There is growing concern within the psychological professions about the imminent arrival of state regulation through the Health Professions Council (HPC), which will create a register of practitioners allowed to call themselves ‘psychotherapist’ or ‘counsellor’, and vet and standardise trainings in these two occupations. If you need more information on all this, here are some useful resources:
The HPC ‘Roadmap’ for regulation: http://ipnosis.postle.net/PDFS/HPC%20road%20map.pdf
A statement of the UKCP position with a lot of additional background information: http://www.psychotherapy.org.uk/iqs/sid.04507940437545530707300/statutory_regulation.html
The BACP position and updated information: http://www.bacp.co.uk/regulation/
Critiques of state regulation: http://ipnosis.postle.net
and
http://www.psychoanalysis-cpuk.org/latest%20news.html
In the HPC Roadmap one can see clear concern about the possibility that ‘a large number of individuals do not join the register but choose to practise using a professional title that is not protected’. The best chance of arresting the movement towards state registration therefore seems to be for a substantial number of potential registrants to declare their unwillingness for the process to take place.
We have established a web space at http://www.petitiononline.com/statereg/petition.html where psychological practitioners can sign up to the following statement:
We the undersigned psychotherapists and counsellors doubt that the proposed state regulation of psychotherapy and counselling in the UK will be of benefit either to the public or to the profession, and are concerned that it will in fact be harmful; we do not wish to be regulated in this way, and and call upon the Government and the leadership of our professions to halt the process and think again.
The objective of the statement is to halt the rush to action and create more time for discussion and consideration by establishing that there is great unease about the current plan. The wording is intended to be as inclusive as possible of different viewpoints among those opposed to or doubtful about state regulation through the HPC. In signing up to it you can are not restricting your options in relation to future developments.
For the statement to be effective, it needs to be clear who the signatories are and what their current status is – inevitably, greater weight will be given to signatories whose right to be on the proposed state register is clear. So if you sign up you will also be asked one or two questions about your professional affiliations. To sign the petition, go to
http://www.petitiononline.com/statereg/petition.html
Please pass this information on to others, and if you feel strongly about the issue, encourage as many people as possible to sign. It is late in the day, but not too late to stop this process.
Nick Totton
Andrew Samuels
Allison Priestman
Denis Postle
Arthur Musgrave
Kevin Jones
Guy Gladstone
