2008 - What's in store?

As counselling trainers and trainees alike will have realised, 2008 is a landmark year in the history of counselling and psychotherapy. As the value of the listening therapies is becoming increasingly recognised by the NHS amongst others, the current structure of training is under threat from regulation, funding changes and the move from the NQF to the QCF.

Those of you who have been associated with CPCAB for any length of time will know that we make every possible effort not just to influence and keep up with current trends but to keep ahead of developments and to share useful information with our centres.

We are in the process of setting up a weblog on our website, to help us to share developments with you at the first opportunity and to give you all an opportunity to contribute news and views. We’ll let you know when it’s ‘open for business’ and hope you’ll find it useful.

You may also like to consider the importance of booking your place at CPCAB’s conference on 26th April. When we began our planning for ‘Counselling training - the way ahead’ not so very long ago even we were unaware of just how dramatic the proposed changes in the field are likely to be. To our knowledge, this will be the only conference of 2008 specifically tailored to the needs of counselling trainers and places are filling up very quickly now. To reserve your place, please contact Jackie or Clare on 01458 850350 or email conference@cpcab.co.uk. Conference details available on the CPCAB website.

Last chance for standardisation training for the 2007-08 academic year

The last standardisation training day for the 2007-08 academic year is on Saturday 8th March 08 at the Birmingham Voluntary Service Council. As you will know, it is a requirement that all tutors assessing candidates on CPCAB qualifications are standardised during the academic year in which they are assessing.

As a centre it is your responsibility:

• to ensure that at least one experienced tutor attends standardisation each academic year and that this tutor communicates the training to all CPCAB tutors in the centre who did not attend (cascade training).

As a tutor it is your responsibility:

• to attend a standardisation training session during 2007/2008 if you are teaching CPCAB qualifications for the first time this year
• to attend a 2007/2008 standardisation training session if you did not attend one during the 2006/2007 academic year
• to attend a standardisation training session at least once every two years.

Please book your place/s as soon as possible as the numbers are limited.

Disability and discrimination guidance

From time to time CPCAB receives requests from centres for advice about accepting candidates with particular disabilities for courses leading to CPCAB qualifications. Relevant legislation includes the Race Relations Act 1976, The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003, Equality Act 2006, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and 1986 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

CPCAB is preparing more detailed guidance on anti-discriminatory practice; in the meantime if you have any need of advice the Equality and Human Rights Commission offers more specialised guidance and has an extremely helpful website (www.equalityhumanrights.com).

New fees from September 08

Having kept our fees stable for over two years now we have to increase some of them to reflect inflation and other costs over this period. The new fee structure is set out below.

Qualification	Initial qualification approval fee	Candidate registration fee	Re-sit fee	Appeals
ELSK-L2	£89	£38	£29	£38
LSK-L2	£89	£38	£29	£38
ICSK-L2	£119	£38	£29	£38
CSK-L2	£149	£116	£59	£116
CSK-L3	£149	£143	£89	£143
CST-L3	£149	£116	£59	£116
TC-L4	£199	Year 1: £199 Year 2: £199	£149	£199

Candidate registration fees for PC-L5, CBT-L5 and TCSU-L6 remain unchanged in 2008-09 but fees for re-sits have been increased.

Qualification	Initial qualification approval fee	Candidate registration fee	Re-sit fee	Appeals
PC-L5	£199	£199	£149	£199
CBT-L5	£199	£199	£149	£199
TCSU-L6	£199	£199	£149	£199

Benefits: As this is a piece about costs it’s only fair to also remind you about some of the benefits of choosing CPCAB to accredit your counselling courses.

Firstly, as you know, our training model is generally accepted by the profession as superior to the alternatives and by following its coherent progression route candidates are more likely to get a job in counselling.

Secondly, CPCAB is the only awarding body run by counsellors for counsellors and which offers an immediate personal response to your queries from a counsellor or counselling tutor.

