Skip to content
BCACTBritish Columbia flagBritish Columbia Association of Counsellors and Therapists

Governance

How BCACT is directed and held to account

A registration body is only as credible as its governance. BCACT separates the setting of standards, the assessment of applications, and the determination of conduct matters so that no single group controls all three.

Structure

Board of Directors

Responsible for the strategic direction of the association, approval of standards, financial oversight, and appointment of committee chairs. The board includes registrant directors and public directors who are not counsellors or therapists.

Registration Committee

Applies the published registration criteria to applications, decides categories, and considers requests for reconsideration. Its members do not sit on conduct panels for the same registrant.

Professional Conduct Committee

Oversees the complaints process, appoints determination panels, and reports anonymized outcomes so that registrants and the public can see how standards are applied.

Public representation

Public directors are appointed to the board to ensure that the interests of the people who use counselling and therapy services are represented in decisions about standards and accountability. Public directors are not registrants and hold no commercial interest in the professions BCACT registers.

Separation of decision-making

  • Standards are set by the board on the recommendation of the relevant committee, not by individual assessors.
  • Registration decisions are made against published criteria by assessors who are not involved in setting them for that cycle.
  • Conduct determinations are made by panels with no prior involvement in the matter.
  • Reviews of decisions are considered by differently constituted panels.
  • Conflicts of interest are declared and recorded, and members withdraw where a conflict exists.

Transparency commitments

  • Publish the registration criteria, the Code of Professional Ethics, and the practice standards in full.
  • Publish an annual report covering registration numbers, complaints received, and outcomes reached.
  • Publish the terms of reference for each standing committee.
  • Record conditions, suspensions, and removals on the public register while they remain in effect.
  • Consult registrants and, where relevant, the public before making material changes to standards.

Policies

Governance policies — including conflict of interest, privacy and information handling, record retention, accessibility, and the schedule of delegated authority — are available on request from governance@bcact.ca.