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In order for graduates to be eligible for UKCP membership they must adhere to certain requirements regarding their professional practice. The annual professional return includes a review of the CPD, practice, and supervision that each member has undertaken in the previous year.
On this page you can find an outline of the UKCP’s policy for CPD, as well as a detailed outline of the process in which Metanoia Institute monitor and confirm the CPD of graduates.
Additionally, if you wish to raise a complaint regarding a UKCP-registered psychotherapist or counsellor you can find details about the relevant processes below. If you’re looking for upcoming CPD events at Metanoia, use the button below:
UKCP Policy
This UKCP Professional Membership Policy only applies to graduates of the Postgraduate Taught and Postgraduate Research programmes that lead to UKCP Registration.
UKCP have set out requirements for clinical practice, supervision, and CPD that all members need to comply with.
UKCP registration requires all psychotherapy graduates, tutors, and supervisors of psychotherapy students and graduates to undertake CPD in line with the HIPC’s requirement for CPD. The following policy allows for a wide variety of activities so that CPD can remain a stimulating and inspiring process. It also largely allows individuals to choose and design their own CPD according to their particular interests and needs. The fundamental principle underpinning all CPD activity is the protection of the public through the maintenance and improvement of professional standards.
All UKCP registrants, who choose to have their CPD scrutinised by Metanoia Institute, are required to maintain their membership of Metanoia Institute.
Registrants should also ensure that they are familiar with relevant UKCP policies, including those regarding supervision, ethics, CPD and reaccreditation (see UKCP standards, guidance and policies).
Reaccreditation for Metanoia Members
As Metanoia is your organisational member (OM) we will process members’ annual professional returns and reaccreditation forms.
Registrants will report to Metanoia every year on their professional practice when they renew their Metanoia Membership, and every five (5) years, each person will be involved in a peer review (see forms and instructions below).
If you take a sabbatical and therefore intend to stop seeing clients or supervisees for a period of more than three (3) months, you must notify Metanoia Institute at the beginning and end of the sabbatical.
To find out more about sabbaticals and other breaks from practice, please see the page linked below:
The annual professional returns requirements for Metanoia Members has two components
Mandatory Requirements:
- You must maintain a minimum of 4 client contact hours per week (for the first five years after graduation and a minimum of 2 clients thereafter).
- You must receive regular supervisory consultation for the first five years of practice. Subsequently, supervision may be adapted to suit individual needs, such as peer supervision.
- At least 7 hours of your CPD activity per annum must be modality-specific. (If your CPD activity over the year has not included this, please, as part of your CPD return, provide a reasoned argument for your choice.)
- Every registrant is responsible for attending to his/her physical and psychological health.
- You will design a programme to stimulate, stretch, and support you, as well as keep you abreast of relevant developments in the field.
- Activities may include a wide variety, for example, research, reading, writing, attendance and presentations at conferences and workshops, serving professional organisations on boards/committees, peer group discussion meetings, participating in an online colloquium, further training in the original or another discipline or other activities that support your practice as a professional.
- Your programme should also show how your practice and CPD reflect the Diversity and Equality Policy of both Metanoia Institute and the UKCP. This will include such things as demonstrating an understanding of power, prejudice, the impact of oppression, and the needs of the diverse group of clients with whom they work.
The Metanoia and UKCP requirements represent the minimum standards for reaccreditation. Registrants are strongly encouraged to complete CPD and other requirements in excess of these minimum thresholds wherever possible, to provide contingency should any activities be deemed ineligible or unable to be counted.
The five-year reaccreditation period is calculated from the date of registration and, depending on the timing of registration and annual returns, may not always comprise five full years of annual returns. All reaccreditation requirements must be completed and evidenced by the reaccreditation due date; extensions will not be granted for outstanding requirements unless in exceptional circumstances.
Examples of CPD Activity for the UKCP Annual Returns
Please see the following examples of what Metanoia consider to be appropriate appropriate CPD activities for annual returns:
- Attendance at workshops, conferences and short courses
- Longer term courses (including research degrees)
- Facilitating a conference workshop or giving a conference paper
- Preparation for teaching new material on counselling and psychotherapy courses
- Evidenced examples of reading
- Writing research articles and/or conducting research in the field of psychotherapy.
