The Professional Liaison Group for Counselling & Psychotherapy

The call for applications for members of the Professional Liaison Group for psychotherapy and counselling at the HPC went out in the summer 2008. It was announced in the autumn. There were 38 applications. There are 17 members of the PLG, 6 of whom are already serving the HPC in some other capacity. The selection of the PLG was made by Diane Waller and Anna van der Gaag, President of HPC. Diane Waller is an Art Therapist member of the HPC and was appointed as Chair of the HPC. I'm not yet sure how this happens, but I shall try to find out - perhaps it is already written on the web site.

I would like to know more about each of the people on the PLG, and indeed how they come to be there. I would like to ask Diane Waller how she went about selecting her panel.

Today I rang up the BACP and the CPCAB (Counselling and Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body) to start the process. Each of these organisations has a member on the new panel, Sally Aldridge for BACP and and Fiona Ballantine Dykes for CPCAB. Both work for the administration of their professional organisations. I have been invited to submit my questions to each. In brief what I would like to know at this stage is how each organisation selects a representative, how each representative made their application, and what manifesto, if you will, each will be persuing.

As may be expected more than one person from the BACP applied for a place on the PLG (it is a very large organisation, and 2 of the Board also wished to participate). Perhaps more than one applied from the CPCAB, I don't know. But as only one representative per institution is allowed to sit on the PLG, I asked the BACP to pass my requests for information on to those who had applied but who were declined. I am interested to know how they will maintain their interest even tho excluded from the group.

The fact that only one person per institution is allowed to sit on the board raises questions about representation. Viz: What is it to represent an institution? In what way are these people representatives? Are they representing scientific interest, practitioner interest, or institutional interest?

A second question arises. One of the members of the group is attributed to the Skills for Health organisation. I asked myself the question "why would a government department have a representative on the HPC PLG?" I telephoned John Stephenson, Director of Corporate Affairs at S4H to find out.

He wasn't able to answer me directly, but invited me to send him an email with my request. He also revealed that the S4H was not a government department but a part of the National Health Service Trust at University Hospital Bristol.

How come I didn't know that?

He suggested I read their web-site.