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September 2024 Update

The BACP’s response to the Open Letter submitted to them on 29th October 2023

Following the Open Letter, there was a delay due to BACP appointing a new CEO. John McLeod and Andrew Reeves were then able to have three preliminary meetings with BACP’s Senior Executive Team (SET) with a view to engaging the Board in discussions around the issues raised in the letter.  We experienced the SET as engaged, open, responsive and genuinely interested in taking matters forward (notes of these meetings have already been posted). 

This led to a meeting on 13th June 2024 between some members of the Board, including the Chair and Deputy Chair, and John McLeod and Caryl Sibbett (a previous Deputy Chair of the Association) on behalf of the Open Letter signatories. Notes of this meeting can be found here. During this meeting meeting, the BACP Chair authorised the CEO – Phil James – to develop and take forward a programme of on-going open dialogue between BACP and members. 

However, the Board did not see the value of itself being involved in further meetings, and have not indicated their intention to publicly respond to the Open Letter concerns, beyond their statement – already issued – surrounding the investigation.

At this stage therefore, we believe that that the Open Letter initiative has run its course. We are hopeful that the dialogue opportunities that will be facilitated by the CEO and SET will be productive, and have indicated to SET that we are in principle willing to be involved on an individual basis, dependent on how it is proposed that these events are structured. However, we are disappointed in what we perceive as the resistance of of the Board to being actively engaged in this process.  In our view, developments in BACP since the Open Letter – an Investigation statement that in effect characterised member concerns as groundless, such as lack of open-ness to discussion of issues associated with SCoPEd, and an AGM agenda that does not acknowledge the existence of tensions around governance and policy – suggest that much work remains to be done around democratising the way that BACP operates. 

We believe that although the Open Letter was on balance a useful exercise, that gave a voice to some fundamental concerns of senior members of the profession, it has not, at this stage, led to tangible change. We encourage colleagues to propose other forms of member-generated collective action. We also encourage colleagues to give the new CEO and SET a chance to demonstrate their seriousness of intent, and resourcefulness, around new, more participatory and transparent approaches and structures within BACP itself.

In the immediate short-term, we suggest that the Therapist Concerns website https://therapistconcerns.co.uk might be used as a common point of contact for sharing reactions and ideas about how to move forward. 

John McLeod

Caryl Sibbett

December 2023 Update

To update those who have supported this letter: John McLeod and Andrew Reeves have agreed to have a preliminary meeting in January with the CEO and SLT of BACP. The purpose of this meeting is simply to ascertain what BACP intends to do in response to the concerns raised in the open letter. We will then ensure this information is circulated widely. We are clear in attending this meeting we do not act in any way with any authority, or on behalf of the membership. Rather, the aim is to hear what BACP have to say and report back.

February 2024 Update

The notes of the two meetings held with BACP, on the 4 and 22 January 2024, can be found here.

OPEN LETTER TO TRUSTEES AND SENIOR STAFF
BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR COUNSELLING AND PSYCHOTHERAPY

For the attention of:
Natalie Bailey (Chair, Board of Trustees); Sekinat Adima, Punam Farmah, Ewan Irvine, Alwyn Li (Board Members/Trustees)
Anna Daroy (Chief Executive Officer); Philippa Foster, Ben Kay, Jamie Redmond (Senior Leadership Team)
This letter was sent to the following for information only:
Professor Lynne Gabriel OBE (President); Luciana Berger, Jabeer Butt OBE, Julia Samuel MBE (Vice Presidents)

29th October 2023

Dear colleagues

The counselling and psychotherapy profession is facing a situation of unprecedented economic, political, technological and environmental challenge. The BACP has a unique role in relation to supporting mental health, well-being, justice, equality, and constructive social change. To fulfill this potential, BACP needs to be able to harness the vast talents, knowledge and experience of all of its members, as well as working in an effective and collegial manner alongside like-minded organisations, communities and occupational groups. Throughout our
careers, in a range of areas of practice, training and research, all of us who are signing the present letter have consistently viewed BACP as a model and example of how people with different perspectives can resolve difficult issues through open dialogue. At the present time, BACP is falling short of this ideal.

In the light of this situation, we have decided to write this open letter to you, albeit with heavy hearts and following much deliberation. Many of us have been individual members of BACP for many years, have served the Association in various roles in a voluntary capacity, and have been part of organisations that stood alongside BACP in the furtherment of the profession. We all share the same motivation to ensure high-quality, ethical and trustworthy therapeutic interventions for the clients and communities who use our services. BACP’s charitable objectives also speak to this endeavour. We are willing to do whatever we can to support the Board to re-affirm and if necessary re-imagine the purpose and mode of
operation of the Association, and are confident that many other members would also wish to contribute to this task.

