Information for accredited courses
BACP accreditation schemes

Managing and maintaining your course accreditation

Maintaining your course accreditation

Accreditation is awarded for five years. To retain your accreditation for the full term, you must:

maintain your BACP organisational membership
comply with the Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions
continue to meet all criteria for the course accreditation scheme
complete an annual rolling review form
inform us of any proposed changes to the course or the organisation, before they are implemented (see below)
abide by the course accreditation terms and conditions

If you do not meet these requirements, or if we uphold a professional conduct complaint against you, we may withdraw, suspend or impose conditions on your accreditation. We may also visit you for a quality assurance check and you will be charged for this visit.

You must inform students immediately if your accredited status ends or is suspended.

Annual rolling review

Once your course is accredited, you will then enter our annual rolling review process.

Your first annual review will be a video conference call with an accreditation assessor and an accreditation officer. This is a chance to see how things are going and to continue building our relationship.

For the next four annual review submissions, we’ll ask you to provide evidence that you’re meeting selected accreditation criteria for assessment. In the fifth year the review assessment will include a video conference call from the accreditation assessor as a ‘virtual’ visit.

Changes to an accredited course

You may need to use the following documents to inform us of any proposed changes to your course or your organisation. Please contact us before using any of these forms to discuss your individual circumstances.

Additional delivery policy (pdf 119KB)
Additional delivery application form (docx 96KB)

Accreditation of prior learning (APL) guide (pdf 86KB)
Accreditation of prior learning (APL) application form (docx 0.1MB)

Developmental changes policy (pdf 0.2MB)
Developmental changes application form (doc 92KB)
Developmental changes application form OPT addition (docx 116KB)

Change of facilities or premises policy (docx 80KB)
Change of facilities or premises application form (docx 80KB)

Organisational mergers policy (pdf 0.1MB)
Organisational mergers application form (doc 0.1MB)