Update on the Qualification in Counselling Psychology

We are aware that there has been some anxiety around the Qualification in Counselling Psychology.

Poor and late communication from our Chair, Sue Whitcombe, and the society, has contributed to the anxiety. 

Our Chair, Sue, apologises unreservedly for any anxiety her communications have caused. 

Our wish is to be open, transparent and keep you fully informed, in a timely manner. Unfortunately, we have experienced some difficulties in doing so which we are trying to address.

We are pleased that the BPS Trustees have now decided to pause phasing out of society qualifications & to consult with members.

It has been a difficult couple of months with meetings with member network leads, colleagues in the QCoP Qualifications Leadership Team, chief executive Sarb Bajwa and chair of Senate, Natalie Lancer.

We are heartened by the united voice across the Divisions, and other member networks, together with the collective voice of members and stakeholders, which undoubtedly contributed to the Trustees revisiting this matter.

We are committed to making your voices heard – on this and other matters. 

Candidates currently enrolled on the QCoP are not impacted by these decisions.  You will continue to be supported on your individual programmes and on successful completion will be eligible for statutory registration with the Health and Care Professions Council. 

We are delighted that we will be welcoming recently qualified QCoP candidates to their awards ceremony at our 30th Anniversary Conference in Glasgow in July. 

We can confirm that we are continuing to work closely with our colleagues who deliver the QCoP.

They will now have the opportunity to submit proposals for a revised QCoP 2024 which they have been working on since early 2023.

The Division is committed to ensuring an accessible, robust, flexible route to qualification which fosters the diverse, inclusive counselling psychology workforce which is valued so much. 

We continue to hold some concerns around communications, transparency and governance. We are seeking clarification on some matters and will keep you updated in due course.

We have received many emails from stakeholders, members, candidates and would-be Counselling Psychologists over the last 8 weeks. 

All emails will be responded to, but this is inevitably taking some time given the challenges we have been facing.

If you have queries about the Qualification in Counselling Psychology, you can email [email protected] as they are best placed to answer your queries.

We are assured that previous issues with emails have been resolved.

If you have no response, or if you have wider concerns about the Qualification, communication or other matters, you can email our Chair directly on [email protected]  or [email protected].   

We also encourage members to join the new BPS online community through Guild.

Hopefully, this will enable wider discussions and communication in a more timely manner.

We would like to thank all our members, stakeholders and friends for their invaluable support.