Standards of Conduct
Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics in the Practice of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies
Your Duties as a Cognitive Behaviour Therapist
The standards of conduct, performance and ethics you must keep to in CBT
- You must act in the best interests of service users.
- You must maintain high standards of CBT assessment and practice.
- You must respect the confidentiality of service users.
- You must keep high standards of personal conduct.
- You must provide (to us and any other relevant regulators and/or professional bodies) any important information about your conduct and competence.
- You must keep your professional knowledge and skills up to date.
- You must act within the limits of your knowledge, skills and experience and, if necessary, refer the matter to another practitioner.
- You must communicate properly and effectively with service users and other practitioners.
- You must effectively supervise tasks that you have asked other people to carry out.
- You must get informed consent to give treatment (except in an emergency).
- You must keep accurate records.
- You must deal fairly and safely with the risks of infection.
- You must limit your work or stop practising if your performance or judgement is affected by your health.
- You must behave with honesty and integrity and make sure that your behaviour does not damage the public's confidence in you or your profession.
- You must make sure that any advertising you do is accurate.
Introductory Statement
- As a member of the BABCP you are required to make sure that you are familiar with the standards and that you keep to them. If you are applying for membership or Accreditation as a CBT practitioner, trainer or supervisor, you will be asked to sign a declaration to confirm that you have read and will keep to the standards.
Existing members of BABCP will already have signed a declaration that they will adhere to the "guidelines for good practice" of BABCP. These ‘Standards' replace those ‘Guidelines' and existing members are deemed to have accepted these ‘standards'.
It is important that you read and understand this document. If someone raises concerns about your practice, we will consider these standards (and our standards of Accreditation for accredited members) when we decide whether we need to take any action. - It is important that you meet BABCP standards and are able to practise CBT safely and effectively. We also want to make sure that you maintain high standards of personal conduct and do not do anything which might affect the public's confidence in you, the BABCP or any other profession to which you may belong. However, we do not dictate how you should meet our standards.
Each standard can normally be met in more than one way. The way in which you meet our standards might change over time because of improvements in technology or changes in your practice.
As an autonomous and accountable professional, you need to make informed and reasonable decisions about your practice to make sure that you meet the standards that are relevant to your practice. This might include getting advice and support from education providers, employers, your clinical supervisor, colleagues and other people to make sure that you protect the wellbeing of service users at all times.
Many BABCP members are also members of other professional bodies and will therefore be bound by codes of practice of those professions. BABCP recognises the valuable role other professional bodies play in representing and promoting the interests of their members. This often includes providing guidance and advice about good practice, which can help you meet their standards and those in this document. - It is expected that all members of BABCP approach their work with the aim of resolving problems and promoting the well-being of service users and will endeavour to use their ability and skills to their best advantage without prejudice and with due recognition of the value and dignity of every human being. If you make informed, reasonable and professional judgements about your practice, with the best interests of your service users as your prime concern, and you can justify your decisions if you are asked to, it is very unlikely that you will not meet our standards.
By ‘informed', we mean that you have enough information to make a decision. This would include reading these standards and taking account of any other relevant guidance or laws. By ‘reasonable', we mean that you need to make sensible, practical decisions about your practice, taking account of all relevant information and the best interests of the people who use or are affected by your services. You should also be able to justify your decisions if you are asked to. - Throughout these standards, we have used the term ‘service user' to refer to anyone who uses or is affected by a member's services. Who your service users are will depend on how and where you work. For example, if you work in clinical practice, your service users might be your patients/clients. In some circumstances, your service users might be organisations rather than individuals. The term also includes other people who might be affected by your practice, such as carers and relatives.
We have used the word ‘treatment' in its broadest sense to include a number of actions members carry out. These actions could include diagnostic, monitoring or assessment procedures, therapy or advice.
The standards of conduct, performance and ethics in CBT
- You must act in the best interests of service users.
1.1 You are personally responsible for making sure that you promote and protect the best interests of your service users. You must respect and take account of these factors when providing care or a service, and must not abuse the relationship you have with a service user, sexually, emotionally, financially or in other ways. Some CBT interventions may involve you being with service users in social situations but you must still make a clear distinction between personal and professional relationships. If you are providing treatment on a private basis, you must make it clear to the service user at the outset what your fees are and the terms and conditions for you providing the treatment and the service user paying for it.
1.2 You must not allow your views about a service user's sex, age, colour, race, disability, sexuality, social or economic status, lifestyle, culture, religion or beliefs to affect the way you treat them or the professional advice you give. You must treat service users with respect and dignity. If you are providing care, you must work in partnership with your service users and involve them in their care as appropriate.
1.3 You must not do anything or fail to do anything, or allow someone else to do anything that you have good reason to believe will put the health or safety of a service user or others in danger. This includes both your own actions and those of other people. You should take appropriate action to protect the rights of children and vulnerable adults if you believe they are at risk, including following national and local policies.
1.4 You are responsible for your professional conduct, any care or advice you provide, and any failure to act. You are responsible for the appropriateness of your decision to delegate a task. You must be able to justify your decisions if asked to.
1.5 You must protect service users or others if you believe that any situation puts them in danger. This includes the conduct, performance or health of a colleague. The safety of service users and others must come before any personal or professional loyalties at all times. As soon as you become aware of a situation that puts a service user or someone else in danger, you should discuss the matter with your clinical supervisor, a senior colleague or another appropriate person. - You must maintain high standards of CBT assessment and practice.