A series of events over the last two years have caused us to be increasingly concerned about the general direction of BACP. In recent weeks, these concerns have gained more momentum with material posted on social media (and not refuted by the Association). Taken together, the issues that we outline below, represent a pattern of governance, and in particular Board actions, that falls short of its duty to protect the integrity of the charity and its members and, by default, runs the risk of incurring significant reputational damage to the profession to undermining public trust in what we do. It is critical the Board works to the Nolan principles of selflessness; integrity; objectivity; accountability; openness; honesty; and leadership. The multiple losses of BACP Board and staff members over the past 12-18 months, culminating with the recent invocation of Article 36 to remove a Board member (Kate Smith), suggests that these principles are not being appropriately invoked or upheld.

There are three primary areas that cause us particular concern:

  1. The unexplained departure of highly experienced and highly regarded staff, including the CEO, Deputy CEO, COO, Head of HR, Head of External Relations, EDI Lead and Data Protection Lead, amongst others. Of course, we all make career decisions to move on to new and different work opportunities. However, the speed and sequence of these staff departures is worrying, as is the destabilising impact on the work of BACP in terms of the loss of experience, skill and consistency of work. We need to state that, as a group in unison, we would like to offer our support to the staff team at BACP, who we believe – and have experienced – to be talented, generous, committed and wise in undertaking their work and have, without question, played an integral part in the furtherment of the profession. We honour their work and are dismayed by the high levels of work-related stress that they are currently
    encountering, as reported through social media and other channels of
    communication.
  2. The pattern of departure of highly-experienced Trustees, six of whom have left the Board through resignation prior to their term of office ending. This too speaks of dysfunctional governance and, at the very least, also speaks of a Board lacking sufficient experience to steer the Association through its work. This reached a point of crisis when Kate Smith, an elected Trustee of the membership, was removed from the Board through Article 36 of the Articles of the Association; an action with no precedent in recent times and which marks the 7th departure in a short time span. At the time of writing the Board have failed to provide the membership with an explanation of the events that led up to one of their elected Trustees needing to be removed in this way.
  3. It is not appropriate for the Association to launch a 5-year strategy without consultation with members or staff prior to its official launch. We feel duty bound to remind the Board that BACP belongs to the membership: Trustees are stewards of the Association on behalf of members. While final strategy decisions clearly sit with the Board, is it not reasonable that funds and other resources – primarily accrued through professional membership fees – should be committed to 5-year projects without an adequate consultation process. This speaks of either a lack of understanding of the role of Trustee, or a disregard for the views of the membership, or both.

Our over-arching concern is that the Association lacks effective strategic leadership, with a Board that is not functioning in an appropriately rigorous and transparent manner (for instance, there is no Deputy Chair in post, as stipulated in Article 33), and is disconnected from the membership. We are also aware of assertions, from multiple sources, that have been made about conduct and actions within the Association that are inconsistent with the charitable aims of the Association and that have the potential to bring the entire profession into disrepute.

Each of the individuals listed below are signing this letter in an individual capacity and with a positive intention, in the hope that restorative work can be undertaken by the Board to establish a more constructive way forward and to repair its relationship with its staff team and the membership. In particular, we believe that it is crucially important to ensure that the membership can regain confidence in Board processes, policies and decisions.

We call on the BACP Board of Governors to undertake the work of restoring the effective functioning, accountability and good reputation of the BACP, in an urgent, thorough and transparent manner. Our strong preference is for this process to be carried out on the basis of consultation and consensus. However, we are aware that, if necessary, it would be possible for us to take further action in accordance with procedures outlined in the Articles of Association. We hope for BACP and the profession that such an outcome can be avoided.

Even at this late stage, we would ask that BACP leaders engage in a conversation to take forward positive actions to repair the relationship between the BACP Board, its staff and its membership. In the spirit of progression, we invite you to take steps to talk openly about what is happening not only with ourselves, but with any other individuals and groups within the broad and diverse BACP constituency who might wish to be involved.

This letter will be circulated as widely as possible to BACP members.

Yours sincerely,

Professor John McLeod

Maria Albertsen

Paul Atkinson

Richard Bagnall-Oakley

Nicola Barden

Professor Tim Bond

Una Cavanagh

Professor Divine Charura

Professor Mick Cooper

Dr Elizabeth Cotton

Dr Philip Cox

Dominic Davies

Professor Windy Dryden

Dr Patricia Joyce

Myira Khan

Julia McLeod

Professor Ian Parker

Dr L.J. Potter

Dr Seb Randall

Professor Andrew Reeves

Heather Roberts

Dr Jeannette Roddy

Dr Alistair Ross

Professor Andrew Samuels

Dr Caryl Sibbett

Erin Stevens

Vanessa Stirrum

Janet Tolan

Professor Sue Wheeler

Dr John Wilson

How to support this letter of concern

If you are a member of BACP and would like to sign this letter to show your support then please do leave a comment stating your name and BACP membership number. If you are not a member of BACP but would like to show your support then you can do so by leaving a comment with your name and related profession/organisation. All comments are moderated and we will only approve comments containing the above information, any other comments will be declined.

If you have any questions you can get in touch via email enquiries@therapistconcerns.co.uk

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