Research by King’s College London and Royal Holloway, University of London, has found that regulation may distract NHS professionals and organisations from providing safe and effective patient care, raising questions about the future regulation of psychotherapists and counsellors by the Health Professions Council (HPC).

The study, Statutory Regulation and the Future of Professional Practice in Psychotherapy and Counselling: Evidence from the Field, funded by the General Medical Council and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Public Services Programme, examined how NHS doctors and therapists, including those in an IAPT service, said that current forms of regulation affected their clinical work.

Dr Gerry McGivern, Lecturer in Work and Organisations in the Department of Management, and lead author at King’s, explains: ‘Responding to high-profile media spectacles and expanding bureaucracy has created a regulatory climate obsessed with blame, which doctors describe as “hell” and “reminiscent of the Inquisition”, undermining professional practice, patient safety and care.’

Dr Michael Fischer, Research Fellow in Healthcare Management in the Department of Management at King’s, added: ‘Our research in an IAPT service suggests that, rather than remote, quasi-legal regulation, interpersonal processes such as clinical supervision and local professional engagement appear key to protecting the public and ensuring safe and effective practice.’

Professor Ewan Ferlie, Head of the Department of Management at King’s, said: ‘We do not claim that our findings are representative of the whole field of psychotherapy and counselling. However our research does reflect how regulation is perceived in different contexts. Politicians need to balance reacting to rare but high-profile cases of malpractice by introducing new layers of regulation with its often detrimental impact on the majority of health professionals, and its enormous financial costs.’

The report was submitted to the HPC Consultation on the Regulation of Psychotherapy and Counselling last month. Read it online at www.kcl.ac.uk/content/1/c6/06/35/90/StatutoryRegulation1.pdf
 
King’s College London