Consultation on the statutory regulation of psychotherapists and counsellors

The Health Professions Council (HPC) has launched a three month consultation on the statutory regulation of psychotherapists and counsellors. It incorporates recommendations made by the Psychotherapists and Counsellors Professional Liaison Group (PLG) and the HPC Council.

The consultation features recommendations on a range of issues such as the criteria for use in identifying the voluntary registers which should transfer, grandparenting period for psychotherapists and counsellors, standards of proficiency and threshold level of qualification for entry to the HPC Register. It also states that the Register should be structured to differentiate between psychotherapists and counsellors and that the titles ‘psychotherapist’ and ‘counsellor’ should be protected.

HPC’s Chief Executive, Marc Seale commented:

“We strongly believe that the regulation of psychotherapy and counselling is necessary for the protection of members of the public. Statutory regulation benefits the public as well as the professionals. It will, for the first time, create a legal framework which will allow for the removal of rogues and charlatans from practising and potentially harming the public.”

“Statutory regulation does not stifle creativity or eliminate diversity. Nor will it change the nature of the profession or adversely affect the relationship between the professional and their client. The only change will be that public protection is enhanced by the introduction of appropriate standards of education, ethics and professional competence for all those on the HPC Register.”

In February 2007, the Government published a White Paper on the future of regulation, ‘Trust, Assurance and Safety – The Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21st Century’. The White Paper recommended that, subject to legislative approval, psychotherapists and counsellors should be regulated by the HPC, and that this group should be a priority for future regulation.

In summer 2008 in anticipation of the draft legislation being laid, the HPC undertook a ‘call for ideas’ to explore possible arrangements for how psychotherapists and counsellors might be regulated. The call for ideas provided stakeholders with a chance to put forward their ideas on a number of topics, including how the Register should be structured, which titles should be protected and the threshold level of qualification for entry to the Register.

Following on from the ‘call for ideas’ the HPC established a Professional Liaison Group (PLG), which is a working group made up of external stakeholders with professional expertise that provide advice to the Council. The PLG has made recommendations to the HPC Council, on issues relevant to the statutory regulation of psychotherapists and counsellors. The work of the PLG informs the recommendations of the Council to the Secretary of State for Health and to ministers in the devolved administrations.

HPC Chair, Anna van der Gaag, commented:

“The HPC welcomes the opportunity to regulate psychotherapists and counsellors. As a multi-professional regulator, we are confident that we are well placed to regulate psychotherapists and counsellors and have the necessary experience of successfully taking on new professions and integrating them onto the Register.

“Our preparations for the move towards statutory regulation have been greatly assisted by counselling and psychotherapy practitioners and by those from their professional associations who have worked with us on these draft standards. We are grateful to them for their input into this process.”

The consultation will run for three months and closes 16 October 2009 after which the HPC will make its formal recommendations to the Secretary of State for Health.

To view the consultation please click here