About us
About the PSA
The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) is an independent body in the UK that works to improve the regulation and registration of people working in health and social care, ensuring the public's safety and well-being. It does this by overseeing professional regulators, accrediting organizations that register practitioners in unregulated roles, and providing policy advice and conducting research.
Regulators
- We oversee the 10 UK healthcare professional regulators to make sure they are protecting the public. The regulators we oversee ‘register’ health and care professionals working in occupations that Parliament has said must be regulated. For example, psychiatrist or mental health nurse.
Accredited Registers
- We accredit organisations holding registers of health and care practitioners not regulated by law, to give the public confidence in their services through our Accredited Registersprogramme.
What is an accredited register?
Health and care services are delivered by a mix of professions and practitioners working in different roles. Some of these roles are subject to statutory regulation while others are not.
To ensure that the public is protected some organisations hold registers (public lists) of people in those roles that can be checked by patients, service users and employers. Some of these registers are ‘statutory’ whilst others are ‘voluntary’.
Why should mental health professionals join an accredited register?
Joining an accredited register, like those maintained by the British Psychological Society (BPS) or British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), offers several benefits to mental health professionals. It validates their expertise, demonstrating commitment to ethical practice and professional standards. This can improve client trust, open doors to career opportunities, and potentially be a requirement for certain employers.
Accredited Registers
- Association of Child Psychotherapists
- Association of Christians in Counselling and Linked Professions
- Athena Herd Foundation
- British Acupuncture Council
- British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy
- British Association of Play Therapists
- British Psychoanalytic Council
- British Psychological Society
- CBT Register UK (AREBT & BABCP)
- COSCA (Counselling & Psychotherapy in Scotland)
- Human Givens Institute
- National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society
- National Hypnotherapy Society
- Play Therapy UK
- UK Association for Humanistic Psychology Practitioners
- UK Board of Healthcare Chaplaincy
- UK Council for Psychotherapy
- UK Society for Behaviour Analysis