The Psychotherapy Register

At a meeting of the United Kingdom Standing Conference for Psychotherapy on Saturday 7 March 1992 a series of working papers describing the organisation of a register of psychotherapists was discussed, amended and accepted.

What has been agreed is to have a Registration Board which is made up of appointees from the Special and Institutional Member Organisations, plus representatives from those Sections which can meet the training standards. Only delegates of accredited training organisations may sit on the Board. There is provision for an extra seat for the British Psycho-Analytical Society. The structure is such that the Board cannot have its decisions changed by any of the bodies of UKSCP. It is insulated from the Council and therefore from the AGM. Even the Appeals Committee can only refer cases back to it for reconsideration.

The Training Standards Committee will comprise delegates appointed by the Registration Board and the Council. The Sections will continue to have a pivotal role in the regular scrutiny of Member Organisations and in setting specific standards for their own kind of therapy.

Registration will be at two levels: basic and advanced. An outline of the level of basic training has been agreed. The essentials are that entry to training will be at graduate level or equivalent, and a ground year must be completed before training. This caters for trainees who do not come from any associated professional background. The curriculum content will be roughly equivalent to a part-time MA. The question of training therapy is dealt with by each Section devising its own model appropriate to itself.

Disciplinary matters will continue to be dealt with in each Member Organisation and, if that is not satisfactory, in the Sections. We hope that recourse to Council for complaints and malpractice will be extremely rare. Of course when we get to a statutory Register we will have to devise a disciplinary committee.

There is now the basis of a structure that will become the pr