Response to Proposed regulation of Counsellors and Psychotherapists under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 in Ireland,
Attached is our response to Proposed regulation of Counsellors and Psychotherapists under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005.
The role and remit of the Professional Standards Authority
Under our legislation we also operate the Accredited Registers programme under which we assess organisations that register health and social care practitioners who are not regulated by law to ensure that they meet our set of standards. There are currently 23 registers accredited under the scheme.
We sometimes carry out international commissions and reviews. In 2014 we were commissioned by the Hong Kong Food and Health Bureau to work with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, to explore the viability of a scheme similar to the Accredited Registers programme. The Hong Kong Government has subsequently announced its intention to launch an accredited registers scheme for ‘supplementary healthcare professions’ this year. Also in 2014 we carried out a review of fitness to practise processes for the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland.
Our interest in this issue
We welcome the opportunity to contribute to this consultation from the Irish Government on the regulation of counsellors and psychotherapists. Although we do not have a direct remit of oversight of professional regulation in Ireland as we do in the UK, as mentioned, we have published a number of reports with our ideas on improving regulation and regularly exchange information with colleagues internationally about good regulation.
As mentioned we also operate the Accredited Registers programme which we note is referenced in the report from CORU, the Health and Social Care Professionals Council on the regulation of counsellors and psychotherapists. We therefore hope that our comments will be useful to the Irish Government.