Regulation - White Paper
THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH'S WHITE PAPER 'TRUST, ASSURANCE AND SAFETY - THE REGULATION OF HEALTH PROFESSIONALS IN THE 21ST CENTURY' -
National College of Hypnosis and Psychotherapy Response
The National College of Hypnosis and Psychotherapy (NCHP), welcomes the Government's announcement on the White Paper towards the statutory regulation for psychotherapists, psychologists and counsellors that was issued on 21st February, 2007.
NCHP have worked strongly within the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy, (UKCP), and in its own right, to this end for many years. In welcoming statutory regulation we concur with HPC's Chief Executive, Marc Seale, who said: "The recommendations of 'Trust, Assurance and Safety - The Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21st century' are good for patients, good for the public and good for the professions.. ... Every day, people in the UK consult health professionals and it is important that they feel better protected by knowing their practitioners will have met our high standards. If health professionals drop below these standards the HPC can stop them from treating patients and prosecute those who pretend to be registered."
NCHP has many students and graduates who are undergoing or have undergone long training, many at their own personal expense, in order to ease the suffering of fellow human beings and we have a long history of such since 1977. Some other "therapists" from other trainers may have done minimal studies, some of which may even be by correspondence course. NCHP values it's British Accreditation Council for Independent Further and Higher Education externally accredited training and as an accredited training member organisation of UKCP, The European Association of Hypno Psychotherapy and the European Association of Psychotherapy, NCHP commend the work of UKCP in its efforts to self regulate accredited training and the registration of therapists. UKCP registration is currently the nearest one can get to being a State Registered Psychotherapist. It would be a travesty if all their work over the years came to nothing and many good, well qualified therapists were disenfranchised for any reason. Whoever finally gets the brief to regulate the profession it is important that graduates of legitimate and accredited training courses such as NCHP are accepted for, or grandparented to, full registration. As the foremost, and best externally accredited, trainer of Hypnotherapists and Psychotherapists, since 1977, we fully expect the regulator to accept our graduates for grandparenting and/or registration.
We also acknowledge the concerns of the UKCP that that the Department of Health have not listened to their concerns that the Health Professions Council is an inappropriate regulator for psychotherapy, psychology and counselling. The HPC as an independent UK watchdog of health professionals was set up to protect the public from rogue health practitioners and is primarily a medical and NHS model of regulation for 175,000 health professionals from 13 different occupations including paramedics, physiotherapists, chiropodists and dieticians. These are almost exclusively from a physical therapy base and NCHP realises, as does HPC and UKCP, that there may be inherent difficulties with the regulation of Psychotherapy, Counselling and other Psychological based therapies in their current model. However, the knowledge and experience for acknowledging accredited training and appropriate regulation of therapists with supervision, continuing professional development and adequate insurance already exists and should be utilised and incorporated in any new model.
What is important is that all practitioners comply with the same stringent regulations concerning training, ethics and professional practice and that those who are ill-trained, incompetent or unprofessional are removed from practice to protect the public and the profession. This is long overdue as Anna van der Gaag the President of the HPC noted: "Without robust regulation the public is not protected from incompetent or unethical practitioners".
As a member organisation of UKCP, NCHP fully endorses the statement of the previous Chair of UKCP, that we are committed to preventative legislation to inhibit therapists who do not meet enforced training and ethical standards, and to safeguarding the public against unsafe or rogue therapists. No legitimate organisation could state otherwise and any future regulator does not need to redesign the whole process but merely to adjust it to make sure that the final document will be rigorous and enforceable in order to remove the undesirables from the field. The British public deserves nothing less and it is our duty to protect them.
Jon Beilby Principal 2003-2007
Endorsed by
Shaun Brookhouse, Principal 2007-Present