The Partnership of Counselling and Psychotherapy Bodies (PCPB) has published its first shared dataset.  

The data provides a clearer picture of who currently makes up counsellors and psychotherapists and will help inform how the PCPB can collectively support greater equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) across the profession. 

The data shows that the members of PCPB partners are primarily: 

  • aged between 45 and 64 
  • white 
  • female 
  • heterosexual 
  • do not consider themselves to have a disability. 

Why has PCPB created a shared dataset?  

This initiative stems from the 2022 SCoPEd framework impact assessment, where partners agreed to compile a unified demographic dataset of therapists registered with PCPB partners, with the aim of better understanding the profession. 

Understanding who makes up the counselling and psychotherapy workforce is vital to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). Collecting and analysing this data allows us to identify where under or over representation exists, track progress over time and take informed action to make our profession more inclusive and representative of the communities our members serve. Having this data will help to measure and track success in this area and highlight any significant areas for development.  

Capturing diversity data offers a window into understanding who PCPB represent as a partnership and how things are changing. 

What data has been collected? 

Each PCPB partner has contributed anonymised, aggregated data from its own membership.  

This combined dataset includes information across five protected characteristics - age, disability, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation. These five were selected as they are the areas where all partners currently collect comparable data.  

In future years the partners aim to extend this work to include additional protected characteristics and further align data collection methods. 

The Equality Act 2010 identifies nine protected characteristics that are covered by legislation. They are: 

  • age 
  • disability 
  • gender reassignment 
  • marriage and civil partnership 
  • pregnancy and maternity 
  • race 
  • religion and belief 
  • sex  
  • sexual orientation.  

The partners will also make sure data captured in relation to sex and gender aligns with the Supreme Court ruling in April 2025 on the term ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 referring to biological sex.  

How has data been collected? 

Each partner has gathered demographic data relating to its own membership. While the timing of data collection and the exact wording of questions varied slightly, partners have worked together to ensure the combined dataset aligns closely with Office for National Statistics (ONS) reporting.  

How will PCPB use the data? 

An anonymised, aggregated dataset has been published on the PCPB website and will be updated over time. The data is benchmarked against ONS Census figures to help understand how representative our profession is of the wider UK population. 

The PCPB partners will use these insights to identify areas of under and/or over-representation and work collectively to discuss and agree on actions that support a more collectively diverse and inclusive profession. 

The shared dataset can be viewed on the PCPB website 

How are BACP working to improve equality, diversity and inclusion in the profession?  

The publication of the PCPB dataset builds upon our own equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) work. Alongside the PCPB shared data we’re collecting additional data such as socio economic and neurodivergence and including additional questions on sex and gender to ensure the diversity of BACP's membership is accurately represented in the data.  

We’re committed to and passionate about improving EDI within the counselling and psychotherapy professions. Our EDI strategy details our goals and the tactical steps we're taking to embed change, and is reflected in a number of ongoing projects and resources available for our members:  

  • Our Mentoring Scheme aims to support student members and trainees from marginalised and underrepresented communities. Our second launch of this scheme received an overwhelming positive response, enabling us to pair 50 mentors and mentees.  
  • Our Bursary scheme aims to encourage underrepresented groups into the profession by providing financial support for counselling and psychotherapy training. The current pilot scheme is due to end in 2026 and will be followed by an internal review and evaluation, with hopes to re-launch the scheme again in the future. 
  • Third sector grants were awarded to six organisational members in support of their work to remove barriers to therapy for people from racialised communities.  
  • We’re Making accreditation more accessible through our support and inclusion officers, who are providing tailored support to anyone who identifies as having additional needs. We’ve also reduced costs for those who need additional support and our accreditation routes, opening February 2026, will recognise the wide variety of training pathways by which our members enter the profession and then continue to develop post-qualification.  
  • We've also undertaken a full review of our course and service accreditation schemes to embed anti-oppressive, inclusive and culturally attuned practice into core training and services. This will increase accessibility to core training and increase diversity in the profession, enhance the competence of trainers, students and qualified practitioners so they are suitably equipped to work with diverse client groups, and remove barriers to services for clients. 
  • Resources such as articles, podcasts, toolkits, CPD and good practice resources are available across our website. 

For more information visit our EDI webpage.