10 October 2023
Accreditation has been a core part of PACFA’s commitment to quality training for many years. At its September meeting, the Board accepted a range of recommendations which will ensure that PACFA continues to support high quality counselling and psychotherapy training into the future.
The recommendations complete a review of PACFA’s accreditation function undertaken in the first half of 2023. The review considered information from the Education Program Accreditation Committee (EPAC), training providers and benchmarks for allied health training. It was led by Nghi Robinson, PACFA’s Head of Education, who brings a wealth of knowledge and extensive experience in process and continuous improvement to her role at PACFA. Prior to joining the team, Nghi was the Accreditation Manager at the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council and has held senior roles at the Australian Dental Council and the Australia and New Zealand School of Government.
At the September meeting, the PACFA Board accepted all recommendations listed in the review. As a result the following will occur:
- All current accreditation periods due to expire within the next 12 months will be extended for 12 months to enable assessment against an updated set of Accreditation Standards, while specialist accreditation functions and CPD will continue as per usual. Applications that are already in progress will be assessed as planned.
- The current EPAC will be dissolved, and a new Accreditation Standards Committee will be established that existing EPAC members are invited to join. A new terms of reference document will be established for the new committee, and a call for expressions of interest for appointments to the new committee will be issued.
- A new accreditation process will be designed and implemented by the Head of Education with the Board’s support. This will include the development of new policies, procedures, and guidelines, and will establish clear policies for recruitment, selection, training, and review of assessors.
- Tools and frameworks to enhance systems and processes for continuous monitoring and improvement of accreditation will be developed and implemented.
- A rigorous, fair and responsive complaints, reviews and appeals process for accreditation will be developed.
Members with expertise in education or accreditation are encouraged to keep an eye on future editions of eNews, for an invitation for EOIs to join the new Accreditation Standards Committee.
To view PACFA’s accredited Core Education Programs, please click here.
Please feel free to browse our list of advanced specialist training, and click here to view upcoming CPD events.