Raising standards through the PSA
The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) for Health and Social Care promotes the health, safety and wellbeing of patients, service users and the public by raising standards of regulation and voluntary registration of people working in health and care. They are an independent body, accountable to the UK Parliament.
They oversee the work of nine statutory bodies that regulate health professionals in the UK and social workers in England. They review the regulators’ performance and audit and scrutinise their decisions about whether people on their registers are fit to practise. Read more about the Professional Standards Authority.
The Authority also sets standards for organisations that hold registers for those who work in unregulated health and care occupations, such as counselling and psychotherapy, and accredits the registers of those organisations that meet the Authority’s standards.
There are three things organisations must show in order to be eligible to apply to have their Registers Accredited by the Authority:
- They must hold a register for people in health and care occupations that are not regulated by the state.
- They must demonstrate that they are focussed on public protection.
- They must be able to afford the accreditation fee.
The Authority deliberately set the bar for accreditation high, at the level of good practice, so that gaining accreditation is a significant achievement and registers are proud to display the Accredited Register Quality Mark.
Read more about the Accredited Register Programme
The National Counselling Society’s register is accredited by the Accredited Register programme, which means that our organisation meets all eleven of the Authority’s standards including being committed to public protection, risk management, education and training, governance, providing information, managing complaints and managing the register effectively.
The Society in turn sets standards for our registrants, which include committing to codes of conduct, competence and ethical frameworks, and meeting entry level education requirements. Our Register sets requirements for registrants’ personal behaviour, technical competence and, where relevant, business practice.
This means that when clients choose a counsellor from an Accredited Register, they have the assurance that the counsellor has met the high standards required to be listed on the register.
Registrants are entitled to use the Accredited Register Quality mark as a sign that they are on a register that meets the Authority’s rigorous standards.
Search for a counsellor on the NCS Accredited Register.
Last reviewed on: 09/07/2021
Next review due: 09/07/2022