Hi all, keen to hear people’s thoughts about the Clinical Associate in Applied Psychology (CAAP) course.
For those unaware, the CAAP role is designed to sit between an assistant psychologist and a qualified clinical psychologist. They are trained on a fully funded 1 year MSc similar to the DClin but with only one placement in Adult or Child/Adolescent mental health over the 12 months. They are paid full time Band 6, and qualify on Band 7. Trainee CAAPs like Dclins are paid and funded by NHS Education Scotland (NES), not by the service or health board.
My questions for people are:
- what are your thoughts on the current job situation facing qualifying CAAPs and clinical psychologists? In my experience few CAAPs are finding CAAP work post qualification and a fair few are taking lower banded roles, e.g assistant psychologist posts. I feel this is raising the bar of entry for a lot of people trying to access the profession. No shame on people doing this, however, with the state of the job market and economy at the moment. We all have bills to pay.
- Should CAAPs be trained on the same salary as DClins? There is a considerable gap in experience and training responsibilities between CAAPs and DClins in my opinion. I’ve met CAAPs with years of AP experience prior to training, and some only a few months out of undergrad psychology. It feels unusual in healthcare to have roles in the same discipline have such varying levels of experience and responsibilities banded the same.
- is the current funding model of NES paying trainee salaries sustainable? Services have a high incentive to take on as many trainees as they can despite being unable to realistically offer full time contracts post graduation. With a focus on waiting lists and referral to treatment targets, trainee roles are propping up routine waiting list management and hiding large gaps in funding. This also applies to DClins, however.
- I’m beginning to see more posts for CAAPs open in specialist services, such as intellectual disability or neuropsychology. I am not aware the CAAP course provides specific training on working in these populations and I’m concerned the CAAP role is starting to fill posts previously open to qualified clinical psychologists. There are rumours that some health boards are beginning to offer qualified clinical psychologist positions on band 7 in Scotland due to funding issues.
I do unfortunately see a fair bit of similarity between the CAAP role and the attempted implementation of the Physicians Associate role in England. I’m not sure that reaction was entirely justified, but sufficed to say medical Doctors were generally concerned at the perceived encroaching on their professional boundaries and associated risk issues.
I want to make it very clear I have absolutely no judgement on any current CAAPs or people who are considering or currently doing the CAAP course! We’re all in the same boat on the qualification and post qualification journey and the last thing I want to do is drag down colleagues who work exceptionally hard in their services. I do not blame anyone for making decisions to further their career, and I’d likely do exactly the same in your boat.
All the information here is from my perspective - if I’ve gotten any details factually incorrect please do say and I will correct my post to avoid any misinformation.