Clinical governance
Who our therapists are, how we check them, and who holds the data
This is the first question every organisation asks us, so here is the full answer on one page. It is written to be forwarded to your legal, HR or compliance team without anyone having to edit it first.
Professional registration
Every therapist on the MatchyMatch panel holds current registration with a recognised UK professional body. The majority are registered with BACP. The rest are registered with UKCP, NCPS, HCPC or BPS. Registration numbers are available for verification, and the person receiving therapy can see the registration details of the therapist they have chosen.
The bodies are not interchangeable, and it is worth knowing what each one signifies.
The largest professional body for counsellors and psychotherapists in the UK. Members work to the BACP Ethical Framework and are subject to its professional conduct procedures. Most of our panel is registered here.
Check the registerThe main body for psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors, with training requirements that are typically longer and more depth-oriented. Holds a register accredited by the Professional Standards Authority.
Check the registerA professional body for counsellors and psychotherapists holding a Professional Standards Authority accredited register, with its own code of ethics and complaints procedure.
Check the registerA statutory regulator. Practitioner psychologist titles, including counselling and clinical psychologist, are protected by law and can only be used by people on the HCPC register.
Check the registerThe professional body for psychologists in the UK. Chartered membership indicates a recognised standard of psychological training, alongside HCPC registration where a protected title is used.
Check the registerThe thing most buyers do not know about UK therapy
Counsellor and psychotherapist are not protected titles
In the UK, anyone may legally describe themselves as a counsellor or a psychotherapist. There is no statutory register for those titles. Titles such as practitioner psychologist, clinical psychologist and counselling psychologist are protected by law and restricted to people on the HCPC register.
This is why "our therapists are qualified" is a meaningless sentence from any provider, including us, unless it is followed by a named register and a number you can check. Ask every provider you are considering which register each practitioner is on, and whether their indemnity insurance is current. If the answer is vague, that is the answer.
Professional indemnity insurance
Every therapist on the panel holds current, paid professional indemnity insurance covering psychotherapy practice. We verify this at onboarding rather than taking it on trust, and a therapist whose cover lapses does not carry on seeing clients through us.
Therapists on the panel work as independent practitioners rather than as our employees. Their clinical work is their professional responsibility, carried on their own registration and their own insurance, which is the ordinary arrangement in UK private practice.
How we vet people
- An onboarding video call with a person. Not a form. We speak to every therapist before they can see a client.
- Identity verified on that call.
- Registration verified against the relevant public register, not against a screenshot.
- Indemnity insurance verified as current and covering the practice they are doing.
- Specialisms and modalities recorded so that matching is based on what someone actually works with, rather than on who is free.
You can see the practitioners this produces on the public therapist directory. Nothing about the corporate programmes changes this process. The panel is the same panel.
Data protection: who holds what
Bookings and session records are special category health data under the UK GDPR, a category the ICO treats as requiring particular care because of the harm its disclosure can cause.
On every organisational programme we run, that data sits with MatchyMatch. It does not sit inside the sponsoring organisation systems, and the sponsoring organisation does not receive it.
There are two reasons, and both matter.
- It keeps you out of a position you do not want to be in. An organisation that holds mental health records about its own customers or staff has taken on a controllership obligation, and if any of those people are later in dispute with it, that becomes a genuinely uncomfortable place to stand.
- It is the reason the therapy works. Support that is visibly independent of the organisation paying for it is the only kind people trust enough to use honestly. Route it through your systems and the take-up collapses, whatever the privacy notice says.
Reference: ICO guidance on special category data under the UK GDPR. Our full privacy policy applies to everyone using the platform, including people referred through an organisational programme.
Confidentiality: what a sponsor never receives
The boundary, stated once and not negotiable
A sponsoring employer or company receives anonymised aggregate reporting only: sessions offered, sessions taken up, sessions delivered.
It never receives names, attendance lists, session notes, summaries of content, clinical assessments, or anything from which an individual could be identified by inference.
This is the same confidentiality that applies to any client on the platform. Registered therapists work within the ethical framework of their professional body, which sets confidentiality expectations independently of whoever is paying.
The limits are the ordinary clinical ones, and they run to the therapist professional judgement, not to the sponsor. Where a therapist believes there is a serious risk to life, they act under their own professional obligations, as they would with any client in any setting. A sponsor does not get told about it, and a sponsor cannot ask to be.
Reference: BACP Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions
What this page does not claim
Nothing here is legal advice to your organisation, and none of it should be read as a statement about your obligations. You will want your own advisers to look at any programme you fund.
We also do not claim that funding therapy reduces your liability or protects you from claims. It does not do either of those things. It gives people who are struggling access to a registered therapist, which is a good enough reason on its own.
The governance questions we get asked
Every therapist on the panel holds current registration with a UK professional body. Most are registered with BACP, with the remainder registered with UKCP, NCPS, HCPC or BPS. All hold current, paid professional indemnity insurance for psychotherapy practice. Registration numbers are available for verification, and a client can see the registration of the therapist they choose.
Something here you need to check?
If your compliance or legal team has a question this page does not answer, send it over. We would rather answer it now than discover it halfway through a programme.
Every enquiry gets a reply from a person within 2 hours, 8am to 8pm UK time, seven days a week.
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The overview page: what we offer, how quickly we can start, and who each programme is for.