Insurance All counsellors have an ethical responsibility to be accountable for their work, any counsellor offering professional advice owes a duty of care to the client. If that falls below what the client expects you could be liable to the client for any damage caused.
This means King Square Counselling requires all counsellors, trainee and qualified, to have professional indemnity insurance. That is a policy that covers giving defective professional advice.
You could argue that you are a volunteer and are not being paid. However, the client looks up to you as a professional and they are entitled to rely on the service you give them.
We also need to check that counsellors are properly trained, regulated and supervised, to protect the agency from clients bringing a claim against us for introducing a counsellor who is unsuitable.
Registration This includes registration with a Professional counselling body as a Student or a Member.
Enhanced DBS The Disclosure and Barring Service check is to ensure your credibility by checking your criminal history for cautions, warning, reprimands and convictions.
Information Commissioners Office. The ICO was set up to protect personal data – it’s a legal requirement to register with them if you handle personal data. Which means if all you have a client’s phone number you need to be registered.
Supervision Because of the complex nature of therapy, it is advisable to have supervision from someone who is not part of King Square Counselling. In that way you benefit from a perspective that we may not be aware of, and also have the opportunity to address issues that relate to the agency as well as your work with the client.
Thank you for reading this and we welcome your comments
KSC June 2024