Notification of amendments to the Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy – Revised edition published 1 February 2010 and notified September 2012

Amendment

1. The term member, where it is used to refer to a member of this Association, is used to denote both members of the Association and registrants of the BACP Register of Counsellors and Psychotherapists.
2. The Head of Professional Conduct is now referred to as the Registrar.

It has also been necessary to make further changes to two sections in this publication as listed below:

Amendment

1. Page 7, under paragraph entitled 'Keeping trust' is now replaced with:
   18. Practitioners should not allow their professional relationships with clients to be prejudiced by any personal views they may hold about lifestyle, age, gender, disability, gender reassignment, race, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, marriage and civil partnership.
2. Page 9, under paragraph entitled 'Working in teams' is now replaced with:
   53. They should not allow their professional relationships with colleagues to be prejudiced by their own personal views about a colleague's lifestyle, age, gender, disability, gender reassignment, race, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, marriage and civil partnership. It is unacceptable and unethical to discriminate against colleagues on any of these grounds.

Notification of amendments to the 2010 edition of the Professional Conduct Procedure

Originally notified in September 2012 and further amended effective from 21 January 2013

Amendment - September 2012

1. The term member, where it is used to refer to a member of this Association, is used to denote both members of the Association and registrants of the BACP Register of Counsellors and Psychotherapists.
2. The Head of Professional Conduct is now referred to as the Registrar.

Amendment - 21 January 2013

1. The following change has been made to paragraph 4 under the heading Notification of Findings:
   • 4.10 The decision of the Professional Conduct Panel will be notified in writing to the parties within 28 days of the Professional Conduct Hearing.
2. The following changes have been made to Paragraph 8, under the heading Publication:
   • 8.1 Where a complaint is upheld in whole or in part, the decision of the Professional Conduct and/or Appeal Panel, together with details of any sanction, will be published on the Association's website and may also be published in its journal in such detail as deemed appropriate to the findings.
   • 8.2 The withdrawal of membership/registration under the Professional Conduct Procedure will be published on the Association's website and may also be published in its journal and elsewhere as it considers appropriate and just to do so, and in the interests of public protection.
   • 8.3 Under these procedures, any notification that the Association is entitled to publish on its website or in its journal may be published elsewhere by the Association at its discretion and in the interests of public protection.

This statement, Ethics for Counselling and Psychotherapy, unifies and replaces all the earlier codes for
counsellors, trainers and supervisors. It is intended to guide the practice of counselling and psychotherapy
by all members of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and inform the
practice of closely related roles that are delivered in association with counselling and psychotherapy or as part of the infrastructure to deliver these services. Being ethically mindful and willing to be accountable for the ethical basis of practice are essential requirements of membership of this Association.

In this statement the term 'practitioner' is used generically to refer to anyone with responsibility for the provision of counselling or psychotherapy-related services. 'Practitioner' includes anyone undertaking the role(s) of counsellor, psychotherapist, trainers and educators for these roles, providers of coaching and mentoring in association with counselling and psychotherapy, supervisors, and practitioner researchers. Members of this Association who are providers of services using counselling skills, embedded counsellors, managers and researchers of therapeutic services, are required to be accountable in accordance with the Ethical Framework in ways appropriate to their role and to communicate appropriately the basis of their ethical accountability and expectations. The term 'client' is used as a generic term to refer to the recipient of any of these services. The client may be an individual, couple, family, group, organisation or other specifiable social unit. Alternative names may be substituted for 'practitioner' and 'client' in the practice setting, according to custom and context. This statement marks an important development in approach to ethics within the Association. One of the characteristics of contemporary society is the coexistence of different approaches to ethics.
This statement reflects this ethical diversity and supports practitioners being responsive to differences in client abilities, needs and culture and taking account of variations between settings and service specialisations by considering:

• Values
• Principles
• Personal moral qualities

This selection of ways of expressing ethical commitments does not seek to invalidate other approaches. The presentation of different ways of approaching ethics alongside each other in this statement is intended to draw attention to the limitations of relying too heavily on any single ethical approach. Ethical principles are well suited to examining the justification for particular decisions and actions. However, reliance on
principles alone may detract from the importance of the practitioner's personal qualities and their ethical significance in the counselling or therapeutic relationship. The provision of contextually sensitive and appropriate services is also a fundamental ethical concern. Variations in client needs and cultural diversity differences are often more easily understood and responded to in terms of values. Therefore, professional values are becoming an increasingly significant way of expressing ethical commitment.