Assessment process, resubmissions and appeals
Individual accreditation and senior accreditation

Assessment process and outcomes

Due to the robustness of our scheme, it can take several months to process your application. Every members accreditation application is a unique journey and processing times can vary. This is dependent on which route you apply for (as some routes involve more assessment) and on how many applications we receive at any given time. Processing times may also increase if your application is selected for moderation, which is an important part of our quality assurance. 

When you submit your application, we'll send you an acknowledgement email to confirm we've received it.   

Our accreditation team will check your application to make sure you meet the eligibility criteria and that we have all the information we need. We'll email you if we have any queries. 

Once our checks are complete, we'll send your application to one of our assessment team.  

Our accreditation assessors are all professional, accredited or senior accredited practitioners, with high standards of knowledge and experience in counselling and psychotherapy. 

A random selection of applications are put forward for moderation. Our moderators are practitioners with a wealth of experience of our accreditation criteria and assessment standards. The purpose of moderation is to ensure the standard of assessment remains constant. The moderation decision is final. 

Successful applicants will be awarded accreditation from the date of the moderation decision and not the initial assessment decision, as the application is still in progress during this necessary process. 

We'll send you an email when we've completed our assessment. 

The possible outcomes are: 

• your application has been successful
• your application has been deferred - you’ll be able to make a resubmission at this point 

You’ll be given details about what your decisions means, and what the next steps are.  

If you’re successful, you’ll be able to download a certificate and new personalised logo from your member account. Your register entry and therapist directory listing, if you have one, will automatically update with your new membership status. 

What does a deferred decision mean?

If you've been deferred, it means our assessors didn't find sufficient evidence within your application to successfully assess against all our criteria and we need more information from you.

If you applied via the online application form there’ll will be a detailed assessment report in your member account. If you submitted your application via email, your report will be emailed to you. Your assessment report will tell you which criteria haven't been fully met and provide information from the assessor on what you need to do to meet those criteria when you resubmit.

You’ll have up to six months to submit additional information.

If you don't make a resubmission within six months, your application will be closed. You can reapply for accreditation at any time after six months, but you'll need to complete a new application in full and pay the application fee.

How do I prepare my resubmission? 

Take some time to read your assessment report and review the feedback from the assessor. You only need to address the criteria which you were deferred on in your original application and what the assessor has directed you to address.  

We also recommend that you speak to your supervisor before you start to write. 

Write your additional information on a blank Word document. Head each document with your name and membership number and identify which criterion and sub-criteria the information relates to. Please use one document and make it clear which criteria you are writing under.  
 
The work you submit is in addition to your original application, so you might just need to provide some further explanation or new information. However, it’s fine to revise parts of your original work too - just keep within the additional word limits and make it clear where the new information fits within the text. 

Word limits

In your resubmission you can use the full word limits again, regardless of how many sub-criteria you've been deferred on. This is in addition to any material you presented in your original application. A full explanation of word counts is listed in the downloadable resubmission guides on the right-hand side of this web page.

Submitting new case material 

If the criteria you’ve been deferred on is a case study, you can either add to the case material you originally submitted, provide additional information on the case study, or submit entirely new client or case material. (By new case material, we mean a different client in the case study to the one you used in your initial application).

If you choose to submit new case material, you’ll need to ask the supervisor who oversaw the case material to provide a supervisor’s statement in support of your resubmission. You can find a template on this webpage.

Supervision arrangements  

If you’ve changed your Supervisor since you submitted your original application, please provide details of the new arrangement on the resubmission coversheet.

How do I submit my resubmission? 

Complete the resubmission cover sheet available on this webpage and email it along with any additional information required for your resubmission to accreditation@bacp.co.uk

Cost of resubmission

There is no fee for a resubmission.

Can I get any help with my resubmission? 

Your assessment report will include advice from our assessors on what you need to do when writing or producing your resubmission. You can also refer to the application guides associated with your original accreditation application. 

If you have any questions about your resubmission, please contact the accreditation team at accreditation@bacp.co.uk 

If you identify as living with a disability, long term health condition or learning difference, we can offer additional support to help remove any barriers you may experience when accessing the application process.   

If you were offered an additional 10% word count with your original application, you can use this again for your resubmission.  

If you’d like to access additional support, please contact us to discuss your needs with our support and inclusion officers.  

Our assessors run regular telesurgeries for deferred applicants. These are 30 minute one-to-one phone conversations which give you the opportunity to ask an assessor specific questions about what they want to see in a successful application. They'll also be able to explain any points raised on your assessment report. However, the assessor can't tell you what to write or approve any suggestions of what you intend to write. 

Telesurgeries cost £25 and book up very quickly so you may have a short wait for a convenient session.

Please email accreditation@bacp.co.uk or call us on 01455 883300 to book. 

What happens if I don't want to resubmit? 

If you don’t want to resubmit your application within six months, you’ll need to complete a new application and pay the cost associated with that application route, if you choose to proceed with accreditation or senior accreditation in the future.  

Some deferred applicants decide to spend more time on client work, additional training, reflecting on their practice and consolidating their skills, which may take longer than six months.  

Assessment process and outcomes for resubmissions  

When you submit your resubmission, we'll send you an acknowledgement email to confirm we've received it. It can then take around three to four months to complete the process.

We'll check to make sure you've responded to all the deferred criteria and provided all the necessary information. We’ll then forward your resubmission, together with your original application, for reassessment.

If you're successful, you'll be awarded your accreditation. If you're unsuccessful, you’ll be given time for reflection. You can make a new application after 12 months from the date of your unsuccessful decision.