You must be able to show a minimum of 1½ hours of supervision a month for all practice that you include, and provide details of your most recent or current arrangements.
Supervision hours
You can use face to face, phone or online supervision. You can combine individual, group and peer supervision to meet the minimum requirement, based on the following formula. Do not count the facilitator or group supervisor for group supervision. For peer supervision, count all members of the group.
For groups of:
- four supervisees or less, claim half of the time
- five supervisees or more, divide the number of hours by the number in the group and claim the resulting time
We won't accept supervision time that has been averaged out over the year to meet the requirement. Arrangements such as one hour every three weeks or two hours every six weeks won’t meet the requirement, unless combined with another supervision arrangement.
If you work in more than one setting, each must be supervised, but you do not need to have 1½ hours supervision for each setting.
Each period of practice submitted in the practice log must be covered by a minimum of 1½ hours of supervision per month.
If you have more than one arrangement with the same supervisor (for example, you have the same supervisor for individual and group supervision), you must provide details for each arrangement or for any amendments to your contract.
You may miss some supervision sessions due to holiday or sickness but the contract must remain in place. If you're likely to miss more than one session in a row, you should consider putting in place new or temporary arrangements. You can't include ad-hoc arrangements in your application.
Your supervisor
Your supervisor does not need to have a specific supervision qualification or be a registered or accredited BACP member. They should be adequately qualified or experienced as a counsellor or psychotherapist and to supervise your work.
If your supervisor is also your line manager, or there is another type of dual relationship, you must be able to show that you have access to another supervisor or supervision arrangement should the need arise.
Further guidance on supervision, including dual relationships can be found in our Good Practice in Action resources and Ethical Framework.
Your supervisor's statement
You need to include a statement from the supervisor who supervised your case material (reflective practice Criterion 2). As this scheme is aligned with SCoPEd column B competences, your supervisor should be familiar with the SCoPEd framework and able to comment on your practice in reference to the framework.
This form must be sent to your supervisor for completion. This form must be written by your supervisor and then signed by them to declare that this has been completed by them.
If you’ve not been with your current supervisor for at least six months you’ll need a statement from your previous supervisor as well.
If you’re no longer with the supervisor who supervised your case material, you’ll also need a statement from your current supervisor.