We’re delighted to have been shortlisted for three membership excellence awards.

The annual awards, hosted by Memcom, have shortlisted us in the categories for Best Lobbying Campaign, Best Public Awareness Campaign and Best Email Newsletter.

Healthy Happy Minds primary school counselling

In the Best Lobbying Campaign category we’ve been nominated for our work to reverse the removal of funding for the pioneering Healthy Happy Minds primary school counselling programme, in Northern Ireland.

Working with members and a coalition of partner organisations (including representatives from the professional bodies for counselling, art therapy, play therapy, music therapy and dramatherapy) we campaigned to have the programme reinstated.

Through this work we’ve received cross-party support - and support from influential community leaders - and we remain positive that we’ll secure a commitment to re-establish funding for this vital programme.

Steve Mulligan, our Four Nations Policy Lead, said: “We’re delighted to see recognition of the important campaign work that BACP has led to lobby for restoration of funding for counselling and other therapeutic interventions across Northern Ireland’s primary schools.

“This is a tribute to the hard work our coalition partners, and also our members in Northern Ireland, almost half of whom wrote to their political representatives to further strengthen our voice.

“We welcome the opportunity to shine a light on this critical issue to help us in our ongoing fight to ensure vulnerable children in Northern Ireland get the therapeutic support they need and deserve”.

Raising awareness around anxiety

Our campaign to illustrate the symptoms of anxiety using AI generated images has been shortlisted in the Best Public Awareness Campaign.

To help the public to understand anxiety we created and exhibited a collection of AI art generated from quotes describing people’s real life anxiety symptoms. The aim was to prompt people to recognise and address these feelings, so they don’t suffer in silence and accept them as the norm.

The images were exhibited near Waterloo Station in London to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week - who’d picked anxiety as its 2023 theme.

The images were popular with the public and the media. The campaign was widely reported by print and broadcast media, including The Guardian and Metro.

Keeping our members informed and involved

Our flagship fortnightly eBulletin to all members has been nominated in the Best Email Newsletter Category.

It was highlighted for its informative, accessible, and engaging content, with high levels of member satisfaction.

Adam Pollard, our Head of Marketing and Engagement, said: “Having been shortlisted for the Memcom Excellence awards is an incredible endorsement of the value and importance of our work on behalf of our members, their clients and the profession.

“Our groundbreaking ‘Anxiety Is’ installation was the first of its kind for BACP, and an incredibly impactful campaign of which we’re hugely proud. Shining a light on these issues, raising awareness of the benefits of therapy and signposting those in need to our members, sits at the heart of everything we do as a team.

“Equally, we’ve continued to evolve and improve our member eBulletin in recent years to reflect the feedback we’ve received and ensure that it continues to represent the changing professional needs of our 70,000 members.”

“Having our work recognised in this way is a wonderful testimony to the creativity, knowledge and dedication of so many colleagues."