The Society offers recognition for service providers.
This involves a process whereby the Society conducts an assessment of the service provider against our standards. The assessment will involve components such as a full review of policies and procedures pertaining to the running of a safe and reputable therapeutic service. We aim to ensure standards and public safety is upheld, and that counsellors and students working for the service are treated fairly and respectfully.
The purpose of this process is to be recognised by the Society and give confidence in the service for stakeholders, service users and commissioners.
Periodically, the Society audits services by asking for further, up to date information and by checking a selection of materials.
All service providers are assessed on a case-by-case basis completely impartially by the Society.
Complaints Process
The Society is not a place of appeal for complaints raised against service providers where you disagree with the outcome, and we do not hold complaints hearings concerning service providers as we would do concerning individual counsellors.
Instead, our role is one of reviewing information you send us while you act as a witness, providing information which may be relevant to the service provider’s ability to meet our standards. You don’t have to understand our standards or procedures to send us information for review.
The complaint should first be raised with the service rather than with the Society. The service provider will have a written complaints procedure, and they are obliged to provide you with a copy and follow its steps. This should include an appeals step. The Society is unable to review information until the complaints process has been fully completed with the service provider, including an independent appeal.
The service provider hasn’t followed their process properly
If evidence is provided that the service provider:
- Has not followed their written process
- Has not provided you with a copy of their written process
- Has unreasonably delayed their process
Then we may serve the provider with a “Process Notice” requiring them to follow their process properly and conclude the complaint within a reasonable time frame. We will, at our discretion, normally issue a process notice for any complaint lasting longer than six months if the evidence shows that this delay has been caused by the service provider.
Evidence outside of our remit
The following evidence is outside of our remit (subject to the exceptions set out at the end of this document):
- Evidence related to claims about “value for money”
- Evidence regarding refund requests or financial negotiations
Examples of evidence related to the above are likely to be covered in your contract and are a matter for you and your provider.
Evidence that may be within our remit
We generally accept information for review where you provide us with evidence that a service provider is not meeting our standards, such as:
- Evidence that the service has not met NCPS standards
- Evidence that your counsellor was not properly qualified
- Evidence that the service behaved demonstrably unreasonably, at our discretion
- Evidence that specific standards have not been met
- Other evidence, at our sole discretion on a case-by-case basis
How we may review evidence
We would expect to receive all documentation related to the complaint.
Once we receive the evidence, it will be decided whether or not:
- The service provider complaints process has been fully explored and completed
- The evidence is within our remit
- The evidence may indicate an issue that the service provider’s adherence to our professional standards
An internal review will then be conducted by either:
- Adding the evidence to our review process so that it forms a part of our review of the service provider, or
- At our sole discretion commencing an immediate review.
More information may be requested. At our sole discretion, evidence may be referred for review by our Professional Standards Committee.
Possible outcomes of the review process
The review process is designed to safeguard our Recognised Counselling Service scheme by ensuring that service providers comply with our standards. Possible outcomes of a review can include:
- No further action by the Society
- A Letter of Advice to the service provider, which could contain learning points (for example, asking the provider to consider some policy changes.)
- A Condition to the service provider, where they are required to make a change before their next renewal and provide evidence of the change before their Recognised Counselling Service can continue
- Suspension of Recognition – reserved for serious or multiple non-compliance with our standards, suspension is revoked once the service provider has provided evidence of compliance
- Removal of Recognition – reserved for the most serious breaches of our standards, including non-compliance with conditions or with our review process
If the Society does not suspend or remove Recognition, our review process will remain internal and full information will not be given as to the outcome of the process.
Appeals
The Society’s decision as to the outcome of the review process shall be final and there are no rights of appeal.
Complaints by Third Parties
Reviews of a service provider may be requested by providing us with evidence that is in our remit.
We do not accept anonymous submissions, and evidence will be shared with the service provider who will be invited to respond.
We will take into account any conflict of interest by a third party, for example, a complaint is submitted on behalf of a competitor.
We will then follow our review process. We do not inform third parties of the outcome of that process.
Thereafter, any concern and the service providers response will be reviewed and/or referred to the Professional Standards Committee.
The decision is final.
Requests for Review by a Third Party, with all relevant evidence, should be sent to Conduct@ncps.com.
Exceptions: Serious Cases
If evidence can be provided of:
- A serious risk to the public
- Criminal activity
- Discrimination based on Protected Characteristics
- Any other serious matter, at our sole discretion
Then we may accept evidence and commence an immediate review.
Who to Contact?
The quickest way to contact us is to email conduct@ncps.com.
If you would like to speak to us by phone, please use our calendar booking system for a phone call by clicking here.
You may also write to the Professional Conduct Department, National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society, 19 Grafton Road, Worthing, BN11 1QT.
