Statutory Regulation FAQs
General questions
What is statutory regulation?
Statutory regulation exists to protect the public against the
risk of poor practice. It works by setting agreed standards of practice and
competence by registering those who are competent to practise and
restricting the use of specified protected titles to those who are
registered.
Sanctions may be applied to registered psychologists, such as
removing them from the register if their fitness to practice is
impaired.
Why is statutory regulation being introduced?
Statutory regulation of psychologists is a stronger form of regulation
than the voluntary system run by the Society and is therefore potentially a better
means of protecting the public. The Society has argued for a long time
that a statutory system is necessary to protect the public from
charlatans and poor practice.
Current situation
What titles will be protected?
The Government legislation protects seven titles: Clinical Psychologist, Health Psychologist, Counselling Psychologist, Educational Psychologist, Occupational Psychologist, Sport and Exercise Psychologist, and Forensic Psychologist. In addition there will be two generic titles Practitioner Psychologist and Registered Psychologist, but these will only be available to registrants who already hold one of the seven 'specialist' titles. Post statutory regulation, it will potentially be an offence to use one of these titles without being on the Health Professions Council register.
Further information
Statutory Regulation of Psychologists - Information on Protected Titles
When will statutory regulation be introduced?
The Health Professions Council (HPC) register opened to psychologists on 1 July 2009.
What happened to the proposal for a Psychological
Professions Council?
The Society, together with a number of partner organisations, proposed
a separate registration council for psychologists and other providers
of psychological services. However, the government made it clear that it was not prepared to countenance this proposal.
The role of the Society
Does the Society support the government's
proposal?
The Society's position is that the government should have
simply protected the title 'psychologist' as this would have been
comprehensive and less confusing for the public. However, the Society is committed to working with the new regulator to help make the new system work.
Why should I remain a member of the
Society if I have to register with Health Professions Council?
The Society is the professional body responsible for developing and supporting the discipline of psychology and disseminating psychological knowledge
to the public and policy makers. It is learned and professional body for psychology and psychologists, with numerous benefits of membership.
The Health Professions Council (HPC) is the regulator for the majority of practitioner psychologists, with the role of ensuring that the public is protected from exposure to bad professional practice.
Practitioners and academics
I am a Chartered Psychologist - how will
this affect me?
To offer the public services as a psychologist using one of the titles protected by the legislation, you will have to register with the Health Professions Council (HPC).
All of the Society's Chartered
Psychologists with practising certificates and one of the seven adjectival titles were automatically transferred to the HPC's register on 1 July 2009, unless there were outstanding fitness to practise
proceedings relating to them.
Chartered Psychologists who do not have access to an adjectival title were not transferred automatically and will need to apply directly to the HPC.
I am Exempt from a Practising Certificate
(EPC) - how does this affect me?
By definition, to be exempt from a practising certificate you must not be offering services to the public so you will not need to register with HPC.
If
you plan to offer services to the public at a later date, you will need
to be registered under one of the seven protected titles.
I am a Society member but not
Chartered. How will this affect me?
Statutory regulation will not affect you unless you wish to offer services as
a psychologist using one of the protected titles, in which
case you will need to apply to the Health Professions Council (HPC) for registration.
I am not a Chartered Psychologist -
how can I offer services to the public as a psychologist?
If you wish to offer services to the public using a protected title you will need to register with the Health Professions Councul (HPC).
How does grandparenting work?
You will need to apply to the HPC stating how you meet the criteria for entry
to the register in a particular domain of practice. For further details, please visit the Health Professions Council website.
Trainees and overseas members
How am I affected as an overseas member
of the Society?
The government proposals will only apply if you want to provide services to the public in the UK. If you do not fit these criteria but want to offer services to the public in
the UK, you will have to apply to the Health Professions Council (HPC) via the international route (see below).
How will the Health Professions Council
deal with overseas applicants?
