Petition Launched: Create Psychology Licensing Degrees. A Clinical Psychology Podcast Episode.
- Connor Whiteley
- 1 hour ago
- 5 min read
As I spoke about in a previous podcast episode, the United Kingdom has a massivequalification problem when it comes to psychology degrees. Therefore, on the 23rd April 2026, the UK Government’s Petitions Committee approved my petition for publication on their website. My petition calls on the UK Government to review how psychology students can gain the practical experience and clinical skills needed to become qualified mental health practitioners as part of an undergraduate degree. This could help to solve the mental health, NHS recruitment and graduate employment crisis. In this clinical psychology podcast episode, I’ll take you through my policy, the benefits and the challenges and solutions to make this policy work in the real-world. If you’re a UK resident then please sign this petition. If you aren’t a UK resident, then please share the petition online.
Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Your Unshakable Self: A Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology and Mental Health Guide to Sense of Self. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
Policy Briefing Create Psychology Licensing Degrees.
Non-UK residents, please share the petition online.
Summary
· Psychology students want to improve lives, decrease psychological distress and make the world a better place.
· The Mental Health Foundation and London School of Economics and Political Science found mental health conditions cost the UK Economy at least £118 billion per year. This is because of lost productivity from people with mental health conditions and unpaid informal carers having to withdraw from employment to look after these individuals. This represents approximately 5% of UK’s Gross Domestic Product.
· To fix the mental health crisis, the UK Government argued the NHS need to recruit an extra 8,500 mental health practitioners. Yet no one knows where to recruit these practitioners from.
· Licensing degrees are commonplace throughout the United Kingdom. A 3-year social work undergraduate degree allows graduates to become qualified social workers. A 3-year nursing undergraduate degree allows graduates to become a registered nurse, including a mental health nurse.
· In 2023, 42,770 psychology students graduated across the United Kingdom. These students are specialists in understanding human behaviour, mental health conditions and applying psychology in the real world. Under current UK legislation, psychology degrees do not allow psychology graduates to become qualified professionals.
· Current UK legislation is preventing the Government from solving the mental health crisis by inhibiting the creation of psychology licensing degrees. These would allow psychology students to become qualified mental health professionals upon graduation.
Recommendations for Policy
Create Licensing Degrees. The Government should work with the British Psychological Society, Health and Care Professions Council and Universities to create licensing psychology degrees as soon as possible. This will allow psychology students to learn the clinical skills and gain the practical experience needed to become qualified mental health professionals upon graduation. A delay on psychology licensing degrees will be incredibly damaging to the NHS, the psychology job market and individuals with mental health difficulties.
Create Jobs. The Government will create jobs by creating psychology licensing degrees. They will allow psychology graduates to become mental health practitioners. This will allow graduates to earn higher income, pay more tax and grow the UK’s tax revenue. This can be reinvested in public services. This benefits the Labour Party by demonstrating the Government is serious about creating highly skilled jobs that will improve our nation.
Create Economic Growth. The mental health practitioners created by psychology licensing degrees will allow individuals with mental health conditions to get back into work, boost economic productivity and it will allow unpaid informal carers to get back into the workforce. This means these individuals will work more, pay more tax and boost the UK’s economy. Potentially by as much as £118 billion per year.
Policy Challenges and Solutions
Psychology Trainees Could Harm Individuals with Mental Health Difficulties. Critics might argue psychology trainees might harm clients with mental health conditions whilst on trainee placement. However, psychology licensing degrees should operate like any other licensing degree. Psychology trainees would receive high quality teaching and supervision, similar to nursing, podiatry and other roles. Trainee nurses are just as likely to harm a patient as a psychology trainee, but trainee nurses do not cause harm. Trainees are allowed to gain practical experience in hospitals with real patients. Psychology trainees should be given the same opportunity.
Universities Need Partnerships with Mental Health Services. Some critics would argue it costs money, time and resources for universities to develop the partnerships needed with mental health services to give psychology trainees the practical experience required of a licensing degree. This is already commonplace in psychology postgraduate courses. Universities providing the Doctorate of Clinical or Educational Psychology have partnerships with NHS services and local authorities. This demonstrates universities already have the skills, connections and relationships to show the effectiveness of trainees in mental health. In a licensing degree, these partnerships would have to be expanded, but with government support and intervention, this is doable. Especially, with the potential Return on Investment being £118 billion a year to the UK Economy.
Not All Psychology Students Want to Be Practitioners. It is true not all psychology students would want to become mental health practitioners, but if only 20% of psychology graduates from 2023 became practitioners, then this would solve the NHS’s mental health recruitment crisis. Psychology students should be given the option to take a non-licensing or licensing psychology degree. This will allow universities, students and Government the flexibility it needs to address the mental health crisis in the UK.
Call to Action
It is critical that psychology students sign the petition to encourage the Government to take this important action so psychology graduates can become mental health practitioners. This will help graduates become more employable, solve the mental health crisis and improve lives.
I hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode.
If you want to learn more, please check out:
Your Unshakable Self: A Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology and Mental Health Guide to Sense of Self. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
Have a great day.
I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page.
However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you.
Which I am going to say right now. Thank you!
Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support.
Comments