Please note that personal therapy, clinical supervision, and activities that support general wellbeing would not be considered relevant CPD activities.
Annual Process
Every year, accredited registrants will complete the Annual Professional Return and describe their year’s professional practice. [add from teams chat] This should be submitted to Metanoia. If you have completed an annual summary for another organisation (e.g. BPS, BACP, BCP), you may attach this with the Annual CPD Form. Please keep a copy of this form for your records.
Submitted returns [teams chat 2]
If you do not agree with the way that your return has been assessed, and wish to appeal this decision, please see below for details of how to do this. The process of review and appeal is the same for the five-year reaccreditation process outlined below.
5-Year Reaccreditation Process
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Every five years, registrants must be peer-reviewed and reaccredited.
Firstly, registrants will engage with a peer-review meeting. The registrant will share with their colleagues the activities they have been engaging with as part of their CPD to maintain the standards of their practice. The group registrants will work with the registrant in a lively spirit of cooperation, open inquiry, mutual respect and informed humility. The task for the group is to critically appreciate and evaluate their colleague’s presentation and to reach a consensus as to any recommendations they may make to Metanoia.
If the peer-review group are willing to endorse the registrant’s CPD activities then the registrant will submit a Reaccreditation Form. This form will be signed by the members of the peer group. The form will be submitted to Metanoia with documentation giving evidence of:
- Supervision Hours: registrants should provide a statement from their current supervisor/peer supervisor verifying the amount of contracted supervision.
- Client Hours: registrants will be asked to provide an overview of their clinical hours and a profile of their practice over the last 5 years – e.g., gender, age, length of time with each client etc.
- CPD Records: registrants must provide evidence of their CPD over the previous five years. This will be discussed in the peer review meeting with an understanding of how the work undertaken has contributed to their development as a practitioner.
- Certificate of Professional Indemnity Insurance
- Professional Will Arrangements: registrants will need to confirm that they have made suitable arrangements in case they need to take sudden long-term or permanent absence from practice.
Many of these details should have been provided as part of the annual process. It is therefore sufficient to attach copies of forms that were submitted across the prior five years.
In the event of the peer group making recommendations that the registrant agrees with, these should be outlined in the Reaccreditation Form. The registrant should submit a statement describing how and when they will address these recommendations.
Appeals Process
If you feel that your [REOMVE CPD] return or 5-year reaccreditation paperwork has been unfairly assessed or that any extra requirements that have been placed on you are excessive, please contact the membership team at membership@metanoia.ac.uk who will escalate and arrange for your documentation to be reviewed. The membership team may take advice from the membership secretary at the UKCP to help them to arrive at a decision. Their decision will be final.
Failure To Submit Paperwork
The membership team contacts members over the summer each year with a reminder to submit their annual [return] by the 30th September. Their 5-year reaccreditation return will be due on the anniversary of their registration with UKCP. The membership team will be in contact within due course.
Failure to submit your paperwork may put your UKCP membership at risk. If you are having difficulty meeting the deadline, please contact the membership team at membership@metanoia.ac.uk to arrange an extension.
Complaints Against UKCP Members
Any client/therapist complaints against a qualified and registered UKCP member in their capacity as a psychotherapist / psychotherapeutic counsellor are not considered through the Metanoia Complaints and Professional Conduct Procedure and should be directed to the Complaints and Conduct Process (CCP) of the professional body UKCP.
To submit a complaint against a registered UKCP member and to begin the Complaints and Conduct Process, a complaint must be submitted to the complaints and conduct team at UKCP’s office (email: complaints@ukcp.org.uk) in writing, signed by the Complainant, identifying the Registrant and normally using the complaints form available from the UKCP office and on its website.
Feedback
We hope that you have found the guidance given here useful, but if you have any feedback to give us on the process or want to tell us about your experience of submitting your returns, please don’t hesitate to be contact us at info@metanoia.ac.uk