. (2013). Confidential inquiry into premature deaths of people with learning disabilities. Final report. Bristol: University of Bristol. Retrieved 14 August 2013 from www.bris.ac.uk/cipold/ fullfinalreport.pdf Kagan, C., Burton, M., Duckett, P. et al. (2011). Critical community psychology. Chichester: Wiley.

Lander, E. (Ed.). (2000a). La colonialidad del saber: Eurocentrismo y ciencias sociales. Perspectivas latinoamericanas. Buenos Aires: CLASCO. Retrieved 14 August 2013 from tinyurl.com/kf3k7q5 Lander, E. (2000b). Ciencias sociales: Saberes coloniales y eurocntrico. In E. Lander (Ed.) La colonialidad del saber: Eurocentrismo y ciencias sociales. Perspectivas

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The primacy of exploitation: The system depends on exploitation. The high levels of consumption of the few (globally) depend on labour exploitation of varying degrees of savagery and on the ruthless exploitation of the planets living and mineral resources. Mono-culturality and the suppression of other cultural systems: Particular cultural forms dominate, where culture means the ordinary ways we live, and pass on and share that way of life through traditions, crafts, arts, rituals and the material trappings of everyday life. Alien cultures are variously suppressed, trivialised or co-opted. And we are now faced with ever greater homogenisation just as identity politics is celebrated. Assumed superiority: That European civilisation is the pinnacle and other cultures (and hence peoples) are inferior, is deeply ingrained in our education, culture, foreign and domestic policy. The assumption appears savagely in the far right and more subtly elsewhere.

But where do these complexes come from?

Where did it all go wrong?

It has been said that we are no longer in the holocene epoch but in the anthropocene, where the influence of the human species on our planetary systems is decisive. Dating the point at which it all started to go so wrong is difficult. For some it was the adoption of agriculture, leading to sufficient surplus for urban communities, and to the depletion of soils and forests, the first localised instances of climate change. For others it was the evolution of capitalism, a system the goal of which is to accumulate more and more capital, without end. For others it was somewhere in between, perhaps the adoption of monotheism. Personally, I am increasingly persuaded by the thesis that an absolutely pivotal

moment was the colonisation of the Americas, from 1492. This is an analysis made by a number of decolonising thinkers and activists from the Global South and Latin America in particular, for it was there that other humans appear to have been first redefined as subhuman (Dussel, 1995, 2000; Lander, 2000a; Lander & Past, 2003), a problematic explored by Shakespeare in The Tempest (Fernndez Retamar, 1974; Mannoni, 1956). A key hypothesis is that the colonising moment ushered in a then new, but now dominant, way in which Western society treats the other the marginal, the frail, the inconvenient, the outsider, the lower orders, extending to those we dont know, future generations, people in other parts of the world. So the colonisation that took place in the American continent both supported and provided models for the new ideologyaction-structure complexes there, in the later regions of colonisation and in the heart and hinterland of the imperialist centres themselves. Coloniality did not require a colony any more, but was a model of domination that applied between classes and also in relation to other groups: the poor, the disabled, the unconventional and the delinquent. As Grosfoguel (2008) puts it: Coloniality is not equivalent to colonialism. It is not derivative from, or antecedent to, modernity. Coloniality and modernity constitute two sides of a single coin. The same way as the European industrial revolution was achieved on the shoulders of the coerced forms of labour in the periphery, the new identities, rights, laws, and institutions of modernity such as nation-states, citizenship and democracy were formed in a process of colonial interaction with, and domination/ exploitation of, non-Western people. The social technologies, and the ontological assumptions behind them (Quijano, 2000), that emerged within the action moment of the colonial ideology-actionstructure complexes were generalised to other contexts and are with us still, as exemplified in the list I referred to earlier.

