For the attention of:
Natalie Bailey (Chair, Board of Trustees); Sekinat Adima, Punam Farmah, Ewan Irvine, Alwyn Li (Board Members/Trustees)
Anna Daroy (Chief Executive Officer); Philippa Foster, Ben Kay, Jamie Redmond (Senior Leadership Team)
Is the BACP on a Disaster Course – who is actually steering the ship?
Dear Natalie and Anna,
Further to my letter dated 29 October 2023 I am now imploring you to acknowledge that, despite any well intentioned motives, the BACP have totally failed its members over the past year or more, particularly in regard to the proposed introduction of the SCoPEd agenda. Although you may believe that the process has been transparent and democratic, this has been far from the perception of the vast majority of the members.
You will be well aware of the open letter to the BACP on 29 October 2023 from Professor John McLeod, together with esteemed colleagues:
Maria Albertsen, Paul Atkinson, Richard Bagnall-Oakley, Nicola Barden, Professor Tim Bond, Una Cavanagh, Professor Divine Charura, Professor Mick Cooper, Dr Elizabeth Cotton, Dr Philip Cox, Dominic Davies, Professor Windy Dryden, Dr Patricia Joyce, Myira Khan, Julia McLeod, Professor Ian Parker, Dr L.J. Potter, Dr Seb Randall, Professor Andrew Reeves, Heather Roberts, Dr Jeannette Roddy, Dr Alistair Ross, Professor Andrew Samuels, Dr Caryl Sibbett, Erin Stevens, Vanessa Stirrum, Janet Tolan, Professor Sue Wheeler, Dr John Wilson,
To which a further 1,453 supporting comments have been added in less than two weeks!
IS THE BACP HEADING FOR DISASTER?
Can those at the helm change their course?
McLeod’s open letter sets out some serious concerns regarding the stewardship of the BACP and calls for a change of direction, in essence stating:
“We call on the BACP Board of Governors to undertake the work of restoring the effective functioning, accountability and good reputation of the BACP, in an urgent, thorough and transparent manner. Our strong preference is for this process to be carried out on the basis of consultation and consensus. However, we are aware that, if necessary, it would be possible for us to take further action in accordance with procedures outlined in the Articles of Association. We hope for BACP and the profession that such an outcome can be avoided.”
Full details can be found at:
In addition to the open letter from Professor John McLeod, a quickly growing number of Senior Accredited BACP members (almost 500 in a few weeks) are raising a petition to protest against the current SCoPEd proposals to rescind their snr accred status! The CEO and Chair of the BACP were notified of this group’s resentment of the callous disregard these members are experiencing, in an email also sent on 29 October 2023. To date no response has been received.
Senior Accred petition can be viewed at https://chng.it/d8Hgfg7yxH
I would like to make it absolutely clear that the 500+ responses, all decrying the proposal, are responses from the 500 odd members that we have managed to reach and if we have been able to contact the full 1,451 senior accredited members, I have little doubt that we would have received 1,300+ negative responses to the proposals to rescind our status.
I would invite you to click on the petition link and read the comments that senior accredited members have left; you should be appalled and ashamed that such furious resentment against the BACP has been allowed to develop.
Until now most senior accredited members have felt that they were a lone voice and no doubt the majority felt powerless to voice their sense of neglect and betrayal. If senior accreditation can be removed through the interpretation of SCoPEd today it can be removed again in years to come by any other change in policy, as could any other accreditation.
Clearly, all Senior Accredited members have already met stringent standards of skills, knowledge, training, and experience, as well as paid the fees, set by the very organisation which is now “throwing us under the SCoPEd bus.
Request for a positive response
In principle there appear to be two alternative approaches that the BACP can introduce in place of the current proposals.
1. The BACP can decide to renegotiate with SCoPEd to adopt a ‘grandparenting’ scheme that allows senior accredited members to retain their title with absolutely no additional requirements to prove our expertise.
2. The BACP can proceed with their proposals but agree to transition ALL senior accredited members to the status of Fellows of BACP (FBACP), without cost and without further assessment.
Fellows is an honorary title and can be bestowed upon senior members that have already demonstrated appropriate training, experience, skills, ongoing CPD and supervision commitments, whilst adhering to the BACP’s ethical framework.
This latter approach allows BACP to introduce new criteria for future senior accreditation without detrimentally impacting existing senior accredited members.
Please take immediate steps to propose a solution to SCoPEd which retains senior accreditation. I will be happy to pass on any positive response to those members with whom I am in touch.
In addition to our members outrage at the proposed stripping of our hard-earned titles we are now very aware of other groups who are expressing distrust and disapproval of the BACP’s lack of transparency and direction of travel.
One other growing group is the Psychotherapy and Counselling Union (PCU) which is leading a campaign generally against the way SCoPEd is being implemented including opposition to BACP Senior Accreditation demise.
A third group I have seen is a Person-Centred group which is also campaigning against SCoPEd which unfairly affects their members.
A fourth group of which we are aware is protesting against SCoPEd in principle. This group “Counsellors Together UK” has already more than 6,300 members!
Their view is:
“We believe that the proposed SCoPEd project by BACP, UKCP and BPC creates a hierarchy between counsellors and psychotherapists and is detrimental to the progression of the counselling profession. As members of BACP we ask that the SCoPEd program is stopped with immediate affect.
This project is not representative of BACP members. BACP states in their literature that they have 12 members only on the project panel, only 2 of which are humanistic therapists and the majority of which (7) are psychoanalytic. How can this panel represent the BACP membership? We would ask that BACP consider how this framework is exploitative to its members by promoting such hierarchy. How can a project such as SCoPEd which is being developed without representation of the majority of your membership offer a fair representation of knowledge, skills and attitudes which is what you state you aim to be measuring, when the panel is so deeply rooted in psychoanalytic theory?”
Their petition can be viewed at:
It very much appears that the direction in which the BACP is heading is completely without support of the very members that it is charged to represent!
Natalie and Anna,
It must be difficult to hear that all the hard work being undertaken at the BACP over the past few years has totally failed to embody the wishes of the very members for whom the Association should be representing, but it is not too late to change direction and I implore you to change course and avoid disaster.
Professor John McLeod and his group have already referred to the possibility of taking further action in accordance with procedures outlined in the Articles of Association, and many senior accredited members have stated that they will resign if their accreditation is withdrawn.
Please make a public statement as a matter of urgency that the BACP is suspending its current plans until members have been fully consulted and involved in the future direction of the Association.
I thank you for reading this letter and send my heartfelt best wishes.
Turiya
T M R Gough MBACP Snr Accred