New CBT "Standards of Conduct " Adopted
At this year's AGM, held on 16 July 2009 during the BABCP Annual Conference in Exeter, members adopted the "Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics in the Practice of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies".
These Standards of Conduct replace the "Guidelines for Good Practice", which were originally drawn up in 1974 by the then BABP in response to a government enquiry into abuse at a mental health hospital. BABP offered evidence to the enquiry in the form of standards expected of our members using behavioural psychotherapy. The existing 350 members of BABP were subsequently required to sign that they accepted the Guidelines and would endeavour to adhere to them. All subsequent members joining BAB(C)P have been required to do the same as a criterion for membership.
Only minor changes have been made to the guidelines over the years to accommodate such issues as "cognitive" being introduced and accreditation commencing. In recent years, however, there have been increasing numbers of members who have not been bound by any code of ethics of a professional body. The BABCP Board therefore decided in 2007 to update the Guidelines to make them more comprehensive for those members.
Coincidentally, the Health Professions Council (HPC) had recently revised their code of ethics for registrants, calling it "Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics". The Board considered that BABCP should base its revised guidelines on the HPC Standards and give it a similar title. A section dealing with issues specific to CBT, such as assessment, formulation, measurement and procedures, has also been included, all of which is largely taken from the former Guidelines.
Prior to voting at the AGM, members had the opportunity to review the draft Standards of Conduct on the BABCP website. A copy of the draft was also included in the AGM booklet.
The Standards of Conduct can be viewed here. Hard-copy production of the document is underway, which will be sent to all members in due course.