If this account is taken seriously, it means that coloniality is integral to the modern world and to all the problem areas described above. To tackle these problems requires something much more radical than most previous or current reform movements or proposals envisage. Rather than trying to fix the capitalistcolonial-ecocidal systems that we are all embedded in, it is necessary to work for their replacement, and this requires work that tackles the ideology, the action-systems and the structures of the present systems of domination of populations and nature. This is a hypothesis but, if supported, it calls for a different approach to ethics, one that starts from the ethical relationship between people and especially with the vulnerable, marginalised, oppressed, excluded and invisible, and the rest of us, and between people and nature. It means a focus not so much on the administrative techniques of the state and market (within which I include the technologies of psychological assessment and intervention) as on the very nature of social relations that we mean to construct. This orientation has a lot in common with those early opponents of the modern regime, the Levellers, the Ranters and the Diggers. It connects with concerns of feminism and (in that it rejects the duality peoplenature) with the ecological dimension. You can find it in a number of contemporary social movements, for example the Buen Vivir/Vivir Bien movements of the contemporary Andes (Fatheuer, 2011; Gudynas, 2011; Lanza, 2012). It has its echoes in those approaches to the position of the very disabled that start from an ethical problematisation of their situation in society and in our lives; for example in the work of Vanier and Wolfensberger

latinoamericanas (pp.423). Buenos Aires: CLASCO. Retrieved 14 August 2013 from tinyurl.com/kf3k7q5 Lander, E. & Past, M. (2003). Eurocentrism, modern knowledges, and the natural order of global capital. Nepantla: Views from South, 3(2), 245268. Lanza, M. (2012). Buen Vivir: An introduction from a womens rights perspective in Bolivia. Toronto:

Association for Womens Rights in Development (AWID). Retrieved 14 August 2013 from tinyurl.com/ mnrcszu Leonard, T. (2010, 30 March). Oil conglomerate secretly funds climate change deniers. The Telegraph. Retrieved 14 August 2013 from tinyurl.com/ylx9ctv Mannoni, P. (1956). Prospero and Caliban: The psychology of colonization. (P.

Powesland, Trans.). London: Methuen. Marsh, J. (2000). The material principle and the formal principle in Dussels ethics. In L. Alcoff & E. Mendieta (Eds.) Thinking from the underside of history: Enrique Dussels philosophy of liberation. (pp.5167). Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Martn-Bar, I. (1996). Toward a liberation psychology. In A. Aron & S.

Corne (Eds.) Writings for a liberation psychology. New York: Harvard University Press. (Original publication: Hacia una psicologa de la liberacin. Boletin de Psicologa, 22, 219231) (Internet version: www.uca.edu.sv/deptos/psicolog/ hacia.htm) Quijano, A. (2000). Coloniality of power, eurocentrism, and Latin America. Nepantla, 1(3). Retrieved 14 August

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The world turned upside down as with the Levellers of the English revolution, liberation ethics starts from the ethical relationship between people and especially with the vulnerable, marginalised, oppressed, excluded and invisible, and the rest of us, and between people and nature

BRITISH LIBRARY

2000). He identifies three ethical principles: I the material: the production, reproduction and development of the life of each an every human subject, in its biological, social and spiritual dimensions; I the communicative or inter-subjective principle: focused on procedures for reaching agreement (equivalent to the school of discourse ethics); and I the practical, which leads us to a consideration of what it is actually possible to achieve (equivalent to the pragmatic school of ethics). But Dussel then makes clear that each one of these must be subjected to a constant critique from the perspective of the oppressed other in both a negative critical sense and in a positive reconstructive sense. The central idea is the critique of the conditions caused by the dominant system from the perspective of the oppressed other, the victims of the system. By revisiting each principle in turn, he articulates a practical approach to ethics in a world where the majority are excluded from the possibility of producing, reproducing and developing their lives not just in the narrow material sense but also in the wider social, cultural sense of living with dignity. And indeed this seems to me just what we have seen in the critiques of the established order of things from say, disability activists or mental health system survivors, as well as from other groups that suffer oppression or exclusion via the dominant ideologyaction-structure complexes, leading in turn to the (always provisional, imperfect) reconstruction of theory and practice. For me, compared to any professional ethical code this approach is both more positively focused on the consideration of what is good and right, and more critical, recognising the conflictual nature of any social action. It is therefore more comprehensive and more challenging. In my view, psychology needs an ethical point of reference against which

who criticise technocratic approaches to care of these others, instead emphasising the need to proceed from close, respectful and humble relationships (Vanier, 2006; Wolfensberger, 1994). The alternative approach suggested here is also to be found in the orientation known as liberation psychology, which specifically starts from the perspective of the oppressed, the excluded, the other, aiming to turn psychology on its head so that its knowledge and practice is continually interrogated from the perspective of the other (Burton, 2004).

