Supervision Requirements for Accredited Supervisor members

Accredited Supervisor Members must comply with IACP supervision requirements.

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Who Can Supervise?

It is required by the IACP that a Counsellor / Psychotherapist or a Student Counsellor / Psychotherapist must choose a Supervisor who is one of –

a) an IACP Accredited Supervisor
b) a BACP* Accredited Supervisor or
c) an IAHIP Accredited Supervisor

(Please note – it is the supervisee’s responsibility to check that their Supervisor is accredited with one of the above organisations).

*If contracting with a BACP Accredited Supervisor, please ensure that the supervisor hold a BACP Accredited status plus supervisor qualification. These requirements are due to the BACP reconfiguring membership categories (16/10/2023). If you have any queries regarding a pre-existing contract, please contact the IACP).

Frequency, Ratio and Forms of Supervision

Frequency: Supervision must take place at least once a month when the Supervisor member is actively seeing or available to see clients/supervisees. If not seeing clients, a minimum of 10 supervision sessions per year will be accepted, (allowing for holidays, illness, bereavements, etc..). You may add together hours from different supervision arrangements. When adding together supervision hours from different supervision arrangements, you will require a supervisor’s report from each of your supervisors.

Ratio: The required ratio of supervision is a minimum of one hour of supervision for every 30 client/supervisee contact hours.

Please note that as of 1st January 2021, the ratio of Supervision for members with accreditation of 10 years (or more) has been changed to a ratio of 40:1.

For supervisors ‘client contact hours’ includes their supervision hours. Supervisors must have supervision of their supervision work. This supervision can be undertaken with your counselling/psychotherapy supervisor or with a separate supervisor. The supervision contract should allow sufficient and proportional time for supervision of your supervision work. Individual, peer and group supervision, meeting the requirements as below, are all acceptable for supervision of supervision. A supervisor’s report for supervision work will be required for supervisor re-accreditation. 

Forms of Supervision:

(a) One to one supervision

and/or

(b) Group Supervision is where a designated Accredited Supervisor takes responsibility for the supervision of two or more Counsellors/Psychotherapists.

The designated accredited supervisor takes overall responsibility for the work of the group, managing the work, writing up supervisors reports, signing off CPD logs, dealing with Ethical issues and adhering to the IACP code of ethics etc., for the group.

To include group supervision as part or all of your supervision requirements, it is necessary that:

The maximum number in the supervision group is 6 (not including the group supervisor)

and

A group of 2 meet for a minimum of 1 hour a month (this would be counted as 1 hour supervision for each member)

A group of 3 meet for a minimum of 1.5 hours a month (this would be counted as 1.5 hours supervision for each member)

A group of 4 meet for a minimum of 2 hours a month (this would be counted as 2 hours supervision for each member)

A group of 5 meet for a minimum of 2.5 hours a month (this would be counted as 2.5 hours supervision for each member)

A group of 6 meet for a minimum of 3 hours a month (this would be counted as 3 hours supervision for each member)

and / or

(c) While peer supervision groups may have members, who are not Supervisors accredited by IACP, IAHIP or BACP, these Supervisors cannot sign off on IACP Supervisor Members’ paperwork such as supervisor’s reports, CPD logs, etc. for the purpose of IACP reaccreditation. Only IACP/BACP/IAHIP Accredited Supervisors can sign off on an IACP Member’s paperwork.

In Peer Supervision, Supervisors take shared responsibility for supervising and being supervised. The supervisors may rotate leading the group each time the group meet. The groups contract will outline how they will operate as a group. To include Peer Supervision as part or all of your supervision requirements, it is necessary that the peer group meets the time and group number requirements as above.

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For IACP Members Working Outside of 32 counties:

To fulfil the IACP Supervision requirements, the Audio (tele) or Videoconferencing (VC) Supervision can be accepted for the purpose of accreditation/ reaccreditation as long as it is done with the use of a safe medium. The onus is on the IACP Member/ Supervisor to make sure that the medium is secure and all aspects of confidentiality are protected. Also, the IACP Member/ Supervisor must have an appropriate insurance cover for such working arrangement and be aware of the legal requirements of the country that they are working in.

Supervision

• Overview
• Recently Accredited Supervisors
• Code of Ethics and Practice for Supervisors
• Online Directory of Accredited Supervisors
• Supervision Requirements
• Student Member Supervision Requirements
• Pre-Accredited Member Supervision Requirements
• Accredited Member Supervision Requirements
• Accredited Supervisor Supervision Requirements
• How do I become an Accredited Supervisor
• Renewal of Supervisor Accreditation
• CPD for Accredited Supervisors
• Supervisors Report Forms
• Inactive Accredited Supervisor Membership
• Supervisor Accreditation Appeals Procedure
• Supervisor FAQ

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