(3) Standards Development
and Professional Development Policy
Singapore Register of Psychologists - Standards
Development
Upgrading the requirements to become a Registered Psychologist in
Singapore
When the SRP was first formed at the end of December
2001, the standards which were set to qualify for registration were appropriate
to the developmental stage of the profession of psychology in Singapore at that
time. As the profession matures, these standards will be revisited.
Initial registration requirements in Singapore
consisted of a Masters or Doctoral degree in Applied Psychology, full membership
of SPS and evidence of 800 hours of supervised experience, of which 240 hours
had to involve face to face client contact (60%), 80 hours had to involve
supervision including at least 40 hours of individual (one-to-one) supervision
(20%) and 80 hours could have consisted of other activities (e.g., psychological
report writing) (20%).
Over time these qualification standards will be
gradually lifted. In 2006 we moved to require an increase in the current
practicum requirements from 400 to 600 hours, and it is proposed that further
increases to 800 hours and eventually to 1000 hours will occur in the future.
Future SRP committees may consider further increasing the requirements to 800
hours from January 2008 and to 1000 hours from January 2010.
The Australian Psychological Society requirements are
for 1000 hours of which 400 must be face to face with clients or patients (40%),
200 hours must involve supervision (30%) and the remaining 400 hours (30%) can
be used for other activities including report writing. These standards can be
considered as an appropriate international benchmark.
Table 1: Suggested revisions to the registration
hourly requirements.
|
|
Previous
requirements |
2006
requirements |
2008 |
2010
proposed |
|
Total
hours |
400 |
600 |
800 |
1000 |
|
Client
contact |
240
(60%) |
300
(50%) |
360
(45%) |
400
(40%) |
|
Supervision
|
80
(20%) |
120
(20%) |
160
(20%) |
200
(30%) |
|
Other |
80
(20%) |
180
(30%) |
280
(35%) |
400
(40%) |
Qualification requirements for supervisors
Maturation of the society has resulted in evolving
standards concerning supervision. Some years ago psychology masters students
were able to be supervised by non psychologists (people such as social workers/
psychiatrists, family therapists, etc.). These requirements were subsequently
upgraded so that supervisors had to be Registered Psychologists or eligible to
be registered psychologists. This means that some people who were well trained
and might, for example, be a Chartered Psychologist in the UK or a licensed
psychologist in the US or a College member in Australia were eligible to
supervise even though they were not registered in Singapore.
From January 2006 all people who wish to supervise
trainee psychologists toward registration in Singapore are required to
themselves be Registered Psychologists in Singapore.
Professional Development
scheme
The initial continuing education policy was that SRP
members were “encouraged” to accumulate “the equivalent of eight hours of
continuing education per year” (SRP Application Information (V)).
The maturation of the Society meant that it became
timely to introduce more stringent PD requirements here.
Guidelines for Completing Professional Development
Log as of 2009:
§ Continued Registration as a Psychologist requires 60
hours of PD activity per cycle (a cycle is 2 years so this means 30 hours per
year average)
§ There are
3 categories of PD activity and the PD hours can include hours from any of these
3 categories per cycle (see Table 2.below).
Self regulation
The PD system will initially be largely
self-regulated. Registered Psychologists will be expected to keep an organized
record of PD activities completed in a logbook (see template below).
§
Registered Psychologists will be required to maintain a summary sheet of their
PD activities.
§ At
the end of a PD cycle (a cycle will consist of 2 years, the start date is from
March 2005) Registered Psychologists may be asked to provide evidence of their
PD activities as a condition of continued registration. Initially this will
likely consist of a random audit of sample of psychologists.
As our procedures develop we will move to a system
where Registered Psychologists will have to submit records of their PD
activities on a summary sheet at the end of each 2 year cycle.
Failure to complete the required PD hours in a cycle
will result in a Registered Psychologist moving to a Conditional Registration
category until the deficit is rectified.
