UKATA Guidance to support the completion of the 5 Year Continuing Professional Development Review and Endorsement process for UKATA members who hold CTA and are UKCP accredited

Introduction

UKATA members who hold CTA, in psychotherapy and psychotherapeutic counselling, can be registered members of UKCP. In these cases UKATA administers the 5 year Continuing Professional Development Review and Endorsement process that enables on-going UKCP registration. This document offers guidance for members on the completion of this process.

To maintain their UKCP registration those members for whom the above applies are required to convene a 5 Year CPD review.

While this process is solely the member’s responsibility, as a courtesy they will be reminded by email by the UKATA office that their review must happen within the last three months before the fifth anniversary of their last re-registration or the fifth anniversary of their initial registration. The entire review process and the confirmation of endorsement or the removal from the UKCP register (in the event of an unsatisfactory review or a non-completed review) is to be completed by the end of three months from the fifth anniversary of the member’s last re-registration/initial registration.

Step One

Within the last three months of the fifth anniversary of their last re-registration/initial registration, they are required to convene a review panel of three colleagues (in addition to themselves). These colleagues must:

• Be qualified and accredited psychotherapists or counsellors.

• At least one should hold the CTA qualification

• At least one should be from a different modality to TA

We ask you to meet with a person from outside our modality as experience shows us that this offers an independent external view on your practice that cannot solely be achieved from within our own modality. If there are exceptional circumstances which make it difficult to meet this or the other requirements above, please write to the chair of UKATA Training, Accreditation and Standards Committee to explain these circumstances and to request an appropriate exception to these requirements: tasc@uka4ta.co.uk.

This review panel can happen in person or virtually, but it must be a group process involving all four people meeting simultaneously

Step Two

The member presents a portfolio including logs, Annual CPD summary forms, certificates of attendance and professional indemnity insurance for the last 5 years. Panel members review this portfolio. The member, with help from the group, reflects on the CPD undertaken and what they have gained personally and/or professionally from it. The member will also discuss their current learning needs and make a plan for future CPD.

Step Three

The three members then discuss whether the member’s portfolio, reflections, and plans are satisfactory for UKATA endorsement for UKCP registration as a psychotherapist to continue for another five years. Panel members should use the current UKATA requirements for CPD as the basis on which to judge whether the requirements have been satisfactorily met.

Step Four

If the panel members believe the member’s portfolio, reflections, and plans are satisfactory then all present are to complete the UKATA 5 year Continuing Professional Development Endorsement Form (P) and return it to the office within three months of the fifth anniversary of their last re-registration/initial registration.

Step Five

If panel should find the member’s portfolio, reflections, and plans to be unsatisfactory, they are to explain in detail what has been deemed to be unsatisfactory and to suggest what changes to the portfolio, reflections and plans could be made to improve the satisfactoriness of the review.

Step Six

The member can then decide to either:

1. Ask all panel members to complete the UKATA 5 year Continuing Professional Development Endorsement Form (P) indicating that the review has been unsatisfactory and return it to the office within three months of the fifth anniversary of their last re-registration/initial registration. This process then moves to Step Eight.

Or:

2. Reconvene the panel within one and half months of the fifth anniversary of last re-registration/initial registration. At this second review the member is invited to further present their work.

Step Seven

At this second meeting, the panel should follow Steps 2-5. If at this point the member’s review is once again found to be unsatisfactory then Step 6. a) is to be followed.

Step Eight

The UKATA office on receipt of a fully completed satisfactory review should confirm to the member that their UKCP registration is endorsed for another five years from the date of their fifth anniversary of registration/re-registration.

The UKATA office on receipt of an unsatisfactory review should refer the review to TASC Chair for TASC to consider and to consult with UKCP if the review offers grounds for removal from the UKCP register.

Notes

If the member concerned disagrees with the assessment or the recommendations of the panel an appeal can be made through UKATA Ethics and Professional Practices Committee. If a member fails to maintain effective CPD, or provide the necessary documentation, they will be referred to UKATA Ethics and Professional Practices Committee.

The form will be considered complete when all the information requested on the form has been attended to in accordance with the guidance on the form and the Continuing Professional Development Policy for Certified Transactional Analysts. This includes details and signatures of the member, attending peers and supervisor, dates of the 5 year review period and the day of the peer review, CPD activities and answers to questions 1, 2 and 3 on page 2 of the form. The form is in Word format to allow for digital editing. Please use black ink.

The 5-yearly review is designed to ensure that your Continuing Professional Development is of a standard that is in line with your professional colleagues and meets UKATA requirements. The peer review process helps you to obtain ethical objective feedback on this. In order to keep the process as free as possible from bias and dual relationships, you should choose a panel that does not include people like your spouse, your therapist, your supervisor, colleagues that you have a direct business relationship with or personal friends. They will be colleagues from your professional community. If you do not have a wide network of colleagues, it may be helpful to start planning for your review well in advance of the due date – giving yourself enough time to assemble a panel.

If the member undertakes their 5-year review via another UKCP member organisation then they do not have to complete this form but are required to submit a copy of their 5-year review from the other MO when they renew their UKATA membership.