How we accredit courses

The Association for Family and Systemic Psychotherapy (AFSP) is the leading accreditation body for courses in family psychotherapy and systemic practice.

What’s the AFSP process for accrediting courses?

1. Courses must run 1 cohort of trainees before applying for accreditation. Then they submit a comprehensive application for us to consider against the frameworks mentioned below.
2. Providers present the course to our course accreditation and development committee.
3. A committee member will usually visit the training provider to make a decision about whether the course receives AFSP accreditation.

How does AFSP assess foundation, intermediate and qualifying level training?

Training to become a qualified family and systemic psychotherapist is typically completed through a 4-year masters qualification. This training is structured across foundation, intermediate and qualifying levels. You can find out more about this on our Routes to training page.

We use The Blue Book 4^th edition (PDF, 235KB) as a framework to assess this training for accreditation.

For example, we check that all courses:

• Promote anti-oppressive practice
• Include a curriculum that reflects theory, practice and research and is relevant to current practice in the public and voluntary sectors
• Have a majority of teaching staff who are registered, or eligible for registration, as family and systemic psychotherapists with UKCP
• Appoint a qualified family and systemic psychotherapist as an external examiner or moderator to assure marking standards

How does AFSP assess supervision level training?

We use The Red Book 3^rd edition (PDF, 219KB) as a framework to assess supervision level training.

For example, this framework outlines that:

• Practitioners must understand their responsibilities in relation to current safeguarding legislation and be competent in addressing safeguarding and risk in supervision.
• Course teachers should seek appropriate supervision of their supervision and teaching.
• Course content should include research on systemic/family therapy and systemic supervision.

How does AFSP continue to monitor the quality of courses?

We accredit courses for different periods of time, depending on what level they are, with most accreditations lasting 5 years. Providers must then apply for reaccreditation by submitting updated documentation and responding to our questions about the training.

A second reaccreditation (after a further 5 years) includes a visit from an AFSP representative.

We also review courses annually in January. This involves collecting updated information, such as how many students have enrolled and dropped out, new staff members and changes in the course structure.