Petition by 862 Senior Accredited members of the BACP representing 99% of those members that have been contacted, for the URGENT attention of Natalie Bailey (Chair), Sekinat Adima, Punam Farmah, Ewan Irvine, Alwyn Li, Lynne Gabriel, Clare Catherall, Kathy Roe and Judy White.
Dear Natalie et al, (I have just found out Anna Daroy is no longer with BACP)
Having brought to your attention the very strong feelings of the Senior Accredited members, as well as the wider dissatisfaction of thousands of members of the BACP, in my letters dated 29 October and 12 November 2023, I received a response on 23 November from Steve Robinson (Member Experience Manager – surely a misnomer?).
I will conclude that his reply represented your opinions and that despite the magnitude and serious nature of members’ protests neither of you felt that a personal and positive response was warranted, and you were happy to delegate a reply to such a massive issue to a manager.
The first comment in Steve Robinson’s letter seeking to “clarify” that it is not individual therapists that are being aligned by SCoPEd totally fails to ‘hear’ the voices of more than 800+ senior individual members to whom that is exactly the proposed outcome!
The second comment that confirms that “current senior accreditation category doesn’t align with column C” screams out that that the SCoPEd framework is therefore unsuitable in its current form and needs to be reevaluated, not that the most skilled and experienced therapists should be stripped of their titles and demoted to fit the framework!
The third comment that throwing senior accredited members under the bus “was the most logical way to do this” is absolutely scandalous!
The next comment about consulting with the “Expert Peer Review Panel” ignores so much criticism that this panel of only twelve members is primarily representing a psychodynamic orientation and not only fails to represent a wider theoretical view but is wholly inadequate as a measure of 55,000 members’ views! In fact, you have been given the views of 800+ fully experienced senior members, in addition to 6,300 from just one other group, and chosen to totally disregard them. Where’s the democracy in that?
Speaking of democracy, the NCPS, who are also committed to adopting SCoPEd, have stated quite clearly that they are committed to launching a member consultation process “to ensure” that the views of their members who voted against SCoPEd are “fully heard and taken into account”! If the NCPS is free to ballot their members before any final decisions then clearly BACP is similarly able, but perhaps not willing?
Finally, no reasons were given for why the BACP could not suspend the project (albeit partners such as NCPS plan to ballot their members which may disrupt the project), nor reasons why existing senior accredited members could not be granted “Fellowship” status as a meaningful recognition of the many skills, experience, training and continued CPD, that they have all rigorously maintained, some for 30 to 40 years!
We must conclude that as servants of our Association some senior personnel are prepared to act against the interests of significant numbers of the Associations’ membership and are no longer serving our needs. As a result, we must now look to the Articles of Association, as mentioned by Professor John McLeod in his ‘open letter’ dated 29 October 2023, to replace those individuals who are not minded to administer our Association in a transparent and democratic manner.
Find herewith a formal request on behalf of 862, eight hundred and sixty-two members, (rising daily) to reconsider the SCoPEd proposals and engage in a more transparent dialogue with its members about the future changes affecting them directly. Full details can be found at:
Also attached is a sample of the comments made by senior accredited members which may be of interest to yourselves and perhaps the “Member Experience Manager” (if he is really interested in ‘Members Experience’).
As the plans for SCoPEd have evolved the members have increasingly become aware of just how detrimental it would be for our profession and as that information spreads more and more members are against the proposals in their current form. There are almost 10,000 members in various protest groups seeking to see this project dismissed or suspended and their voices are simply being ignored.
We look to you to respond positively to thousands of members’ concerns by suspending the current program and undertaking a member-wide consultation or consider yourselves not fit for purpose.
Kind regards,
Turiya
T M R Gough MBACP Snr Accred
Members’ Signatures
To follow in further update ....