Two weeks ago we saw the Labour Party returned to power with a historic landslide majority which offers both hope and change for the counselling professions. The new Government’s policy programme reflects many key and longstanding BACP policy commitments.  

As the dust begins to settle on the General Election, I wanted to reach out and thank our members for supporting BACP’s General Election campaign and helping us use the opportunity to put counselling and psychotherapy firmly on the political agenda. As a result of your support, over 7,400 emails were sent to candidates across each parliamentary constituency of the UK. As well as seeing strong evidence of support for our manifesto asks from many candidates, a few MPs have already reached out to us for meetings. This is particularly important as more than half of the new MPs elected (352 out of 650) are new to the House of Commons.  

Within this new cohort we’re also seeing a more representative parliament. Last week we saw the highest number of women ever elected to the Commons, making up 41% of this new Parliament and the highest representation in Cabinet ever, 11 out of 24 posts. We also saw the highest number of MPs coming from an ethnic minority background at 13.8%, almost reflecting the 14% of the UK electorate from an ethnic minority background. It’s also more representative in terms of class, with 66% of MPs educated in state comprehensive schools, the highest ever according to the Sutton Trust. This is reflected in the cabinet where only 4% went to private schools compared to 63% under Rishi Sunak.  

I sincerely hope that this better representation will help us address the numerous inequalities which drive poor health outcomes. It’s critically important we see more appropriate support for marginalised communities, who continue to face numerous barriers to access life-changing counselling and other mental health services. 

Alongside our member facing campaign, we undertook a programme of activity to engage political parties directly to influence their policy priorities. We shared our BACP manifesto and country specific manifestos for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland with the 21 main parties standing across the UK. As a result of this activity and our ongoing political engagement, we’ve seen evidence of 50 of our policies reflected in 18 manifestos across the four nations of the UK.  

The real hard work starts now for us to reach out to the new Labour Government to position our members and profession as critical to the delivery of their mental health commitments in schools, youth hubs and health settings. We’ve long campaigned for legislation to outlaw abhorrent conversion practices and I’m delighted that the Government has committed to drafting a Bill to ban conversion therapy in England and Wales. We are keen to work with Ministers to ensure that any proposed ban is effective in protecting individuals who are at risk of harm and doesn't lead to unintended consequences around therapists’ ability to work with gender and sexually diverse clients.  

It will also be critically important to build alliances with opposition parties and with the new cohort of backbenchers to hold the new Government to account against delivering these very welcomed commitments. BACP’s Policy team are already focused on a programme of activity to build these relationships. 

It’s a real privilege to have Luciana Berger as one of our Vice Presidents. In the months before the election, Luciana was asked by Sir Kier Starmer to lead a review to inform the implementation of Labour’s mental health policies. Luciana will be an important ally as we seek to strengthen the Government’s commitments to mental health and ensure they utilise the expertise of our members.  

Lobbying and engagement is an ongoing task, not just for elections. So I would also encourage each of you to reach out to your new MPs and help to demonstrate the important contribution that counselling is making in your local community, helping to build recognition for the life changing work of the profession and to strengthen our visibility with politicians of all parties.  

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