Updated 12 May 2008

Members may be aware of a statement made recently on a government website indicating that the Department of Health were intending to exclude humanistic, person centred and experiential therapies from the regulatory framework.  This was clearly a position we would not support, and we immediately wrote to the potential Regulator, the Health Professions Council, and to the DH, seeking clarification of this statement, as it related to nothing we had heard previously.  The HPC responded stating that no position would be reached until the Professional Liaison Group - scheduled to begin in autumn 2008 - had concluded its work sometime in 2009,  and its proposals would then go out for consultation.  At a meeting between BACP and the DH Director of Regulation on 30 April we asked the question again and it was  made clear that in fact no final decisions have been made on the number of modalities to be included, that the work around this was an ongoing process, and that a further statement should be issued on the relevant website shortly.  This statement has now been issued on the Goverment website http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page15454.asp and reads

"7 May 2008
The response to the e-petition issued on 11 March 2008 set out the Government's policy position on the regulation of psychotherapists. It stated that the Government's view was that the scope of statutory professional regulation should provide for three main modalities within psychotherapy. We are aware that some people have interpreted this as implying that final decisions about the scope of psychotherapy regulation have now been taken. This is not the case.

We are also aware that there is an ongoing debate about the precise number of modalities which should be included within the scope of regulated practice in future and that there is an argument for more than three modalities to be included. Final decisions about the precise scope of practice to be regulated have yet to be taken. This will be done in consultation with the stakeholders, including the professional bodies."

BACP intends to keep a close watch on this issue, and is planning further talks with the DH. Your views in the meantime are welcome, and please send them to val.angrave@bacp.co.uk who will be collating these responses for Sally Aldridge, Head of Regulatory Policy.