Safeguarding and reporting regulations

[biaaw677]

<moderator edit - post moved from here Desperate - therapist disclosed csa to mother to keep previous thread on topic>

I’m not sure what your point is but I’m the very last person who needs a lecture on safeguarding

My point is that the CQC and OFSTED operates under law, and they set the Regulations to which service providers must operate. Regulations are law, it is just that responsibility for setting those regulations has been delegated by the Parliamentary law-makers to the CQC and OFSTED experts in the field. The same thing occurs with the UK General Medical Council (GMC), the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), and the UK Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC) these licensing authorities operate under law, and their 'regulations' for those practitioners licensed are law.

In the case of psychologists the relevant authority is the HCPC, they register under the term practioner psychologist, but if you look at the HCPC Standards of Proficiency for psychologists Link Removed , you can see that different kinds of psycholologists have differing licences e.g. counselling psychologists, clinical psychologists, educational psychologists, forensic psychologists, health psychologists, occupational psychologists, sport and exercise psychologists.

At section 7.3 of the HCPC Standards of Proficiency it states that in reference to maintaining confidentiality all registered psychologists must "be able to recognise and respond appropriately to situations where it is necessary to share information, advice, instruction, and professional opinion to service users colleagues and others". Under Safeguarding law and CQC Regulations e.g.The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, Regulation 13 Regulation 13: Safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment | Care Quality Commission, every therapist is required to share with Safeguarding Authorities any report of abusers who might be able to abuse other vulnerable people, or even might be able to repeat their abuse of the abused patient the psychologist is treating.

The person entirely responsible for the offences of a perpetrator is the perpetrator. There are very good, therapeutic reasons for holding confidentiality which certainly don’t amount to aiding and abetting

Every UK citizen has an obligation to report potential crime they have knowledge of, if we do not report/stay silent we can ourselves be open to being charged with aiding and abetting such criminal offences; nobody is above the law, not even therapists. This kind of thing is why we also have laws to try to protect service provider employees who whistleblow to the CQC concerns about unsafe care practices.

 

[EveHarrington]

Hi, I am confused.

What kind of responses are you looking for?

Thanks.

 

[Suzetig]

There’s no requirement for counsellors and psychotherapists to be registered in the UK, much less registered with the HCPC, which doesn’t extend across the UK for some professions in any event so the standards you refer to don’t cover all four nations.

There is no primary legislation that requires mandatory reporting across professions or the general public - if you think there is, please quote it. The requirement for registered professions comes about as a result of their registering body, whoever that is, all you’ve done is confirm what I’ve already said. Even for those professions which are registered, there is still an acknowledged that the decision to report represents an ethical dilemma which isn’t easily resolved by demanding that all instances of child abuse are reported. Indeed there are services specifically established to provide a safe place to talk about abuse where confidentiality is assured - they aren’t by any means acting outside of the law.

A professional who chooses to hold confidentiality can expect to be professionally accountable for that but if it were the case that not reporting amounted to aiding and abetting there would be a lot of people sitting in prison just now given that in every recent public scandal involving csa, people knew and didn’t tell.

I’m not saying that abuse shouldn’t be reported, just that it’s entirely possible for therapists to act entirely within the law by not disclosing and that sometimes it’s beneficial for the client to have space to talk without worrying about police and social services.

 

[biaaw677]

THE VULNERABLE CAN INTENTIONALLY GO UNPROTECTED BY THE VERY AGENCIES THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO TAKE REPORTING, INVESTIGATE IT, AND REFER IT TO PROPER ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES OR BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT.

I can most definitely agree with what you say here, but hopefully now, in 2018, younger victims of abuse will get treated more appropriately.

he life that resulted has left me permanently feeling I can never be safe in any situation or with anyone. I don't even have functional body language skills because expressing period brought more abuse, especially during active abuse, It's a miserable way to exist.

I feel for you, but never give up hope of improvement, when you give up hope the perpetrator achieves their goal of gaining power over you. Therapy has progressed during the last forty years, yes cases like yours are highly complex and need very experienced t's, but numbers of such expert t's are slowly increasing. Try to stay positive

 

[recoveringfromptsd]

the perpetrator achieves their goal of gaining power over you

In my case it was perpetrators (plural), it was a profit corporation, called Environments for Human Services and the abuse was systematic, and DSS looked the other way when abuse was reported, and I got it worse than the other clients because I was the oldest and resisting instead of becoming subjugated and submissive. To give a good idea how bad things were, I will point out they were shut down in 1985 after a public outcry, after one of the clients named Tammy Agee was murdered. It took them 3 weeks to report she was missing, and it was months later her body was found. At one of there camps I was stung by a whole nest of yellow jackets, they did not even bother to care to take me for medical care, one staff member finally did but he was the only one there that treated me and everyone one else right. Needless to say he was not working there long. In the news articles they say a staff member reported CSA by a staff member and was fired for reporting the abuse.

