Are you a member yet? Membership is open to all and is the first step towards accreditation.
We welcome people from many backgrounds and different experiences to apply for BABCP Accreditation.
To apply, you must meet our criteria for CBT training and also have a BABCP-recognised professional background in mental health or related areas. This means having a Core Profession that we recognise.
If you do not have a Core Profession, you must complete a portfolio of evidence to show that you have equivalent training and experience. This is known as the Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes portfolio (KSA) route, which opens accreditation to a wider range of backgrounds. If you are using the KSA route, your portfolio will be assessed alongside your accreditation application.
Everyone who applies for accreditation must have already met either the core profession or KSA requirements for at least 12 months. During that time, you must also have been accountable for your own professional practice to a senior clinician. For more detail see our Provisional Accreditation Guidance.
A KSA portfolio has a number of criteria which must all be met by every applicant. There are some backgrounds which mean that you have already met a number of the criteria. Other backgrounds mean you must complete all of the sections.
There are a number of professions which are statutorily regulated, but would not meet all of our requirements for mental health professional backgrounds. There are also occupations where a specific training programme is completed, where some but not all of our core profession requirements would be met.
We have identified specific criteria that are met on successfully completing these trainings.
If a training programme, occupation or registration does not appear below, we will require a complete KSA portfolio with evidence of meeting each one of the criteria.
We require a KSA portfolio for all of these occupations and qualifications. For the professional groups in the table below, there are some criteria which have already been met by holding the specified profession, which means that a condensed KSA portfolio will meet these requirements.
The table below identifies which KSA criteria are required for the following professions:
Professions requiring a full KSA portfolio
The following list of professional backgrounds may produce excellent candidates for CBT courses.
Applicants with one of the following backgrounds should produce a full KSA portfolio with evidence of meeting all of the KSA criteria:
Assessment, Submission and Fees for KSA Portfolios
There are different ways that your portfolio can be assessed as part of your route to becoming accredited. Your KSA may be assessed by us, or by a BABCP-accredited CBT course.
Some accredited courses expect the KSA portfolio to be completed before they accept you for training. Some will support you to complete it before you graduate. Every KSA and core profession applicant must also apply for Provisional Accreditation to become accredited as a CBT practitioner.
Please check our Accreditation Fees page. Every applicant for accreditation has to pay the Provisional Accreditation fee. If we are assessing your KSA portfolio, the fee for this must also be paid. The flowchart below shows the different ways that your portfolio can be assessed and the fee to be paid:
Please note: when we assess applications submitted with a KSA portfolio, we consider both the application and the KSA. If your portfolio does meet the requirements, but your application for accreditation does not yet meet our standards, we will issue a KSA Pass Verification certificate. This means that your KSA has now been formally assessed. When you re-apply for accreditation, you will submit the certificate. You will pay the Provisional Accreditation application fee, but will not need to resubmit the KSA portfolio or pay the KSA fee again.
The templates and guidelines for preparing your KSA can be found below.
This document should be provided to referees who you are asking to provide a reference. The Instructions for Online submission (above) explain alternatives to signatures if you these are not possible during the Covid 19 pandemic.
Please follow the link below for instructions on how to submit and pay for your application for Provisional Accreditation and KSA portfolio.
Signatures
Many of the documents you will submit with your portfolio require signatures from you or other people. We are in the process of updating our documents to incorporate electronic signatures. In the meantime, here is some guidance on how to validate a document or provide proof of identity if signatures aren't possible.