After researching the implications of SCoPEd an increasing number of learned members have contacted BACP to voice their concerns about the divisive and damaging effects of this framework to our profession. In particular, the 1,451 senior accredited members of BACP are having their titles revoked, and as a result have raised a loud protest, which to date has been ignored.

We are asking every member who agrees with our position to sign the petition and try your best to forward this email to say 10 fellow BACP members. This way we hope to achieve greater numbers which will pressure the governance to act more democratically and responsively to members opinions.

Thank you for taking the time to read our message.

The Scandal of the BACP’s Treatment of its Senior Accredited Members

The introduction of the SCoPEd framework has significant negative impact on the members of the BACP and the counselling profession.

Many thousands of members who have taken the time to research the wider implications of SCoPEd have protested to our governance that it is not fit for purpose, and their protests have been ignored, in fact hushed up!

Our BACP employees in Lutterworth have decided to revoke the 1,451 Senior Accredited members’ status to fit us into their idea of a new order, without any member consultation. As a result, a petition (1) has been started and submitted to the Chair and Governors from 1,265 members (rising daily) to protest and demand consultation. This has been ignored!

In addition, our group’s representatives met with the new CEO, Phil James, and the new Director of Professional Standards, Policy and Research, Lisa Morrison Coulthard in January to formally request a change in direction that would safeguard our titles. To date no response has been received!

Our concerns over the chaos and undemocratic autocracy in Lutterworth have been echoed by many groups. You may have seen the Open Letter (2) by Professor John McLeod regarding “the unexplained departure of highly experienced and regarded staff, including the CEO, Deputy CEO, COO, Head of HR, Head of External Relations, Edl Lead and Data Protection Lead, amongst others”.

McLeod and esteemed colleagues call for “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”.

An Open Letter (3) from The Alliance for Counselling and Psychotherapy calls on the BACP to halt the controversial SCoPEd project, demonstrating that its proposed competency framework is “divisive, elitist and exclusionary”.  

An Open Letter from the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society (4), to the BACP expressed serious regret that “your SCoPEd project was conducted in secret and to the exclusion of … major stakeholders, trainers, and individual practitioners, from the beginning, in public, and be subject to democratic voting procedures”.

Counsellors Together UK have also written a letter (5), on behalf of their 9,000 members, highlighting concerns to the BACP regarding the current governance, emphasising how “Members feel uneasy regarding the ongoing changes in management and leadership since 2020, and don’t feel they have received adequate explanation about why this has happened.”

The Psychotherapy and Counselling Union (PCU) also oppose the adoption of the SCoPEd framework by leading a campaign against the way SCoPEd is being implemented including opposition to the BACP Senior Accreditation demise (6). 

There are now over 10,000 BACP members concerned about the current governance of our Association and the unforeseen impact of SCoPEd on our profession.

Invitation to Join Our Movement

We invite all interested members who would like to join us to consider signing our petition, and/or contact us at:

 Snr.Accred.protest@gmail.com

Kind regards,

Members against rescinding BACP Senior Accredited status

References and links:

1.      Our Petition – see https://www.change.org/p/preserve-the-status-and-recognition-of-senior-accredited-bacp-members

2.      Open Letter McLeod - see https://therapistconcerns.co.uk/ 

3.      Open Letter ACP - see https://allianceblogs.wordpress.com/2020/10/16/open-letter-person-centred-calls-on-bacp-to-halt-scoped/ 

4.      Open Letter NCPS - see https://nationalcounsellingsociety.org/assets/uploads/docs/scoped_open_letter_to_bacp_wv.pdf 

5.      Open Letter CTUK - see https://ukcounsellors.co.uk/bacp-members-letter-of-concern-april-2023/ 

6.      PCU - see https://www.psychotherapyandcounsellingunion.co.uk/campaigns