Working together to influence change

Working together to influence change - a quick guide
Policy and public affairs

We need your support to help us influence change. This guide contains suggestions for action that take just a few minutes but could have a significant impact.

香港六合彩精准资料 works to secure change across the UK through campaigning for improved access to talking therapies. We cannot do this alone, the voice and experiences of our members is also critical to the success of our public affairs work.

Through our various campaigns over the past few years you have helped to influence elected representatives and decision makers such as parliamentarians, committee members and commissioners, enabling a better understanding of the need for, and value of counselling, psychotherapy and therapeutic coaching, with many members signing up to petitions and email campaigns.

Many of our members are already engaged in local and national campaigns, as well as being involved with political parties and interest groups at all levels. Many directly engage with our Policy team, sharing their relevant experience through contributions to our policy briefings, political engagement and consultation responses.

香港六合彩精准资料 policy team update

Influencing and engagement ideas

Engage with us and our policy work:

learn more about our policy work and what we are doing to influence decision makers through our website, and
send us a short case study or example of best practice that highlights the impact your service is having in your local area. Case studies will inform our campaign activity and ability to respond to consultations and committee inquiries.
attend 香港六合彩精准资料 events - conferences, workshops and staying connected - and speak to members of the Policy team about our work
complete our Workforce Mapping Survey, available when you renew your membership. This allows us to better represent the strengths of the counselling workforce and services, as well as deepening our understanding of the different challenges facing different sectors of the UK.
get in touch with us about ideas for policy campaigns or to share issues that are impacting on your service by emailing publicaffairs@bacp.co.uk

Engage with elected representatives and decision makers:

follow and engage with your local representatives on social media
get in touch with your elected representative, particularly around local elections, via email, letter or post on social media to highlight issues that have an impact on the profession and your local community. This will ensure that counselling remains on the agenda.
invite your elected representative to your service, in order to see first-hand the positive impacts delivered by counselling and psychotherapy
post, and share with the Policy team, a short video or blog on your social media platforms showcasing the benefits of counselling and psychotherapy
respond to relevant government consultations and inquiries and send the Policy team a copy of your response

Our key messages across the Four Nations

Make free at the point of need counselling and psychotherapy available to all through the NHS - securing a universal right to both access and choice of psychological therapies, enshrined in the NHS constitution.

Increase NHS England鈥檚 funding settlement to ensure NHS Long-Term Plan ambitions can be delivered, including meeting increased demand following Covid-19.

Expand the counselling and psychotherapy workforce within the NHS and explore new opportunities for service delivery through integrated care systems.

Invest in a trained, professional counsellor in every school, college and community hub for children aged 10 and above in England to bring it into line with the rest of UK.

Improve access to high quality, accessible and culturally sensitive services to people from marginalised community backgrounds and those at greatest risk of psychological distress and mental ill health, including refugees.

Increase investment in workplace counselling to provide targeted, early interventions to address poor mental health at work, which costs UK employers around 拢56bn each year.

Extend VAT exemption to all individual Professional Standards Authority registered counsellors and psychotherapists across the UK, removing unnecessary barriers to access mental health support. (Needs to be secured at UK level but impact will be across all four nations.)

Secure the 拢1.2bn shortfall in the Mental Health Strategy鈥檚 Funding Plan and commit to ensuring this will enable appropriate and accessible counselling provision across Northern Ireland to address longstanding gaps in support which have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Ensure a holistic mental health workforce strategy is put in place urgently which fully deploys the underutilised counselling and psychotherapy workforce in Northern Ireland.

Enhance the role of counselling and psychotherapy within the health and social care workforce, including free at the point of need counselling and psychotherapy available to all through their GP.

Commit to long term funding of the Healthy Happy Minds therapeutic and counselling service beyond the existing pilot, ensuring all primary aged children in Northern Ireland have access to qualified, specialist children and young people counselling practitioners as part of that offer.

Commit to improving access to high quality and culturally sensitive services to people from marginalised community backgrounds and those at greatest risk of psychological distress and mental ill health.

Ensure improved and universal access to counselling and psychotherapy across the emerging community-based mental health landscape throughout Scotland, as part of the Scottish Government鈥檚 dedicated focus on early intervention and prevention.

Ensure the 拢80m programme of government commitment to counselling across Scotland鈥檚 schools, colleges and universities is placed on a long-term footing beyond the current five year commitment.

Build on the Scottish Government鈥檚 important commitments on tackling increased drug deaths by ensuring psychological support, including counselling and psychotherapy, reaches the individuals, families and communities most at risk.

Commit to ensuring consistent access to quality and culturally sensitive services throughout Scotland, designed to support people most impacted by the pandemic, including health and care workers, Black, Asian and ethnically diverse communities and victims of domestic abuse.

Ensure counselling and psychotherapy is valued and recognised within the Welsh Government鈥檚 'No Wrong Door' approach to mental health with suitable funding to place qualified therapists across all sectors of mental health provision, including the emerging local community hubs across Wales.

Ensure the mental health workforce plan being developed by Health Education Improvement Wales (HEIW) and Social Care Wales (SCW) during 2021-22 recognises and deploys the underutilised counselling and psychotherapy workforce in Wales.

Enhance provision of school counselling services in line with the programme of government commitment to provide additional funding to extend provision to primary school children across Wales.

Commit to ensuring consistent access to quality and culturally sensitive services throughout Wales.

How to make an impact when writing to elected representatives

Make it personal

Elected representatives and their researchers have confirmed that an original letter sent by one committed, passionate constituent is far more powerful than a large number of identical letters or postcards.

Make it local

Elected parliamentarians are required to respond to correspondence from local constituents. Producing a letter or email highlighting an issue of local relevance is much more likely to grab the attention than one highlighting general concerns.

To keep your message local, you could focus on how you or your clients have been affected by a local or national issue, and what you would like your elected member to do about it. This way you can bring to their attention the problems you've faced and can encourage them to take action.

Make your representative or candidate an offer

Elected representatives and prospective candidates are often interested in meeting constituents or visiting a local service, group or event. Where appropriate, you could offer them the opportunity to visit your service to meet and hear directly from people with lived experience and those delivering the service.

The Policy team welcomes invitations to join these meetings if you think it appropriate.

Use statistics and figures to support your message

Using relevant and up-to-date facts and figures in your correspondence will strengthen your argument and highlight to your representative the need to take action 鈥� the more local the facts, the better!听

Who is my elected representative?

You can find out who your MP, MSP, MS or MLA is, and all their contact details (including parliamentary and constituency offices) from the websites below:

for MPs:
for MSPs (Scotland):
for MSs (Wales):
for MLAs (Northern Ireland):

You can find out who your local councillor is by going straight to your Council website. Alternatively, you can use:

for all UK except Northern Ireland:
Northern Ireland:

You can also find, and write to, any of your elected representatives through

You can find out what your MP is saying about mental health and counselling on

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