March 3/4: PLG C&P 3rd meeting. Preparation

The Professional Liaison Group for Counselling and Psychotherapy is due to meet for the third time (3rd and 4th of March). There are 320 pages of reading in preparation for this meeting, all down-loadable from the HPC-uk.org website.

The (draft) minutes for the last meeting continue to refer repeatedly to The Group, and avoid being specific about what different people say at certain times (see blogs preparing for January meeting). The minutes give the overall impression of a set of people who are all of one mind, and who constantly agree with one another as they note this, receive that, and feel or discuss the other.

After the last meeting, I took the trouble to note down specifics that were said by particular people in a short spat that was unusually energetic. Eg, after coffee, before lunch, on day two, when the meeting considered the section of a report summarising responses to the call for ideas (in 7 lines of text) under the title point "3.2.2 Conscientious objection" (p37).

If you check the blog entry you will see several different responses to this question, which represented several different positions and some misunderstandings. You will also notice that a level of aggression was expressed which led some people to remind their colleagues to respect the positions of those who did not agree with them. These comments seem to have fallen onto the deaf ears of the minute taker (p5). Instead, he takes the opportunity to blandly restate the ideological position of the HPC before misrepresenting those with other opinions and then dismissing the point and throwing doubt on the intellectual ability of those oponents.

It was Annie Turner, Occupational Therapist Panel member of the HPC, and who said 'these people can't have their cake and eat it', which been translated by the minute taker into: the Group questioned why 'conscientious objectors' to statutory regulation [sic] would wish to be included on a list maintained by a statutory regulator and if the individuals concerned would be prepared to be subject to the HPC's processes and procedures.

One of the most persistent comments made by those with a different opinion to that of the HPC is that they are simply not heard (eg see the letter from IPN members, blogged on 10 Feb). The process of HPC-ification is not one of conversation, nor even that of debate. No doubt discussions at such a centralised level can tend to drift into vague generalisations - a few people have been asked to consider a lot of diversity in very little time. But why present a false front - what can be gained from this masquerade?

The HPC 'call for ideas' produced hundreds of pages of response. These were reduced to a 36 page document for consideration at the curtailed first meeting (enclosure 1, 4 Dec). One of these pages contained a bit more detail of the matter and clearly shows there was no intention of anyone to smuggle themslves onto the HPC register. Instead, it was suggested that another register would be drawn up. Bear in mind that the HPC notoriously state on their 'Road Map' to regulation Counselling and Pscyotherapy (Council Meeting, 13 Dec 2007, accessible if you click this link) that anyone not on the HPC register is a lesser human being:

"It should be noted that whilst there are many who will welcome [HPC regulation] there might be "a small but vocal minority of individuals and organisations who may want to avoid [HPC regulation] for a variety of reasons." which include: those who are unable to meet competence standards and ethical standards; or who are reluctant to pay the registration fees. The HPC has made a pre-emptive rhetorical strike by labelling those who don't agree with it as incompetent, unethical, and miserly.

This should help Annie Turner to understand why some people might want to construct a list outside the HPC - in order to dispell the negative image created by the HPC.

The people around the table do not all agree with one another, and some of them even made plain their own reservations about the outcome of the process (see Being Dragged Willingly, blog, 29 Jan). The thrust of the disagreement with HPC-ification is a genuine concern that the kind of regulation being proposed may well have long term catastrophic consequences. My observations at the FTP hearings already suggest that damage is being done and there is some good reason to pause and to engage in some genuine and critical thinking. Pretending that everything is easy and simple and nice isn't going to protect anyone. Who really believes that it does?