Registration Application Review
The Society is required to ensure that successful applicants to our Accredited Register, and to grades within the Register, meet the relevant criteria and standards. We operate an assessment process with an appropriately trained team in a fair and transparent manner, drawing where required on a significant amount of expertise. Where an applicant has not provided the required evidence for registration, we give them every opportunity to provide it, and when an application is unsuccessful, we can explain the remaining requirements that would be needed for the application to proceed. We recognise that not all applicants will have followed a standard route and so, for complex applications, we provide an assessment by our Senior Review Team; where for example, the applicant has studied overseas or has followed an atypical route to professional practice. We recognise that, not only should any applicant have the right to have an unsuccessful application reviewed; but that also no assessment process is perfect, and that review gives us the opportunity to correct any errors and create learning points to improve the process. The Application Review Policy is as follows:
1. The Assessment Team
The Society’s Assessment Team is drawn from suitably-trained colleagues within our Membership Services Department. It processes all incoming applications for registration in the first instance. The team has the authority to reject an application where basic standard, objective criteria for registration have not been evidenced by the applicant. An example of this would be where the applicant provides no evidence of having done a face-to-face counselling training but had studied entirely online.
The Assessment Team can, at its sole discretion, refer any application for review by the Society’s Senior Review Team. It can do this, for example, where the qualification evidenced by the applicant is unknown to the Assessment Team. If an application is rejected, an applicant can request a review of the Assessment Team’s decision, provided they request this within 14 days of receipt of said decision. The review will be conducted by the Society’s Senior Review Team.
2. The Senior Review Team
The Society’s Senior Review Team consists of two or more people, one of which is normally a senior professional therapist, with a high level of experience in application assessment. It processes applications referred by the Assessment Team, complex applications, and applications failed by the Assessment Team where the applicant has requested a review. The Senior Review Team has the authority to make decisions on complex applications; to ask for further and additional clarification from applicants, and to reject an application where criteria for registration, including qualitative or complex criteria, have not been evidenced by the applicant. It will provide the applicant with the reason for its decision. An applicant can request an appeal of the Senior Review Team’s decision, provided they request this within 14 days receipt of said decision. The appeal will be sent to the next available meeting of the Society’s Professional Standards Committee.
3. The Professional Standards Committee
The Professional Standards Committee consists of highly experienced and qualified professionals who hold regular committee meetings and have the responsibility to uphold the Society’s standards. The Professional Standards Committee hears appeals of the Senior Review Team’s decision where the application is unsuccessful, and the applicant wishes to appeal.
The Professional Standards Committee will examine the evidence provided by the applicant and the Senior Review Team’s decision. They may at their discretion seek further evidence from either party. A majority decision of the Professional Standards Committee will be taken by vote on each application appeal. In the event of a tie, the Chair of the meeting shall have the casting vote. The decision of the Professional Standards Committee on any application shall be final and binding on the Society and applicant. There are no further rights of review or appeal. On an annual basis the Society’s Independent Assessor may sample decisions made by the Professional Standards Committee for their annual report.
