Response from UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) to HPC consultation on post-registration qualifications
24 January 2011
UKCP's view is that post-qualification annotations to the HPC Register should be restricted to items to which a clear 'protection of the public' consideration attaches. Hence, as HPC is aware, we strongly support an annotation to the Register indicating that a psychotherapist or counsellor works with children. Similarly, it protects the public to know if a health professional has medication-prescribing rights or not.
We do not support annotations that refer to further academic or professional qualifications as these are not, in our view, the province of the regulator. We consider that such annotations could introduce potentially contentious matters that are more appropriately dealt with at the level of professional organisations. In all likelihood, these further academic or professional qualifications, while desirable and performance enhancing, will not be essential for practice in the profession concerned. To include them will be confusing and potentially divisive. What is a member of the public to think when confronted with a registrant who does not have a non-essential qualification while other registrants do have the qualification? Is the latter somehow 'better' than the former?
Returning to UKCP's concern for the inclusion of an annotation that indicates that a health professional works with children, we have, as you know, developed two new proposed generic standards of proficiency which are re-stated below. Our thinking is that, subsequent to the adoption of these generic standards, each profession will develop its own profession-specific standards of proficiency, achievement of which would be necessary to receive the annotation.
The new proposed generic standards are:
- Be able to recognise, to the degree appropriate to the regulated profession in question, the special needs of children and young people, with particular regard to safety of practice.
- Be able to recognise that special and/or additional training is required to work with children and young people, and to desist from such work where the health professional does not possess such training.
Professor Andrew Samuels
Chair, UK Council for Psychotherapy
Response from UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) to HPC consultation on post-registration qualifications
24 January 2011
UKCP's view is that post-qualification annotations to the HPC Register should be restricted to items to which a clear 'protection of the public' consideration attaches. Hence, as HPC is aware, we strongly support an annotation to the Register indicating that a psychotherapist or counsellor works with children. Similarly, it protects the public to know if a health professional has medication-prescribing rights or not.
We do not support annotations that refer to further academic or professional qualifications as these are not, in our view, the province of the regulator. We consider that such annotations could introduce potentially contentious matters that are more appropriately dealt with at the level of professional organisations. In all likelihood, these further academic or professional qualifications, while desirable and performance enhancing, will not be essential for practice in the profession concerned. To include them will be confusing and potentially divisive. What is a member of the public to think when confronted with a registrant who does not have a non-essential qualification while other registrants do have the qualification? Is the latter somehow 'better' than the former?
Returning to UKCP's concern for the inclusion of an annotation that indicates that a health professional works with children, we have, as you know, developed two new proposed generic standards of proficiency which are re-stated below. Our thinking is that, subsequent to the adoption of these generic standards, each profession will develop its own profession-specific standards of proficiency, achievement of which would be necessary to receive the annotation.
The new proposed generic standards are:
- Be able to recognise, to the degree appropriate to the regulated profession in question, the special needs of children and young people, with particular regard to safety of practice.
- Be able to recognise that special and/or additional training is required to work with children and young people, and to desist from such work where the health professional does not possess such training.
Professor Andrew Samuels
Chair, UK Council for Psychotherapy
UK Council for Psychotherapy | Registered Charity No. 1058545 | Company No. 3258939 Registered in England