When the designated protectors become participants (all though passively) its hard to trust anything, any situation or anybody.

 

[blackemerald1]

Every UK citizen has an obligation to report potential crime they have knowledge of, if we do not report/stay silent we can ourselves be open to being charged with aiding and abetting such criminal offences; nobody is above the law, not even therapists

Just caught up with this little pearl... It's rubbish. If every UK citizen reported potential crime....the whole NATION would be sitting in prison. (Note potential being the word you used) You'd better have another look at what aiding and abetting actually does mean... (Just do a fact check please)....

 

[biaaw677]

Just caught up with this little pearl... It's rubbish. If every UK citizen reported potential crim...

It really is fact that every UK citizen has the obligation to report potential or actual crime. This is something that became evident in a law course I successfully completed. Your idea that this would lead to "the whole NATION would be sitting in prison" is false; not all crimes or suspected crimes automatically lead to convictions and even fewer result in imprisonment.

It is all effected by whether the police investigate and whether the criminal prosecution service consider there is sufficient evidence to secure conviction. Regardless though every citizen has a duty to report actual or potential crime.

Under law the police are bound to record and investigate reported crime, but the police are falliable human beings like every other human beings. Historically for example, the victims of rape were often further subjected to humiliation and discrimination if they reported such crimes. It is this kind of thing together with the emotions suffered by the victim that has lead to greater compassion and understanding of the needs of victims of such crime.

The quote above i.e.

At section 7.3 of the HCPC Standards of Proficiency it states that in reference to maintaining confidentiality all registered psychologists must "be able to recognise and respond appropriately to situations where it is necessary to share information, advice, instruction, and professional opinion to service users colleagues and others".

has an error. When I was copying it I misread it a little. The Quote should read:

At section 7.3 of the HCPC Standards of Proficiency it states that in reference to maintaining confidentiality all registered psychologists must "be able to recognise and respond appropriately to situations where it is necessary to share information to safeguard service users or the wider public"

Whilst my quote was slightly inaccurate the main principle behind its intention of placing an obligation on ts to report abuse was accurate.

 

[digger]

It really is fact that every UK citizen has the obligation to report potential or actual crime

Have you got a link for this? Genuinely curious as I haven't been able to find out more about it.
I did find this which would appear to contradict it, but is talking about professional obligations rather than obligations as a citizen, so perhaps a different level of protection?
Link Removed

The consultation document ‘Reporting and Acting on Child Abuse: Government Consultation’ provides clear verification when talking about the current child protection system in England. There is currently no general legal requirement on those working with children to report either known or suspected child abuse or neglect

ETA - Actually never mind, I just found this
Q514: Is there a legal requirement to report a crime?
which states there is NO legal obligation to report a crime.

Whilst there is no legal requirement to report a crime, there is a moral duty on everyone of us to report to the police any crime or anything we suspect may be a crime.

 

[biaaw677]

Hi, I am confused.

What kind of responses are you looking for?

Thanks.

As the moderator identifies I am clarifying the legal responsibility that ts have to report perpetrators of csa who become known to them. The initiator of the thread https://www.myptsd.com/threads/desperate-therapist-disclosed-csa-to-mother.83155/page-8#post-1398020 was under a misconception about the t's responsibility. This thread simply attempts to clarify the legal duties. It is important that people who suffer mental health conditions understand the effects of what they say in therapy sessions. Whilst people who suffer trauma should not feel afraid of reporting what has been wrongly inflicted upon them, it is important that any identification they make of the actual perpetrators is as accurate and honest as possible.

 

[Suzetig]

Whilst my quote was slightly inaccurate the main principle behind its intention of placing an obligation on ts to report abuse was accurate

The HCPC only governs clinical psychologists in terms of people who fall under the category of folk who offer therapy. The vast majority of Ts in the U.K. aren’t HCPC registered and therefore can’t be governed by HCPC regulations.

The regulations also don’t provide any detail around the circumstances in which information sharing is necessary to safeguard the service user or general public” individual agency guidelines will state what they feel is necessary depending on the nature of the service and their client group.

Information sharing, safeguarding and confidentiality are highly complex, ethically challenging debates with no easy answers and pretty wide legislative leaway but please, keep telling us how easy it is.

 

[blackemerald1]

This thread simply attempts to clarify the legal duties.

- Nope OP was not doing that either....

moderator identifies I am clarifying the legal responsibility that ts have to report perpetrators of csa who become known to them.

No..not that either...

No.... you just caught my attention when you suggested...

Every UK citizen has an obligation to report potential crime they have knowledge of, if we do not report/stay silent we can ourselves be open to being charged with aiding and abetting such criminal offences;

Still a pearl.... Thanks @digger

 

[Suzetig]

This is something that became evident in a law course I successfully completed.

I think you should ask for your money back.