The Society of Homeopaths has for many years worked towards the independent regulation of homeopathy. In 2009, the Society's board of directors decided to investigate the possibility of applying to the Health Professions Council (HPC) for the statutory regulation of homeopaths. This decision followed the failure of the Council of Organisations Registering Homeopaths (CORH) to establish a single register and reflected the need to explore other possible options for independent regulation.
It is now almost ten years since the House of Lords’ Select Committee on Science & Technology produced its report into Complementary & Alternative Medicine (published in 2000). This report categorised homeopathy as a ‘Group One’ therapy along with acupuncture, chiropractic, herbal medicine and osteopathy. It acknowledged that “Under The Society of Homeopaths, the non-medical homeopaths have organised themselves well and their professional organisation should mean the transition to statutory regulation does not present too great an upheaval (1).”
Of the five, homeopathy is the only profession not yet in the statutory regulation process. Osteopathy and chiropractic already have statutory regulation, with single councils. The Government is due to make a decision very soon regarding the statutory regulation of acupuncture and herbal medicine by the HPC, which has supported their applications. In recent years, the regulatory landscape has changed and single regulatory councils are no longer an option, as the Government now favours a federal model.
The HPC is a multi-professional regulator, which already regulates fourteen professions, including arts therapists, dieticians and psychologists and is waiting for a Government decision regarding the regulation of counsellors and psychotherapists.
The Society held initial discussions with the Health Professions Council during the autumn of 2009. From these discussions, it became evident that there were several stages involved in progressing towards statutory regulation and that the process was likely to take several years. In very broad terms, the first stage involves making an application to the HPC. If the HPC then approves the application, they would make a recommendation to the Government of the day. There is no certainty that homeopathy would be statutorily regulated as the final decision rests with the Government.
Before making an initial draft application to the HPC, professional organizations need to define the 'scope of practice' of their occupation and to prepare draft 'standards of proficiency'. Preliminary exploration suggests that work in both of these areas would build usefully on the recent revision of the National Occupational Standards for Homeopathy (NOS) and contribute to the development of the profession.
The Society has therefore started to explore scope of practice and to prepare draft standards of proficiency for discussion. There will be opportunities both for Society members and for representatives from other registering organizations to contribute to these discussions, either by attending one of the meetings to be arranged for the summer, in London, Bristol and Manchester, or by providing feedback via email.
Consultation regarding the application itself is continuing. A survey of Society members in 2006 showed that 65 per cent of respondents supported statutory regulation. A further survey in November 2009 indicated that 81per cent of those who responded were in favour of statutory regulation, although numbers participating were disappointing. Members will have an opportunity to ask questions and express their views at the AGM in April. Feedback from members is welcome at any time: please address your comments to: info@homeopathy-soh.org
Reference:
(1) House of Lords Select Committee on Science & Technology, Session 1999-2000, p52
