Our Accredited Register for Counsellors and Psychotherapists
The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) for Health and Social Care promotes the health,
safety and wellbeing of patients, service users and the public by raising standards of
regulation and voluntary registration of people working in health and care. They are an
independent body, accountable to the UK Parliament.
They oversee the work of nine statutory bodies that regulate health professionals in the UK and
social workers in England. They review the regulators’ performance and audit and scrutinise
their decisions about whether people on their Registers are fit to practise. The Authority also sets standards for organisations that hold registers for those who work in
unregulated health and care occupations, such as counselling and psychotherapy, and
accredits the Registers of those organisations that meet the Authority’s standards.
The NCPS holds an Accredited Register
Our register is accredited by the Accredited Register programme, which means that our organisation meets all of the Authority’s standards including being committed to public protection, risk management, education and training, governance, providing information, managing complaints and managing the Register effectively. The Society in turn sets standards for our Registrants, including committing to a Code of Ethics and meeting entry-level education requirements. This means that when clients choose a counsellor from an Accredited Register, they have the assurance that the counsellor has met the high standards required to be listed on the Register.
Accredited Register Quality Mark
There are three things organisations must show to be eligible to apply to have their Registers Accredited by the Authority:
- They must hold a register for people in health and care occupations that are not regulated by the state
- They must demonstrate that they are focused on public protection
- They must be able to afford the accreditation fee
The Authority deliberately set the bar for accreditation high, at the level of good practice, so that gaining accreditation is a significant achievement and registers are proud to display the Accredited Register Quality Mark.
