Statutory Regulation: Some Implications for Health Psychology

As most people will already know, Applied Psychology is going through the process of being a regulated profession.  It is planned that, within the next year or so, the Health Professions Council will regulate all Applied Psychologists who provide services to the public.  At this stage in the procedure, it is envisaged that the Health Professions Council (HPC) will be responsible for disciplinary issues, accreditation of courses and maintaining a register of Applied Psychologists, although it should be noted that everything written here is for general guidance only because none of these decisions are cast in stone.

One of the key debates surrounding this move was to decide which specific title(s) should be regulated.  In the end, it was decided that seven titles would be regulated in the first instance, of which “Health Psychologist” is one.  In other words, the HPC will regulate practising Health Psychologists in the future and anyone who is not registered with the HPC but calls him or herself a “Health Psychologist” will be liable for prosecution.  The British Psychological Society (BPS) will manage this transition to statutory regulation by simply writing to all Chartered Health Psychologists who hold a practising certificate to ask if they wish to transfer over to the HPC. 

For more details, please see DHP Announcements