British Psychoanalytic Council - Safeguarding The Public

Safeguarding The Public

The individual organisations that train psychotherapists have always been self-regulating. Over the last twenty years, however, there has been an increase in the number of institutions and range of psychotherapies on offer to the public. The British Psychoanalytic Council is one of a number of bodies which exist to protect the interests of the public by promoting standards in the selection, training, professional association and conduct of psychotherapists. It is the primary body for psychoanalytic psychotherapy in the UK.

The Government is in the process of creating a statutory framework for the registration of psychotherapists and psychoanalysts, by the Health Professions Council. It is anticipated regulation will come into force by 2011.

The BPC, together with each of its member institutions, aims to protect the public by setting out the appropriate standards of professional conduct, and a Code of Ethics, which describes the responsibilities of psychoanalytic psychotherapists. There are also comprehensive complaints and disciplinary procedures, which include the sanction of striking a practitioner off both their organisation’s membership list and the BPC’s Register. The detailed fitness to practise policies are all published on its website or are available from the BPC office.