As a professional association, our commitment to providing our members with a consistently high level of service is dependent on our financial stability.

Recent rises in inflation have had a significant impact on our operating costs, and while we’ve made efficiencies within the organisation and absorbed rising costs wherever possible, this isn’t sustainable in the long term.

We’ve made the difficult decision therefore, to increase membership fees for our individual and organisational members from Saturday 1 April.

This increase will enable us to continue to deliver the support and services that our members highly value.

Before the pandemic, membership fees would increase annually in line with the consumer price index (CPI), but we’ve not done this since 2019.

While this is our first fee increase in four years, we recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic and current cost of living crisis continues to effect many of our members, and we remain committed to providing financial support to those facing particularly challenging circumstances.

We're also pleased to confirm that we’re not increasing the costs of our additional subscriptions at this stage, including membership of our divisions, access to our CPD Hub and advertising on our BACP Therapist Directory.  

New membership fees

Our fee increase comes into effect for members renewing from Saturday 1 April and represents an average annual increase of 4.4% across membership categories.

This increase will take effect from the date your annual membership is renewed. 

A summary of the changes to each membership category are outlined in the table on this page.

Your membership benefits

In return for your membership fees, individual BACP members receive a wide variety of benefits to help support and enrich your career, including:

  • a subscription to our member magazine Therapy Today, published 10 times a year
  • reduced fees across our events and conferences
  • access to competences and curricula to aid career development
  • access to our free member-only jobs board
  • ethical support, our Ethical Framework is the foundation and support for ethical practice, along with almost 100 supplementary Good Practice in Action (GPiA) resources to help you apply it to your practice
  • guidance support for ethical dilemmas through our Ethics hub
  • our work in promoting the profession, increase awareness of the importance of counselling and psychotherapy and creating new pathways and growing opportunities for members
  • our research base, demonstrating the effectiveness of counselling and supporting arguments to policy makers and commissioners for choice, availability and accessibility of psychological therapies
  • our influencing of public policy, promoting the work of our members to decision makers and making the case for increased investment in therapy
  • our professional conduct procedure, giving the public confidence in our members and protecting the reputation of the profession

Please read the information on our accessible infographic. 

Individual membership fees

Organisational membership fees

 

 

Since our last membership fee increase in 2019, we’ve also introduced:

Organisational members receive a slightly different variety of benefits, which can be viewed on our Organisational membership web page. 

Supporting our members financially

We understand that inflation and the cost of living crisis means that some of our members may be facing financial difficulty.

We offer lower fees to our student members and up to 50% discount for members who are unwaged, on low income or in receipt of state benefits or pension.

In addition, all members can spread the cost of membership by paying via Direct Debit over a 10 month period, at no additional charge. 

We would encourage members to contact us to discuss any potential financial support, or to view our reduced fee policy for more information.

Our commitment

It’s you, our members, who enable us to work on your behalf and for the wider profession, and we’d like to thank you for your continued membership.

We remain committed to providing the very best services, guidance and resources to support you throughout your career.

If you have any queries regarding our increase to membership fees, please don’t hesitate to contact our customer service team on 01455 883300.