HPC & Psychology

The Health Professions Council was set up by the Health Professionals Order passed by the Privy Council in 2001. The Privy Council is a Government operational arm which is separate from the judicial system, and operates through the Lord Chancellor and the courts. Traditionally it is reckoned to be an unusual way of using power, and is reserved for extreme emergencies such as would happen in war. Tony Blair's Government, however, made frequent use of it. The object or aim of HPO2001 is to 'safeguard health and wellbeing' by State registration and regulation of a whole range of people who practise a very wide variety of professions. A secondary function of this legislation, tho not named in the documentation, is to give government approval to those who sign up in the form of legally protected titles. The psychologists have wanted this status since the early 1980's, for example. It allows them to protect their practise from any competition.

Earlier this year (2008), there was a 'consultation' about section 60 of the Health Act 1999 which sets out to enrol psychologists into the HPC. Section 60 is contained in the Health Care and Associated Professions (Miscellaneous Amendments) No 2 Order 2008, and is tabled for consideration in the 08-09 session where it is expected to be passed in the Commons Select Committee on Health. The BPS (British Psychological Society) comment on this can be consulted on their web site (under ‘statutory legislation’, ‘latest updates’, ‘20 March 2008, 29 April and 22 May’.

The consultation took the form of a very biased questionnaire. It was biased in that it took for granted that everyone shares the government's opinion that 'professionals' must be regulated through the State machinery. The rhetoric that pretends to underpin this idea is that professionals are ipso facto a menace to the public. It is not uncommon for someone to start talking about Harold Shipman at this point as if this highly unusual man is somehow representative of professionals who are not registered by the State. This, of course, is nonsense.

The philosophy behind the HPO 2001 shares much with the work of Ian Kennedy, an academic lawyer. He chaired the commission of enquiry into the Bristol Royal Infirmary and is well known for his sustained attack against the medical profession published in his book (1981) The Unmasking of Medicine.