If you are a psychologist qualified overseas and already practising in this
country, and on the Society's Register of Chartered Psychologists with a practising certificate and one of the seven protected adjectival titles, you will have been transferred automatically to the Health Professions Council (HPC) register when it opened on 1 July 2009.
If you move to the UK on or
after 1 July 2009 and
wish to offer services to the public, you will need to apply to the Health Professions Council (HPC), which
will deal with your application either under the terms of the relevant EU
directive or through its international applicants route.
Course accreditation
I am applying for undergraduate psychology programmes. Do I still need to get the Graduate Basis for Registration if I want to become a psychologist?
From 1 July 2009 the Graduate Basis for Registration will be known as the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC). GBC may be an entry requirement for some Health Professions Council (HPC) approved courses. You will need to check with the course provider to find out if it is a requirement for a specific course you are interested in.
GBC will remain an entry requirement for all Society-accredited postgraduate training programmes
which you will be required to take if you wish to obtain Chartered
Membership of the British Psychological Society - the
gold standard qualification for professional psychologists.
To be eligible for GBC you will need to complete an accredited undergraduate or conversion programme. The
HPC will not approve these programmes as they do not directly confer
eligibility to register with them. The Society will
continue to accredit these programmes.
I am currently studying psychology at postgraduate level. Will I need to and be able to register with the HPC when I complete my studies?
HPC registration will be required to practise under any of the nine protected titles for practitioner psychologists.
If you are on an HPC approved course, your institution will issue a pass list to the HPC and once this has been received applicants who meet the HPC requirements can register via the approved courses route.
The HPC will only approve programmes that lead directly to eligibility to register. They will not approve Masters programmes - the Society will continue to accredit these. In order to be eligible for HPC registration after completing a Masters, you will need to complete the remainder of the approved training route, which will usually involve completing the Society Qualification or a stage 2 qualification delivered by a Higher Education Institution.
If you are unsure whether your qualification confers eligibility for registration with the HPC, please check the Register of Approved Programmes on the HPC website.
Will the HPC want to visit all programmes currently accredited by the Society?
The Health Professions Council will approve programmes that meet or exceed the threshold level for entry to the practitioner psychologists section of the Register of Health Professionals, and enable graduates to meet the HPC's standards of proficiency (i.e. Doctorates and Stage 2 qualifications).
The HPC will not approve other qualifications in psychology such as undergraduate degrees or Masters programmes as these do not lead directly to eligibility for registration with the HPC. The Society will continue to accredit these programmes.
The HPC approves the following routes to statutory regulation:
- Clinical - Professional Doctorate
- Counselling - Professional Doctorate or equivalent
- Educational - Professional Doctorate or equivalent
- Forensic - Masters degree (with the award of the Society qualification in forensic psychology, or equivalent)
- Health - Masters degree (with the award of the Society qualification in health psychology, or equivalent)
- Occupational - Masters degree (with the award of
the Society qualification in occupational psychology, or equivalent)
- Sport and exercise - Masters degree (with the award
of the Society qualification in sport and exercise psychology, or
equivalent)
You can find out more about the approval process on the HPC website.
Will course and programme providers will have to plan for two separate quality assurance processes?
The Society is happy to plan for a concurrent accreditation and approval event alongside the HPC who have extensive experience of conducting similar joint events with other professional bodies.
The Society and the HPC need to meet with broadly similar groups of people as part of the visit process, and are able to work to a single set of documentation. You will need to appoint an independent Chair to oversee the visit process and an independent secretary. Please see the HPC Protocol for Approval Visits (under 'other documents') for further information.
Whilst it will be possible to conduct a single visit, the two processes will remain independent and will lead to separate outcomes and reports.
I haven't found the answers I was looking for.
What should I do?
Please contact the British Psychological Society (e-mail: enquiries@bps.org.uk;
tel: +44 (0)116 254 9568).
Message from the President
Statutory Regulation