Finally, last but not least, most of our qualifications attract level C load-banded rates for FE whereas the majority of our competitor awarding bodies only secure level B. This means your college gains substantial additional funding by using CPCAB. Now isn’t that good to know!

Victor Rigby
Business Manager

Staff changes

Christmas 2007 was a bittersweet time for staff at CPCAB Head Office.

As you’ll see from the photographs, our end of year meal was an unusually glamorous occasion as we all donned our finery for a night at the CPCAB ‘Oscars’! But at the same time we were saying our farewells to three much-loved members of staff, all looking forward to retirement after years of valued service with our close-knit company.

Irene Helps has been with CPCAB from its earliest days, and there will be few of our tutors who haven’t been grateful for her cheerful voice at the end of the phone, dispensing sound advice with seemingly endless patience whilst juggling the many responsibilities of registration, tracking and the issuing of certificates. Her brand-new dream home in France is now ready apart from finishing touches, and we all wish her and Norman bon voyage and bonne chance for the future.

Lynda Ogborne has been the co-ordinator for the whole of the qualification service for nearly as long, and the ‘Lilac Room’ will not be the same without her. She has worked tirelessly to put reliable systems in place so we have every confidence that things will continue to run smoothly in the future, particularly as Lynda’s place has been taken by Jackie Collier, already well known to you through our standardisation days. Lynda and her husband have too many interests to mention, ranging from classic cars to gardening, but with an increasing family there may still not be enough hours in the day for everything they want to do!

Mary Priest-Cobern has been the central focus of our in-house film unit for many years too, and although she is officially opting for retirement she has kindly offered to be on standby when we need her. And it’s certain that we will! Mary, our very own Californian ‘flower child’ from the 60s is very much loved by all here and her exceptional warmth and wisdom will be very much missed.

We wish them all everything that is good for the future.

Book review: The Therapeutic Relationship in the Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapies

Edited by Paul Gilbert and Robert L. Leahy. Pb. Routledge - London

This interesting book suggests that although the therapeutic relationship is consistently associated with good treatment outcomes, this factor has to be viewed as a necessary part of a whole strategy rather than as an isolated entity.

The text includes discussion by different authors about the nature of the therapeutic relationship and how such a relationship may be established. Elements of the therapeutic relationship are described and shown to be present in and is necessary for CBT. It explores the relationship in the context of different CBT models but interestingly there are relevant references to other approaches which underline the possibility for positive integration of cognitive concepts and skills into different ways of working and vice versa.

The chapter on “ruptures in the therapeutic alliance” addresses the resolution of breaks in the relationship by providing a five stage model. Again, as is apparent throughout the book, inclusion of therapists’ empathic understanding, self-awareness, validation of clients’ feelings and needs is part and parcel of the process. These therapist behaviours are not exclusive to one approach but rather represent being with the client fully which is essential to all therapeutic work.

There are chapters which introduce therapeutic models that will not be familiar to trainees at Level 4. However, both trainers and trainees at Level 5 and above can gain considerable knowledge and insight into the complexities of the therapeutic relationship by engaging with this book.

Reviewed by Maureen Moore
Director of Qualifications Development

NIACE Adult learners’ week

NIACE, the adult learning organisation will be holding Adult Learners’ Week from Saturday 17th to Friday 23rd May this year. This is a government initiative to celebrate and focus on the achievement of learners undertaking vocational training, as part of the overall strategy to increase the profile and value of vocational learning.

“Adult Learners’ Week is an important means of showcasing the ways in which we can create and maintain a more skilled and knowledgeable workforce,” NIACE says. “At the same time, it also shows how we can build learning communities in which people can explore shared enthusiasms and work together as active citizens.”

Whilst the deadline for inclusion in this year’s event will have passed by the time you receive this edition of Update, we would love to hear from you if you have entered any of your CPCAB candidates for this inspiring award. And if you’d like to find out more before next year’s event, visit the NIACE website at http://www.alw.org.uk/nominate.