Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 April 2024
666. Deputy Steven Matthews asked the Minister for Health , further to Parliamentary Question No. 282 of 18 April 2024, if his attention has been drawn to delays in the establishment of a register of counsellors and psychotherapists by a group (details supplied); the actions he will take to ensure this process is expedited; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17937/24]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, CORU is Ireland’s multi-profession health and social care regulator. CORU’s role is to protect the public by regulating the health and social care professions designated under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 (as amended), including setting the standards that health and social care professionals must meet to be eligible for registration and maintaining registers of persons who meet those standards.
Seventeen health and social care professions are designated for regulation by CORU. There are currently registers open for twelve professions and CORU is continuing the substantial work required to open the registers for the remaining designated professions of Psychologists; Counsellors and Psychotherapists; Clinical Biochemists; and Orthoptists.
CORU’s regulatory model is based on protection of title; once a profession is regulated it becomes a criminal offence to use a professional title if a person is not a CORU registrant.
Each profession designated under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act has its own independent registration board with statutory responsibility for:
Establishing and maintaining the register of members for that profession;
Recognising qualifications gained outside the State;
Approving and monitoring education and training programmes for entry to the register; and
Setting the code of professional conduct and ethics giving guidance to professionals on Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
Regulations to designate the professions of counsellor and psychotherapist under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 (as amended) were made by the previous Minister for Health, Simon Harris TD, in 2019. The Counsellors and Psychotherapists Registration Board (CPRB) was established in February 2019. Its membership comprises practitioners, representatives from education and training, and lay members.
The work of the CPRB includes consideration of the titles to be protected and the minimum qualifications to be required of existing practitioners and the qualifications that will be required for future graduates. The work of the CPRB is significantly more challenging than it is for registration boards for some of the more established professions owing to the different and complex pathways into these professions, the variety of titles used, and the variety and number of courses and course providers.
The CPRB undertook an extensive research process to inform the drafting of standards and criteria. This included a review of contemporary evidence-informed academic literature, an examination of comparator international professional standards, and understanding the contemporary practice of the profession in Ireland. Key stakeholders, including the public (through a public consultation process), are also part of the drafting process.
Throughout the course of 2022 and 2023, the CPRB drafted threshold level standards of knowledge, skills and professional behaviour – its Standards of Proficiency – and the systems and processes that education providers must have in place to ensure consistent and effective delivery of graduates who have achieved the Standards of Proficiency – its Criteria for Education and Training Programmes. Two sets of these requirements were drafted: one for counsellors and one for psychotherapists representing the first attempt to establish distinct standards for each profession in Ireland and the first effort to standardise threshold level education and training requirements for entry to each profession.
The introduction of regulation to the counselling profession is a top priority for CORU. Extensive work has already been carried out by the CPRB to achieve this. Most recently a public consultation was held on the Standards of Proficiency and Criteria for Education and Training Programmes for the counselling profession.
The CPRB is now reviewing the many responses received during this consultation. Following this extensive review activity, the Board will communicate the next steps in the process towards introducing statutory regulation for counsellors.
Owing to the significant body of preparatory work that the CPRB are required to undertake, it is not possible to say with any degree of accuracy when the professions of counsellor and psychotherapist will be fully regulated. I would anticipate that the CPRB will require a number of years to complete its work.
