Conscientious Objection

Please bear in mind that these notes are written without recourse to a tape recorder and seated in place from which not everyone is visible. This was a particularly turbulent part of the meeting with some comments delivered in arch, barbed manner provoking several members to say 'we should not ridicule these people'. They are not strictly verbatim and the list is incomplete.

There was a part of the meeting today that focussed on Conscientious Objection, or Principled Non Compliance, p 37 of circulated document prepared by Michael Guthrie, Head of Policy and Standards.

The Strathclyde Prof asked HPC Head of Policy and Standards if the PNC suggestion was a practical option in his opinion. Guthrie replied that he could not foresee the government being able to accommodate it. [he spoke v quietly and quickly but this was the gist]

One lay member from the HPC said she had looked carefully at the arguments and chose one to dispute with here. The argument that the practise is entered into by consenting adults could not be supported because, as with dentists or estate agents, great harm could be done. She said 'it flies against the move'.

The HPC member representing Occ Therapy said You can't have your cake and eat it (you can't be on a register to be unregistered).

The User representative said 'What is the purpose of regulation - without statutory regulation people who are known to be harmful will continue to practise. People need to be prevented from practising. Either its the regulator or the law - and you can't have one law for one person and another for another.

Skills for Health quipped: they could always be taken [struck] off the non-register
another voice added "or sent off to Vermont"

The User representative continued: The evidence base [unsubstantiated] is clear that there is harm, the best outcome of these processes is that the vast majority will continue to practise in the way they've done before. Good practitioners will already be doing this. We have to come back again, and again, and again, to Public Protection. We are in the New World now, professional led self regulation is dead. The Health and Social Care Bill last year saw to that. There must now be equal numbers of lay people to professionals in the [regulation of the profession]

SfH said: Totally agree, these people constitute a harm. We must take a very firm view. Compared to other professions Psychotherapy is definitely harmful, potentially, 5% of practitioners cause harm [unsubstantiated]. The public is ill served by ineffective treatments with adverse effects. We hope it [the practise] will become more evidence based, with a little bit more notice of what is known, a general improvement in client care can happen. ...

BABCP said: We must not mock or ridicule these people, but the public needs protecting. The professionals need protection too. I think it [HPC] is a good move for the profession.

BPC: said We are the victim of our own rhetoric. Public Protection - we are part of the public too. We need protection, the clinical community needs protecting. Care providers are vulnerable. The public is at risk from us, but we are vulnerable to them.

HPC Physiotherapist said. Other aspirant groups have had this problem

The Chair: we have all been lobbied, the letter is philosophical. But they point to the confusion of State and Statutory Regulation, the question of totalitarianism. I've lived [or known someone who has lived] in [eastern bloc] for many years, I know what totalitarianism is, this is not that. It might look like it from the outside, but it doesn't feel like it inside the HPC. Also they talk of the medical model ...

CPCAB said The Petition had 1600 names at the beginning of the week, many of those are names of people I know and respect. I am not willingly a part of this but when I saw it couldn't be stopped I decided I had to join in to try to influence it.

HPC speaker said Public Protection also protects the registrant, it helps credibility, they have nothing to do but pay their fee, and gain status and credibility.

HPC Lay member said: HPC upholds public confidence in the profession, its a matter of pride to have been recognised by the HPC - its an external validation.

Amidst all this the COSCA member said: we might consider that there could be a number of registers springing up alongside the HPC one.

The chair suggested a ten minute break, and this discussion spilled into the adjacent room for coffee. On return they talked about the title Psychological Therapist. Then it was over as the HPC Lay member said 'if we think its right we'll do it, and ignore what goes on elsewhere.'