Safeguarding for psychologists in independent practice with Dr Rebekah Eglinton

Welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. Today, we're tackling a topic that strikes a chord of pure anxiety for almost every independent practitioner; safeguarding. In institutional settings like the NHS, we're used to having an embedded safeguarding lead, clear-cut multidisciplinary pathways, and a collective safety net. But when you step out into independent practice, that ultimate accountability falls squarely on our shoulders, often leaving us feeling isolated and really anxious when risk comes into the therapy room. So to help us move from a place of paralyzing fear and towards a place where we can feel more kind of realistic, grounded, and confident, I am joined today by the brilliant Dr Rebekah Eglinton. Bekah is a consultant clinical psychologist and the clinical director of Eglinton Consultancy. She has a really deep background in high-stakes safeguarding governance, having previously served as the chief psychologist and head of support, safeguarding, and police referrals at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, where she oversaw thousands of sensitive national-scale referrals. She's also a registrant council member and non-executive director at the Health and Care Professions Council and an associate non-executive director and wellbeing guardian at Devon Partnership NHS Trust. So I have got a brilliant person today to help you deal with your anxiety around safeguarding, and we're going to be talking with Bekah about the things we really need to watch out for in independent practice and also about some training she's developed to help us all feel much more confident as we step into the therapy room, possibly for the first time with clients that might have some risk in their background.

Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links for Rebekah:

Eglinton Consultancy: Safeguarding Training for Psychologists & Therapists:

https://www.eglintonconsultancy.com/eventtickets/p/traumainformedtrainingtickets-2cdzs-2adsl

www.eglintonconsultancy.com

Instagram: @dr.rebekaheglinton

Links for Rosie:

Substack: substack.com/@drrosie

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@drrosiegilderthorp

The highlights

• Rebekah tells us what she sees as the most common safeguarding blind spots or oversights in independent practice 03:25
• Rebekah talk about GDPR 10:30
• I ask Rebekah about what ‘defensible documentation’ might actually look like for an independent clinician 19:55
• We discuss templates and AI as ways to help with compliance and note taking 24:16
• Rebakah tells us what motivated her to develop a training for psychologists in independent practice 33:08
• I ask Rebekah how she’s marketed the training 40:23
• Rebakah tells us where we can find out more about the training 44:15

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