Therapists4Justice – October 2023

Newsletter

Following reports from colleagues on various counselling and psychotherapy forums, therapists4justice has heard reports of a number of allegations made against  ethical bodies.

We are keenly watching the outcome of the controversial James Essex -v- UKCP case which as far as t4j know is the first case of it’s kind ever to be granted audience in an Employment Tribunal owing to the fact that allegations of discrimination on protected belief are alleged.

It seems as though the last couple of weeks have been very busy for the BACP.

It is reported that staff have challenged the management with allegations of serious wrong doing by some of the board and senior leadership, including bullying, extravagant spending of members money on luxuries and the forcing out of staff members and board members who object to this. 

We have taken the extracts below from counselling and psychotherapy forum websites which are:-  

 

• •        allegations that a popular a board member has been dismissed this week using Article 38, allegedly for questioning the actions of the board; 

• •        allegations that former board members are starting to come forward and talk about their experiences. 

• •   allegations that a letter from staff has been leaked alleging bullying, accusations of BACP deviating from it’s own procedures and a low level of trust towards the organisation from staff and moral at an all time low. 

One of our founder members recently submitted a 20000 word long and very detailed report on BACP performance in relation to their handling of complaints. This was sent to the Professional Standards Authority and the Charities Commission alleging serious breaches of their codes of practice drawn from over 40 case narratives.

The report was submitted at the beginning of September.  We see now that the BACP has been put on “targeted review” by the PSA and do speculate whether the two might be connected? Therapists4justice is aware that no response to the writer of the report has been received from either the PSA or Charities Commission!

Our support meetings for those facing ethical body complaints procedures are held on the 2^nd and 4^th Thursday of each month.  Please e-mail us at contacttherapists4justice@gmail.com should you wish to attend.

Our new and historic newsletters are soon to appear on Facebook and twitter along with other news of our campaigns not always circulated to members of EMDR jiscmail and our new accounts are active from today.  We would ask if if colleagues could “friend” “follow” us as appropriate and do whatever you can to make us known to your colleagues who may need support.

As ever all of our newsletters and campaign direction are on our website

I have included the description from the PSA’s website of what this means along with a link to their announcement of this targeted review of the BACP.

https://www.professionalstandards.org.uk/what-we-do/accredited-registers/find-a-register/detail/british-association-for-counselling-psychotherapy#:~:text=A%20targeted%20review,pdf%3Fsfvrsn%3De5c7220_19

Targeted Review

4.2 The threshold for initiating a targeted review will be related to risk. The criteria
to be used are:

• A change which means that one or more of our minimum requirements are
no longer likely to be met.
• An investigation into the Register by another regulatory body,such as the
Charity Commission or Office of the Scottish Charities Regulator.
• Evidence of a new or potential harm arising from the practices of the
register or its registrants, which appears to be unmitigated.

Best wishes to all

Therapists4Justice