Dear all, I have also endorsed the letter – thanks for writing it, Dave. In addition, I wondered if anyone had a photo of the placards ‘Psychologists against the cuts’, carried for the protest on 26 March, to forward to Dave at [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> ? I support David’s second suggestion re the list also endorsing the letter collectively. In response to the new CommPsy Section speaking out, we are still in the process of setting up a democratic means of sounding out our membership, so would not be able to do this at short notice. However, since I will be representing the Section at the BPS conference from tomorrow in Glasgow, I will directly raise the question about the Society’s response with Gerry Mulhern. Part of what the Section’s mandate is to agitate for change from within, so it would be good to hear about ways of doing so, from the office bearers. Jacqui A From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Fryer Sent: 29 April 2011 12:01 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Letter to The Psychologist Well written Dave (Harper). I have endorsed the letter personally. What about the List doing so collectively? And what about the new Community Psycholology Section of the BPS speaking out too? David ________________________________ From: Jan Bostock <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Fri, 29 April, 2011 19:36:12 Subject: Re: Letter to The Psychologist --- On Fri, 29/4/11, Jan Bostock <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: From: Jan Bostock <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> Subject: Re: Letter to The Psychologist To: "The UK Community Psychology Discussion List" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> Date: Friday, 29 April, 2011, 10:34 Please see below a letter to The Psychologist from Dave Harper suggesting how the BPS should be responding to the Govt cuts. Please send replies or support to Dave. [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Hi all, I've been growing increasingly unhappy with the lack of public comment from the BPS and lack of discussion within the pages of the Psychologist of the oncoming cuts in public services and radical restructuring of higher education, the NHS etc. In consultation with others I've drafted a letter to be sent to the Psychologist. It's under their word count for letters. Please distribute it around your various networks. If anyone wants to add their name they need to send me an email with their name and affiliation or job title etc by Tuesday 3 May. Cheers, Dave Harper Reader in Clinical Psychology University of East London ‘Experts of all kinds sound off in private about the impact of the coalition's cuts – but timidly zip their lips in public’ ran a Guardian headline accompanying Polly Toynbee’s article on 1 October last year. As the public sector cuts deepen and we see de facto privatisation of the NHS and higher education sectors, the effects will be wide-ranging and profound. Yet we wait in vain for a thorough discussion of these issues in ‘The Psychologist’, or reports of Society representatives raising concerns about these developments. Once again the Society seems out of step with public feeling: March, for example saw nearly half a million people marching in opposition to these cuts. There are many things the Society could be doing. It could report the effects of the cuts that are directly affecting NHS services. It could join the BMA, the RCN (and even the Liberal Democrats on the NHGS reforms) and campaign against the creeping marketization of the NHS. It could contrast the launch of the Big Society initiative with the cuts in support for charities as a result of local authority cuts. It could examine the social and psychological impact of increased tuition fees – likely to reduce social mobility even further. It could open up debate of the continuation of neo-liberal policy frameworks that have already failed in the financial sector. It could challenge the Coalition’s single narrative that public debt has been caused by profligate public spending. All these issues are of immediate interest to psychologists. Psychological processes are involved in Government attempts to make the cuts appear reasonable, acceptable and inevitable. The cuts will deeply affect the lives, careers and working practices of many psychologists. And most of all, they will have a profoundly damaging impact upon many who use their services. To those who would say that the Society’s charitable status prevents it from engaging in political debate, we note that the Charity Commissioners actively promote public debate by charities on issues where they have expertise so long as they do not support a particular political party line. Perhaps the Society is afraid of putting its head above the parapet – we are aware of no public comment by the Society following the sacking by Andrew Lansley of David Richards – adviser to the IAPT initiative which was much promoted by Society representatives. He had had the temerity to ask searching questions about the funding of IAPT (http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/feb/07/dismissed-asking-difficult-que stions-mental-health). The Society and, indeed its members, needs to put pressure on the government to change its course before irreversible damage is done to the public sector and to society. If it does not do so, it will be failing its members in spectacular fashion. As another Toynbee headline put it ‘those who know disaster looms mustn't stay quiet’ (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/01/conservative-conference- public-sector-cuts) ___________________________________ The Community Psychology List has a new website/blog at: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/ There is a threaded discussion forum: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi There is a twitter feed: http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK To post on the website blog, forum or twitter feed, contact Grant or David at the email addresses below. David Fryer ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) or Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK ___________________________________ The Community Psychology List has a new website/blog at: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/ There is a threaded discussion forum: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi There is a twitter feed: http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK To post on the website blog, forum or twitter feed, contact Grant or David at the email addresses below. David Fryer ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) or Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK ___________________________________ The Community Psychology List has a new website/blog at: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/ There is a threaded discussion forum: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi There is a twitter feed: http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK To post on the website blog, forum or twitter feed, contact Grant or David at the email addresses below. David Fryer ([log in to unmask]) or Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask]) To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK