Please Note: Guidance offered by the Society with regards to therapeutic working and/or training is subject to any current Government regulations, national restrictions or local needs
Updated guidance (September 2021)
Following consultation with a variety of trainers, the Society has now implemented the following:
Tutor contact hours and blended learning from 1st September 2021.
We are very much aware of how hard training providers have worked during the pandemic to provide their students with a quality training experience. All of us involved in talking therapies have learned a great deal about the advantages and disadvantages of delivering training and therapy outside of traditional face-to-face/in-the-room methodology. Whilst we remain convinced that the relational experience of being in a classroom with other learners is an essential part of quality training, online synchronous teaching clearly has much to offer, not least in terms of accessibility.
As such, we believe, blended learning could be the future of training for our profession.
Our position is that, for training courses providing a route to our Accredited Register, a substantial proportion of training should be face-to-face/in-the-room as circumstances permit this. We will require that this proportion should be a minimum of 70% with up to 30% being via online synchronous delivery. This will apply for new cohorts of students from 1 September 2021, subject to any continuing national restrictions or local needs.
We are also aware that some providers will wish to return to full face-to-face/in-the-room training and practice, which of course they will be free to do, while others will choose a blended approach.
All providers should carry out a full risk assessment before returning to face-to-face training or working and must, of course, work within government guidelines. The ethical implications of asking students to resume face-to-face practice or training must be considered and appropriate support offered. The needs of high-risk groups such as vulnerable people with complex health needs must be taken into account and suitable adjustments made.
Supervised placements from 1st September 2021.
With regards to supervised placement hours, the criteria for the accredited register is a minimum of 100 supervised client hours in and organisation/agency setting. It is required that at least 51% of these hours are carried out face-to-face/in-the-room. If the course provides relevant training, and considers a student to be competent to carry out some of their supervised client hours remotely (ie online or phone based), this will need to be synchronous/live and with relevant support from the placement provider and supervised by an experienced supervisor. Within the remainder of hours permissible via remote working, the decision with regards to the proportion of supervised hours for these other modes of delivery lies with the training provider.
Asynchronous or text-based practice hours are not counted towards placement hours.
Please note:
Students who had to undertake training and/or placement hours purely online during the 2020/2021 academic year, due to the Covid pandemic, can still apply for the Accredited Register as their applications will be assessed in line with accepted criteria during that time.
For students completing their 2nd/3rd year of core training during academic year 2021/2022, we very much encourage these students to start acquiring some ‘face-to-face/ in-the-room’ experience as soon as possible. However, these students will not be penalised if they genuinely cannot gain this experience due to any ongoing government restrictions and/or if placement providers are not permitting ‘face-to-face/ in-the-room’ practice.
For new students embarking on a one-year course from September 2021, we strongly encourage them to acquire 'face to face/in the room' experience and, as far as they are able, have the majority of their supervised placement hours acquired in this way. Where training providers know of extenuating circumstances, the requirement to have the majority of supervised placement hours as 'face to face/in the room' can be adjusted.
It remains important that all students are assessed to qualify as competent to practice ‘face-to-face/ in-the-room”. Please see assessment guidance below under: ‘Guidance for training providers regarding transition to ‘in the room’ therapy’
The below guidance was updated periodically from March 2020 - August 2021 and has now been replaced with the above.