Complaints/Feedback
Making a complaint
When making a complaint, it is important that you let us know the nature of your concern so that we can direct this information to the most appropriate colleague. We would ask that you outline your concern and refrain from sharing any personal or sensitive information about any person associated with this complaint or concern in your initial correspondence with us.
Please view the instructions below, indicating who to contact for different types of complaints or feedback. We will respond to you within 5 working days.
If you wish to make a complaint, or provide feedback, about any of the bpf’s services or activities:
Please contact: [email protected]
We will review your complaint and respond within 5 working days.
If your complaint or concern is about a therapist:
If you have a complaint or concern about a qualified therapist, we will share this information with our Ethics and Professional Standards Committee. We would advise that you also check whether the therapist is listed on either the British Psychoanalytic Council or Association of Child Psychotherapists register. If they are, you can also raise your concern directly with the organisation that they are registered with.
If you are a trainee who has raised a complaint
If you are a trainee who has raised a complaint to the bpf and you are unhappy with the outcome of your complaint and you are, or were, on one of our higher education courses, you can ask the Office for the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) to review your complaint or academic appeal. The OIA’s Scheme It’s important that we have completed all of our internal processes before you can take your complaint to the OIA.
At the bpf, the OIA Scheme, which provides a framework for trainees and former trainees to complain about the bpf applies to the following higher education courses:
- IPCAPA Doctorate in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy (taught in collaboration with University College London)
- MSc in Psychodynamics of Human Development
If you are undertaking a course which is delivered by the bpf in partnership with another higher education provider, such as Birkbeck (University of London) and University College London, you may bring your complaint to either the bpf and/or our educational partner.
More information about making a complaint to the OIA, what the OIA can and can’t look at and what it can do to put things right if something has gone wrong can be found here: https://www.oiahe.org.uk/students.
If you have a complaint about fundraising:
Please click here for further guidance.