Lack of Protection of the Psychologist Title

  • ACP-UK

  • January, 2022

Unlike in many other countries, the title ‘psychologist’ is not protected within UK law.  This means that anyone can call themselves a ‘psychologist’.  However, the general public tends to assume a certain level of training and qualification from this term.  We have many examples of people practising as ‘psychologists’ with minimal training in mental health.  We believe this places the public at risk of harm.

Psychological Therapy Providers

There are numerous providers of psychological therapy including Clinical Psychologists, Psychotherapists and Counsellors.  Only a very small number are regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC); these are Clinical Psychologists and Counselling Psychologists.  For these two professions, the training and assessment is rigorous, there is compulsory registration once qualified and ongoing monitoring of the individual’s Continuing Professional Development (CPD).  Other Practitioner Psychologists may have additional training in certain psychological therapies, but extensive mental health interventions are not usually a component of their training.  Anyone who is concerned about the treatment they have received from an HCPC registered Practitioner Psychologist can raise their concern with HCPC and it will be investigated.  Malpractice can lead to being struck off the register and unable to continue to use the protected title, such as Clinical or Counselling Psychologist.

However, there is then nothing to stop the struck off practitioner from continuing to practice using just the title ‘psychologist’ (or any other description for a psychological therapist).  Counsellors and psychotherapists do have professional organisations of which they may be members (e.g. BACP, BABCP, UKCP).  But membership is voluntary and members are not regulated.  This means that the general public accessing services from these professions are at risk of receiving poor standards of practice or at worst harmful practice.  Recent attempts to bring regulation to the counselling profession led by Baroness Jolly have unfortunately been thwarted.  Other organisations have similar concerns.

“Psychological Experts” in the Courts

“Psychological experts” without the necessary qualifications and experience are sometimes being instructed to act as expert witnesses in the family court.  This can result in significant harm to the public.  Psychologists need to have gone through Clinical training in order to be able to give a diagnosis and to make recommendations about therapeutic interventions.  We are aware of several cases in which “psychological experts” who are not HCPC registered have suggested inappropriate diagnoses and made recommendations for children to be removed from their mothers based on these diagnoses.

Psychologists in the Media

We are concerned that the media often uses unqualified and unregulated psychologists to provide professional opinion.  This perpetuates the misunderstanding the public has in relation to psychology qualifications.  There are examples of such “TV psychologists” providing opinion and advice on a range of topics on which they have little training or qualification.  This could lead to large scale harm to the public.

ACP-UK Response

We are working in a number of ways to try to improve and increase the protection of the public:

  1. We are working closely with HCPC to highlight the issues of concern and gather more data on complaints they receive in relation to non-regulated psychologists.
  2. We are developing a relationship with the Professional Standards Authority for Health & Social Care to increase awareness of the regulatory gap and harness their influence with other organisations who can help bring about change.
  3. We have published guidance for the Courts in relation to Expert Witnesses and have offered to provide advice.
  4. Our Parliamentary Liaison Officer, Dr Joe Ryan, continues to raise the issue of regulating the psychologist title with MPs.

The current situation places the public at significant risk of harm and we believe that protecting the psychologist title (as it is in many other countries) would be a significant step forward in protecting against this risk.