Dr Frances Baty, consultant clinical psychologist

Born on Tyneside to Dr David Baty, Senior Lecturer, and Mrs Jean Baty, Laboratory Scientific Officer, Frances was raised with her two younger siblings, Tina and Cliff. Her early years were spent in Alsager, Cheshire, before a family move to Maryland, USA, when Frances was three. The family later returned to the UK, eventually settling in Invergowrie near Dundee, when Frances was 12. She attended Dundee High School where she was a keen student, awarded the School Dux in English. Despite her nomadic early years, Frances was always a patriotic Scot, tethered to our distinct culture and national identity.

She read a book about a psychologist at ten years old and duly advised her mother that this was what she would become. In no surprise to anyone who knew Frances, this is what happened. She was accepted to Edinburgh University to study Psychology in 1982. A friend from that time recalled her first impressions of this cool young woman with short, spiky, dyed hair. A conscientious student, she was also an impressive amateur artist who was fascinated by the works of Klimt and Schiele. Never swayed by power or authority, she was equally comfortable with professors and peers. Graduating four years later in 1986, she was fully resolved to becoming a clinical psychologist.

Between 1986 and 1990, Frances worked as a research and assistant psychologist at Royal Liff Hospital, Dundee, and undertook a PhD with Abertay University. Her clinical and research work focused on people with learning disabilities. At a time when most were excluded from psychological therapies, Frances’s research showed they could also benefit, if therapies were just adapted for their needs. She would go on to volunteer with a community Learning Disability group for many years in her hometown of Alloa. These experiences would become central to her later career, focused on challenging exclusion and discrimination in the design and delivery of healthcare.

In 1990 she took up a part-time lecturing post with Abertay University, teaching Psychology and Information Technology, while gaining a postgraduate diploma in IT. Her early interest in the interface between psychology and technology was an example of her ability to imagine the future in novel ways.

Frances began her postgraduate training as a clinical psychologist in 1991 with Newcastle University, and what was then the Northern Regional Health Authority. Qualifying in 1993, she took up her first post with the Forth Valley Learning Disability Service, and in 1994 worked between NHS Tayside Adult Mental Health (AMH) and Older Adults’ services. It was also during her time in Tayside that Frances met her husband, Professor Frank McPherson, himself a distinguished clinical psychologist. The two had many happy years together, before his passing in 2022.

Frances joined the NHS Fife Adult Psychology Service in 1999, where she remained for the rest of her career. In 2002 she was appointed Consultant Clinical Psychologist before becoming Head of AMH Psychology in 2014, and eventually Director of Psychology in 2019, until her retirement in 2025.

In her time with NHS Fife, Frances was well-respected for her intelligence, compassion, humour and aspirational leadership. As Head of AMH Psychology, she introduced a sweeping programme of modernisation, including a focus on health promotion and prevention, trauma-informed service design, and initiatives to improve public access to therapy. She was an early pioneer of digital innovation, leading on the development of NHS Fife’s cutting-edge Moodcafe self-help website. This was followed by the Access Therapies Fife website, making the NHS Fife Psychology Service the first in Scotland to enable patient self-referral. She contributed significantly to Fife Health and Social Care Partnership’s multidisciplinary leadership development programme, and served as a Wellbeing Champion, improving support for staff across the whole of health and social care within Fife.

Throughout her career Frances was committed to the development of Psychology as a distinct profession, influencing the national and political landscape. She was Chair of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP) in Scotland, served on the DCP’s Executive Committee, and represented Scotland on the DCP’s Professional Standards Unit. She was instrumental in establishing the DCP’s service user and carer committee, developing the role of those with lived experience in the profession. She was chair of the Heads of AMH Services in Scotland and acted as vice-chair for the national Heads of Psychology Services group while she was Director in Fife.

Frances had an alternative and eclectic approach to life (reflected in her colourful hairstyles!). She had a holistic view of health and wellbeing and was an early adopter of somatic approaches, which understood an implicit link between body and mind. Her longstanding interest in critical and community psychology (CCP) recognised the power of psychologists to change lives beyond the traditional boundaries of the consulting room – emphasising the links between deprivation, trauma and exclusion in mental health, and challenging conventional medical models. For many years she taught CCP on the Edinburgh Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, helping to develop new generations of psychologists. It was not uncommon for Frances to see the humour in a situation where one might expect judgment or criticism. She could also assert herself in the gentlest ways – sometimes with a simple raised eyebrow and a smile.

Frances retained an unwavering belief in the value and benefit Psychology would bring to service users, communities and wider society. She will be remembered as a role model for how ethical and conscientious professionals can use their power to do the right things and affect meaningful change.

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