Sport and Exercise Psychology Accreditation Route (SEPAR) update

The BASES Sport and Exercise Psychology Accreditation Route (SEPAR) is a programme of professional development, skill acquisition and supervised practice to ensure that candidates acquire the knowledge, skills, and experience required to be eligible to apply for registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) as a Practitioner Psychologist. Recently, seven candidates, Dr Simon Crampton, Dr Paul Gorczynski, Kate Green, Dr Denise Hill, Dr Jennifer Meggs, Dr Claire Rossato and Dr Stacy Winter, having been part of the first cohort of Accreditation of Prior Experiential Competence (APEC), were confirmed by the SEPAR Advisory Group (SEPAR-AG) as being SEPAR complete and eligible to apply to the HCPC register. This brings to 11 the number of candidates who have ‘graduated’ through SEPAR since its launch in January 2020.

In the recent application window, 31 candidates enrolled on SEPAR; 2 on the Accreditation of Prior Experiential Competence (APEC) route, 17 over two years, 7 over three years and 5 over four years. Within this cohort are 4 international applicants. That brings the total number of applicants since the programme was launched in January 2020 to 96.

In June 2021, 19 out of 21 candidates successfully completed the Open University DE200 module (Investigating Psychology 2) to support the necessary entry requirements onto SEPAR regarding evidencing ‘underpinning psychology knowledge’. From this recent Open University cohort,12 went on to apply for SEPAR through the recent application window.

The current applicants will formally start their SEPAR journey on 7 September 2021 with a mandatory introductory workshop, led by Prof Richard Thelwell FBASES, Chair of the SEPAR Advisory Group (AG). Supporting these candidates through their journey are a team of 44 qualified supervisors and 44 qualified reviewers.

The success of the programme is down to a number of key individuals and volunteers who have led on a variety of elements of SEPAR, including Profs Richard Thelwell FBASES and Zoe Knowles FBASES (programme co-leads), the SEPAR Advisory Group, including those supervisor, reviewer, candidate, and end-user representatives, members of the Division of Psychology (programme development), Dr Andy Miles FBASES and Dr Jonathan Katz (workshop development), Drs Paul Gorczynski and Anthony Papathomas (core resources), and Drs Hayley McEwan and Nichola Kentzer (Supervisor / Reviewer training).

Prof Richard Thelwell FBASES, Chair of the SEPAR AG, said, “On behalf of all of those involved in the SEPAR programme, we are extremely proud of the significant achievements to date. Our collective hope is that this route will significantly serve BASES members, our profession as a whole, and the many who will benefit as end-users for years to come".