British Complementary Therapies Council

ABOUT THE BCTC

BCTC's History - Why have we formed?

In 2000, in the interest of public information and safety, a House of Lords report recommended Voluntary Self Regulation (VSR) for all therapists using Complementary Therapies within their practice.

What is a Regulatory body and how does it differ from a Professional Body? please read Regulatory Body Vs Professional Body

Aims and Objectives

The BCTC is run by a Voluntary Council (it pays only for necessary administration costs).  It is an independent, non-profit making body  that consists of representatives of participating therapies as well as lay members to represent the public.

It exists to provide a Register of Therapists who offer safe, reliable complementary care in compliance with the House of Lords’ recommendations on Voluntary Self Regulation (VSR) that are approved and supported by government.

Its purpose is to bring the many benefits of safe complementary medicine within the reach of everybody in the UK as part of the nation’s healthcare policy and, as it is now, in the private health care industry.

BCTC's ROLE

The BCTC has a focus on regulating all matters that relate to issues of public safety. The BCTC Register was launched to act solely on behalf of the public.

The BCTC has defined what it means to participate in VSR.  It has developed national minimum standards of safe practice, a code of ethics, a standardised programme of continuous professional development (CPD) and training and education standards (See The Documents) as well as developing a truly collaborative structure that has fully met the spirit of the House of Lords’ Recommendations.

BCTC is uniquely placed

The BCTC is interested only in matters of the safety of the public  and has been careful in defining its responsibilities and those of its participating therapies.  As such the BCTC takes a very clearly defined and unique position in relation to the accreditation of its participating therapies’ training courses.   The BCTC ensures that its training and education standards have been incorporated into its participating therapy training courses.  The public can be confident that all therapists on the BCTC Register are aware of all aspects of safety to the public that need to be covered as standard in training courses.  Issues of content, efficacy and training quality rightly remain the responsibility of the therapy systems involved and they alone are responsible for achieving and maintaining the highest standards of accreditation for their courses, as part of their own training policies.  It is this unique aspect of the BCTC that  inherently preserves the principles of each, individual, holistic therapy without compromising the BCTC’s role in regulating its participating therapies on matters of public safety.

In its capacity to robustly regulate minimum standards of practice and also in training and education, the BCTC fulfils all of the independent requirements necessary for the public to be confident that issues of public safety have been addressed.  As such the general public can be confident that BCTC fully satisfies the expectations of the House of Lords report.

RECOGNITION

The BCTC has agreed a reciprocal arrangement with the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) that will ensure, for example, that any registrant who, for whatever adverse reason, is removed from either register will be made known to the other council to prevent ‘register hopping’.  The BCTC supports all initiatives that maximizes the safety of the public.

BCTC STRUCTURE

Following our “Keep it simple” policy please CLICK HERE to view the BCTC Structure

If you are a visiting member of the public wishing to check a therapist listing please click here

BODY MECHANICS ~ BODY STRESS RELEASE ~  CHI-DO CHI KUNG THERAPY ~ CLASSICAL MANIPULATION  ~ CLINICAL IRIDOLOGY & APPLIED NUTRITION ~ COMPLETENESS THERAPY ~ CRYSTAL THERAPY  ~ DR. VODDER MANUAL LYMPH DRAINAGE ~ EMOTIONAL FREEEDOM TECHNIQUE ~ HAWAIIAN MASSAGE ~ HOPI EAR CANDLING ~ HYDRO-STIMULATION SYSTEMS ~ LIGHT TOUCH THERAPY ~ OZONE THERAPY ~ POLARITY THERAPY ~ QUANTUM TOUCH ~ TAPAS ACUPRESSURE TECHNIQUE ~ THOUGHT FIELD THERAPY ~