The mental health charity, Mind, has called for independent statutory regulation to help protect clients of therapy from malpractice, thereby joining the ongoing campaign for regulation by organisations such as BACP. However, while the Government resolves this issue BACP is again urging members of the public who want safe counselling to use its members or those belonging to similarly accountable organisations.

As the Times newspaper has previously advised: “It’s best not to simply stick a pin in the phonebook – refer to the BACP website for a list of practitioners who are bound by its ethical and professional codes” (‘Finding the right therapist’, 13 March  2010).

BACP is the leading and largest professional body for counselling and psychotherapy in Europe with a membership of over 34,000 practitioners and 1200 organisations across the UK.   BACP has a strong public commitment to high practice standards and public protection.  All its members are bound by the Ethical Framework for Good Practice for Counselling and Psychotherapy and within this, the Professional Conduct Procedure. These set out the basis of good practice for BACP therapists and their clients.

The Mind survey of 181 service users, reports that one in five people were not satisfied with the service they received from their counsellor or psychotherapist and of these, 77 per cent did not make a complaint because:

• 37 per cent said they didn’t know how to complain
• 32 per cent were worried they’d not be believed
• 25 per cent feared the complaints process was not independent
• 25 per cent stated there was no one to complain to

In order to protect members and the public, BACP sets and maintains standards which its members are required to meet. BACP has a rigorous procedure, which deals with all complaints received about members.  In total, BACP investigated 233 complaints between 1996 and 2007.  Compared against the total membership figures per year, the highest rate of upheld complaints as a percentage of membership was just slightly more than one per every 1500 members.  Complaints that are upheld trigger a range of sanctions (from retraining through to being struck off the register) but BACP adjudications are always published on our website.  BACP welcomes legitimate, evidence-based complaints.

‘Self-regulation’ under BACP is therefore working well. However, not all practising counsellors are BACP members so there remains a minority who register with no proper body and therefore resist opening their credentials to professional scrutiny.  Since BACP cannot regulate beyond its membership, some level of legal sanction is therefore necessary.  Of course, regulation is not a panacea.  As was recently reported on BBC Breakfast News: “Doctors were legally regulated when Harold Shipman was committing multiple homicide…” (9 March 2010).

BACP has now commissioned independent research into why people don’t complain more often. Findings show that clients find it difficult to break silence and speak up about what has happened to them.  The Association is working on ways to make it easier for clients to speak out.

Meanwhile, unless political change alters the position dramatically, we understand that counselling and psychotherapy will follow psychology into legal regulation within a relatively short time frame but only the government can decide.

Source: BACP Media Centre