Beyond the ethics of professional bodies

With this in mind let us turn to the ethical orientations provided by professional bodies. The cynic might

say that such codes are the cosmetic trappings that legitimise the profession, as profession. It might also be said that the attempt to codify ethics in terms of dos and donts is antithetical to the process of acting ethically in Kohlbergian terms it is tantamount to an immature stage in moral development. There may be some truth in both these critiques, but the British Psychological Society does at least stress the need for constant critical reflection in its 2009 Code of Ethics and Conduct (www.bps.org.uk/code). Yet on re-reading that Code I find a different kind of gap. Consider its four underpinning ethical principles: respect, competence, responsibility and integrity. What is missing? Let me contrast this list with the, admittedly unconventional framework of the philosopher of liberation Enrique Dussel (1997, 2013; Marsh,

2013 from www.unc.edu/~aescobar/ wan/wanquijano.pdf Rockstrm, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K. et al. (2009). A safe operating space for humanity. Nature, 461(7263), 472475. doi:10.1038/461472a Save the Children. (2011). Briefing: Severe child poverty: Nationally and locally. London: Author. Upton, U. & Burton, M. (2012). Final report of the Manchester Getting a Life

Project. Manchester: Manchester Learning Disability Partnership. Retrieved 14 August 2013 from www.scribd.com/doc/99690468/Manc hester-Getting-a-Life-Report-Final Vanier, J. (2006). Encountering the other. New York: Paulist Press. Weintrobe, S. (Ed.) (2012). Engaging with climate change: Psychoanalytic and interdisciplinary perspectives. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.

Wolfensberger, W. (1994). The growing threat to the lives of handicapped people in the context of modernistic values. Disability & Society, 9(3), 395413. doi:10.1080/09687599466780421

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to check its content. But it is not enough to rely on internal self-correction within the discipline; the challenge needs to come from those affected or potentially affected (positively or negatively) by the disciplines conceptual and practical constructions and actions. The 2008 BPS discussion paper on socially inclusive practice (tinyurl.com/bpssiprac) does suggest some places to start on such a journey. In the best work within the framework of the psychology of liberation, an approach is taken where the oppressed other constructs, with the specialist, a liberatory praxis comprising both understanding and action to transform lived reality (Martn-Bar, 1996). This is not a difficult idea, but it is one that is quite alien to the dominant approaches in psychology. I saw this approach in action last year in peripheral communities in Fortaleza, Brazil (Community Mental Health Movement of Bom Jardin) and La Paz, Bolivia (Pampajasi Urban Aymara Community): in both cases psychologists had worked for years with social movement organisations that provided collectively managed and designed services (although that word is somehow wrong) where it was hard to see the divide between therapy, community-based cultural activity and social action. The psychologists had an interesting role, not unlike that suggested by the Zapatistas of Chiapas mandar obedeciendo: leading whilst obeying [the people], although in these cases the leadership tended to be specialist, concerned with coconceptualising processes and with help in accessing resources, rather than directive. This orientation to understanding and action implies the active involvement in principled social transformation instead of merely being scientists, scientistpractitioners, technicians or professionals, a more engaged role is adopted, one that has been variously called organic intellectual/engaged scholar/scholaractivist/intellectual in the public sphere. And to reassure you that I am not just advocating political activism, the point is both to adopt a healthy and socially supported critique of psychologys concepts and methods and to use them for human liberation. One of Ignacio Martn-Bars associates and interpreters, the Venezuelan social psychologist Maritza Montero (cited in Lander, 2000b) discussed the new socialscientific perspective that emerged from the liberatory and decolonising movements in Latin America as a way of seeing the world, interpreting it and acting on it with the following key organising ideas: I A conception of community and of participation, in which knowledge is

