Doctorate in Educational, Child and Adolescent Psychology (DECAP) Doctoral Programme

The DECAP programme is the only professional training course in Educational Psychology in Northern Ireland. It is a three year full time course leading to a professional qualification in Educational, Child and Adolescent Psychology.\
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The programme is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS) as conferring eligibility for Chartered Status and approved by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) for the purpose of training educational psychologists. The programme is structured in accordance with the BPS Standards for Accreditation of Doctoral Programmes in Educational Psychology.\
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Following a visit in March 2024, the BPS confirmed the ongoing accreditation of the DECAP programme. The BPS re-accreditation report contained the following commendations:\
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1. The remarkable energy, vision, and resilience of the programme team which fosters a nurturing and supportive environment in which the trainees clearly thrive. Despite ongoing political challenges, the team has effectively managed program provision while demonstrating unwavering commitment to trainee and staff wellbeing. This commendation is exemplary, a platform for trainee and future success, staff cohesion, and also a clear blueprint for all psychology training programmes.\
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2. The strong partnership with trainees, service users and placement providers, and the proactive approach in responsively addressing feedback across all aspects of the program. Overall, this results in an excellent and highly commendable synergy across the programme.\
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3. Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) is clearly embedded in the programme. EDI delivery in this programme is exemplary and goes above and beyond the accreditation standards.\
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4. The development of a comprehensive three-year action plan aimed at enhancing engagement with service users across multiple levels: direct feedback, program development, course and research involvement.\
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5. The elective placement. This enriches the trainee experience and their depth of understanding and use of psychology in the wider community in a very extensive range of multidisciplinary settings.\
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The DECAP programme is funded by the Department of Education. Successful applicants may be offered training bursaries which carry a commitment to apply for educational psychology posts within the Education Authority (EA) across all regions of Northern Ireland and, having obtained a post, to work as an educational psychologist in the EA psychology service for a minimum period of three years. It is important to note that these posts could be located anywhere in Northern Ireland.