How can the ethics committee help you?

What is the role of the ethics committee?

It is a forum to stimulate debate and advise UKCP on current and emerging ethical issues facing all therapists, whatever their modality. While most ethical issues are generic, working in certain contexts and with certain groups may increase ethical complexity, for example working with children or forensic psychotherapy.

In time, the newly appointed committee will work, with others, to review the 2019 Code of Ethics, but it will first concentrate on developing supplementary guidance on areas of ethical practice where therapists have asked for more clarity. This will include guidance on professional boundaries (including dual relationships), on confidentiality and its limits, on ethics and supervision, and on online working. These are areas which have emerged from conversations with UKCP’s colleges about what would be most helpful to their members. Future topics are likely to include what gaining consent means in a psychotherapeutic context and research ethics.

Our ethos is to prompt and facilitate ethical thinking.

Who sits on the Ethics Committee

The Ethics Committee is a diverse group of therapists and non- therapists who have lived experience and practical expertise in ethics, professional standards and policy creation. Some of the committee have legal experience. Next year we hope to recruit more therapists, including one or more student members, and we will advertise these roles widely. The ethos of the committee is to prompt and facilitate ethical thinking and debate throughout the profession and the organisation. The committee will act as an advisory group, creating a host of mechanisms to work with and through colleges and registrants, involving members in all aspects of developing ethical guidance.

How will the committee update the Code of Ethics?

Practice and expectations of therapists constantly evolve, and ethical standards must also evolve. As the Code was last published in 2019, we will work to ensure standards remain relevant and in keeping with current legislation. We will be working with UKCP colleges and committees to discuss what changes are needed and how to ensure that the Code reflects what is being taught and what is considered current good practice. We will also be looking at the codes of other psychological professions and aim for consistency on key issues where appropriate. Similar guidance makes it easier for clients to know what they can expect from therapists, and for commissioners, including the NHS, to engage with psychotherapy.

Does the Code have answers to ethical dilemmas?

Codes tend to be short documents which only offer high-level principles of accepted practice and set out what’s ok and what’s not ok. Codes also help clients to know what they can expect of their therapist. Most professional codes combine things that professionals should or must do (such as work within the limits of their competence) and things they must not do (for example, have sex with their clients). Areas, or domains, tend to cluster around key aspects of professionalism and accountability; communicating with clients and colleagues and gaining consent; benefiting and not harming clients; and respecting principles of fairness and equality.

Will the committee be an ethics advisory service?

It wouldn’t be appropriate for a policy-recommending committee to give advice on individual registrants’ specific queries. But we realise that there are several areas of practice which do give rise to questions, and grey areas where therapists would welcome more detail on understanding what the Code requires of them. This is why the Ethics Committee is keen to provide some supplementary guidance in the first instance rather than embarking immediately on rewriting the Code. Hopefully, these supplementary guidelines will provide therapists with support for frequently arising ethical questions. Although individual psychotherapists remain responsible for their decisions, supervisors are well placed to discuss ethical issues relating to clients. Additionally, therapists should seek advice on legal matters from their indemnity insurers or a union if they belong to one.

Is there more to ethics than just merely following the Code?

Yes! A code establishes a minimum baseline of what all practitioners must do. Ethical conduct, by contrast, is more nuanced. Being an ethical practitioner is about cultivating an inner reflexivity and increased awareness that there are ethical issues at stake. That is considering how actions impact other people, the likely or possible consequences of doing or not doing something, keeping principles of equity and fairness in one’s mind, ensuring one is aware of power and trust, and being thoughtful about how these impact on the therapeutic relationship.

Ethical practice is deeply entwined with good clinical practice. It is for the therapist to weigh up the factors in a given case, including how to reconcile ethical principles which seem to clash. For example, breaking confidentiality might breach the client’s right to autonomy, yet be justified if the therapist assesses (hopefully in discussion with the client) that the best interests of the client, or others, require confidentiality to be breached. Accountability sits, always, with therapists, albeit with support from supervision.

Ethical practice is deeply entwined with good clinical practice.

How will the work of the Ethics Committee tie into education and training?

Learning how to recognise an ethical issue, what factors to take into account, what weight to give them, and how to demonstrate the reasoning which has gone into taking a decision is a skill set which can and is taught as part of training. The process of reflexivity which making ethical decisions involves is similar to, and maps onto, the reflexive approach to practice. There’s a big overlap between what’s good practice and what’s ethical practice. The work of the committee will also involve working with educators, through UKCP’s Education, Training and Practice Committee, to look at what is taught, and how best to teach it. Some subjects may be better addressed or reinforced through continuing professional development, continuing professional development, particularly in those areas where particularly in those areas where what is considered good practice may what is considered good practice may have changed over time, for example, social or personal relationships between tutors and students.

I'm interested in getting involved in ethics. Can I do that?

Yes, we’ll be running a series of webinars and using these as a platform to stimulate discussion groups and create a working group to help us develop guidance. Details of this, and other ways for getting involved will be highlighted in UKCP’s email updates and on the UKCP website.

Find out more about our ethics committee.