Building a better social reality

Getting a Life was a government-sponsored (but not funded) demonstration project aiming to improve both the outcomes and experiences of young severely intellectually disabled people as they moved to adulthood. It involved working with a variety of sectors, using person-centred planning approaches together with an emphasis on the supported employment model for gaining paid work (in contrast to the train-and-place model with its ideology of readiness). For me, the project was notable for the role of family activists in challenging how we did things. It was their radicalism and creativity, not always expressed in politically correct ways, but always rooted in their love for and profound knowledge of our kids, that enabled the Aaron, one of the participants, on work placement building of a consensus among a at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital variety of agencies as to what was required to really transform the very complex, multi-sectorial system we were all caught in, setting the scene for the next phase of participative policy experimentation while establishing on the ground some inspiring examples (and only examples so far) of what is actually possible (Burton, 2013; Upton & Burton, 2012).
THE MANCHESTER COLLEGE

I I I I I

relational, both in its production and in the way we conceptualise it. The idea of liberation through social praxis, based on the mobilisation of conscience and the expansion of consciousness. It leads to a critique of the received ways of apprehending, constructing and being in the world. The redefinition of the role of the social researcher in relation to the Other, who is recognised in their own right, as the subject and object of research, as well as its co-creator. The historical character of knowledge: indeterminate, undefined, unfinished and relative. The multitude of voices from a variety of life-worlds, with equal claims for authenticity. A perspective that recognises domination, and consequently resistance too. The tension between minorities and majorities and alternative modes of doing and knowing. The need to rethink the methods and approaches of social science and social technology and their role in positive and negative social transformation. (Montero, cited in Lander, 2000b, translated and reworded MB)

I would add the responsibility to be a public intellectual. (It is only in the English-speaking world where intellectual is an insult.) I am not saying I have consistently done this, but for the last 30 and more years my commitment has been to work together with the disadvantaged, together building a better social reality, itself nurtured by experience in action and the integration of different forms of knowledge and expertise, not just from the professionals but from disabled people and their families, dissident social thinkers and social movement activists too. An example was the Manchester Getting a Life project that I was lucky enough to lead (see box). I believe that this approach is fully consistent with the best traditions of public service and responsible professionalism and scholarship. It is not compatible with a self-serving, fashionfollowing technocratic elite, the antiintelligentsia, that uses the cloak of professionalism to evade accountability and scrutiny of their arts.

It is a similar conception that has guided my own work, both as a public servant and as a scholar (Burton & Kellaway, 1998; Kagan et al., 2011), although

Mark Burton is Visiting Professor at Manchester Metropolitan University mark.burton@poptel.org

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Safeguard the profession: Engage and be part of our future

Were looking for committed and enthusiastic members to get involved in reviewing and accrediting undergraduate programmes, postgraduate programmes across a range of areas of applied psychology and Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner training programmes. Your skills and experience Were looking for members from academic and/or practitioner backgrounds with expertise in: Running accredited programmes; and/or Supervising or managing trainee or qualified psychologists working in a range of practice environments; or supervising or managing trainee or qualified PWPs. Previous experience of participation in quality assurance or governance processes is desirable, but if you have other experience that you think is relevant, please let us know. Our approach and ethos Our approach is known as accreditation through partnership: we work collaboratively with the providers whose programmes we accredit, and we see our reviewers as key partners in that process. Our reviewers tell us that their involvement in accreditation through partnership gives them valuable insight into different approaches to training the psychologists of the future, and offers them the opportunity to network with and learn alongside a diverse range of professional colleagues. What sort of work is involved? Our reviewers work as part of a committee with responsibility for accrediting programmes and enhancing quality. We ask our reviewers to engage in both paper-based reviews of psychology programmes and in one or two-day partnership visits to universities across the UK. The nature and number of reviews and visits will vary year on year, but we will work closely with you to ensure that you are able to balance any work you undertake on our behalf with your other commitments. The majority of our review work is undertaken remotely (electronically) but we also hold meetings during the year as an opportunity for discussion of key policy and practice issues, and to facilitate peer support and training. We reimburse travel and subsistence expenses for any meetings or visits you attend as part of this role. How to apply If you would like to be considered for appointment as a reviewer, please contact Lauren Ison (email: lauren.ison@bps.org.uk or call 0116 252 9563) for an application form and information pack. The deadline for receipt of applications is 13 December 2013. We will select and appoint members on the basis of the skills and experience demonstrated in their application, and will seek wherever possible to achieve a balance of expertise across the reviewer community as a whole.

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