Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment the Department has made of the potential impact of psychotherapy and counselling remaining outside statutory regulation on public protection, in the context that other psychological professionals, including psychology, art therapy and music therapy, are subject to statutory regulation; and whether the Department has plans to help tackle this.

The Government is clear that the professions protected in law must be the right ones and that the level of regulatory oversight must be proportionate to the risks to the public.

The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) operates a voluntary registry programme, which provides a proportionate means of assurance for unregulated professions. This sits between employer controls and statutory regulation by setting standards for organisations holding voluntary registers for unregulated health and social care occupations, such as counselling and psychotherapy. There are currently 10 organisations linked to the counselling profession, and eight organisations linked to the psychotherapy profession, listed on the PSA’s website as holding an accredited register.

The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) regulates the arts therapist profession, which has four protected titles linked to it: art psychotherapist; art therapist; drama therapist; and music therapist. The HCPC also regulates the practitioner psychologist profession, which has nine protected titles relating to the profession: practitioner psychologist; registered psychologist; clinical psychologist; forensic psychologist; counselling psychologist; health psychologist; educational psychologist; occupational psychologist; and sport and exercise psychologist.

The Department has no current plans to extend statutory regulation to the counselling and psychotherapy professions.