The new BACP Ethical Framework is coming. Here is what private practitioners may want to start thinking about.

For the first time since 2018, the Ethical Framework that governs your practice is being rewritten. BACP has confirmed the final version will publish by Autumn 2026 and becomes mandatory three months later, which puts the effective date in early 2027. If you run a private practice, that gives you most of the rest of 2026 to start thinking about what the changes mean for how you work.

This article is not a summary of the draft. There are good summaries already out there, and the document itself is only 18 pages. What this article tries to do is talk through the practical implications for a solo or small private practice, the kinds of things you might want to look at in your contracts, your privacy notice, your supervision records, your insurance, your clinical will. Everything is drawn from the BACP draft Ethical Framework 2025 and the 2018 Framework it replaces, with specific section numbers so you can verify each point yourself.

A quick word on naming, because BACP have made it confusing. The current draft is titled the Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions 2025, but it will not actually take effect until 2027. This article refers to it as the new framework or the 2025 draft throughout.

Is any of this still up for grabs?

Reasonable question. Before you start changing anything, you want to know whether the goalposts might shift before the final version lands.

The broad direction and structure now appear relatively stable, although wording and implementation details may still change before publication. BACP ran two consultations. The first, from 2023 to 2024, was about purpose, structure, and content, and produced the draft that exists today. The second consultation, which closed on 31 January 2026, was scoped more narrowly around implementation, barriers to use, and what supporting resources members need. BACP describe the second consultation feedback as helping to shape the final version of the framework, so further refinement is still in scope.

That said, the major themes are unlikely to disappear: the emphasis on ethical reasoning, the explicit treatment of AI and digital tools, the cross-border insurance clause, the elevation of the clinical will, and the financial responsibility section. The wording may sharpen or soften, and the final practical expectations may become clearer once BACP publishes accompanying Good Practice in Action resources alongside the framework itself. But starting to think about these areas now is reasonable, and the work is unlikely to be wasted.

What is different

The new framework is shorter and more directive in tone. Obligations are written as numbered "Members must..." statements, each followed by a list of specific responsibilities. The 2018 framework was layered: a commitment to clients, a section on values, principles, and personal moral qualities, and 94 numbered points of good practice. The 2025 draft is three sections: Working ethically within relationships, Ethical principles (11 of them), and Core responsibilities (organised under four headings).

Some readers will find the shorter format clearer. Others have argued that a more principle-led structure actually increases the room for interpretation, because there are fewer prescribed points to fall back on. Both views are fair. What is clear is that the draft places much greater emphasis on being able to explain and evidence ethical reasoning, particularly where decisions are complex or high risk.

Several themes are also more visible in the new draft than they were in 2018: digital and online practice, AI tools, cross-border work, and anti-oppressive practice. None of these are entirely new ideas, but they appear in the framework more explicitly.

Things you may want to look at

Below are the areas where the draft seems to ask something different from the 2018 framework, and where it might be worth reviewing what you do today. Each item maps to a specific section of the draft.

1. Your privacy notice

Draft reference: 3.1(c) and 3.1(d)

The 2025 draft requires a "clear and accessible privacy notice that outlines how personal data are collected, used, stored and protected in accordance with data protection laws, including what rights people have in respect of these data". Section 3.1(d) goes on to require informing people of any foreseeable limitations to confidentiality, including "the use of digital storage systems, platforms or tools that may monitor or collect data".

The framework does not explicitly require you to name every individual processor or vendor. But practices that currently use vague descriptions of third-party systems ("industry-standard tools", "secure cloud providers") may want to consider becoming more specific about the platforms and processors involved. Greater specificity may also support transparency under UK GDPR, and it makes the foreseeable-limitations conversation with clients more honest.

2. Risk assessment for AI and digital tools

Draft reference: 2.1(e)

This is one of the more substantial additions in the 2025 draft. Section 2.1(e) asks members to "assess the risk of any artificial intelligence tool (AI), digital tool or online platform, before using them" and to be able to demonstrate three things:

1. Competence to use the tool or platform.
2. Understanding of how data are handled and stored, the risks to confidentiality, and how those risks have been mitigated.
3. Honesty and transparency with people about the use of AI, digital tools, or online platforms, and the benefits and risks involved.

The draft does not specify what form the assessment should take or how it should be recorded. A practical way to evidence this may be to maintain a short written assessment for each platform or tool that touches client data, covering what data passes through, where it is stored, who has access, and what you have told clients. The scope of "digital tool or online platform" is broad in the draft language, so reasonable interpretations could extend to practice management software, AI note-taking tools, and video platforms. The accompanying Good Practice in Action resources may give more guidance on exactly what counts.

3. Boundaries between personal and professional social media

Draft reference: 1.3(d)

The 2018 framework asked members to take "reasonable care" to separate personal and professional social media presence. The 2025 draft is more direct: members must "ensure there is a clear boundary between our personal and professional social media, digital accounts and communications".

If you currently run a single account that mixes practice and personal life, this is worth a look. The same applies to client communication channels. Using a personal WhatsApp, SMS, or email address for client contact may sit less comfortably alongside this wording. Practice-specific channels are the cleaner approach.

4. Where your records are stored, and under which law

Draft reference: 3.2(b) and 3.3(b)

The 2025 draft introduces clearer cross-border framing. Records must be "stored securely and comply with the data protection requirements of the country where the record is stored" (3.2b). And legal obligations "may vary depending on the jurisdictions in which we provide services" (3.3b).

If you work with clients who live abroad, or you yourself work from outside the UK for stretches of the year, it is worth being able to articulate where your data is stored and which legal regime applies to it. Non-UK hosting is not inherently problematic, as many international providers operate lawfully under UK adequacy arrangements and standard contractual clauses, but you should know which arrangements apply.

5. Fees and payment terms

Draft reference: 3.4

The new framework adds a financial responsibility section that did not exist in 2018. Members must be aware of and comply with tax obligations in the country where they provide services, and must provide clear and transparent information about fees, including when and how payments are to be made.

Most practitioners already do this informally. The draft suggests it should be written down. A working agreement that sets out the session fee, when invoices are issued, acceptable payment methods, late payment terms, and the cancellation policy is a reasonable starting point.

This sits alongside the wider tax expectation. For UK sole traders, that includes Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, which is being phased in from April 2026 for those with self-employment income above £50,000.

6. Insurance for cross-border work

Draft reference: 4.2(a)(ii)

The 2025 draft extends the insurance requirement to "all aspects of our cross-border work in all the countries in which our professional services are delivered and in which we and the people using our services live, unless prior BACP approval for non-compliance has been granted".

Insurance for cross-border practice is genuinely complicated, involving governing law, practitioner location, client location, regulatory recognition, and individual insurer exclusions. The framework does not resolve those questions. What it does is make the obligation to think about them explicit. The practical step is to confirm with your insurer whether your policy covers the jurisdictions in which you and your clients are located, and to keep that confirmation on file.

7. Clinical will

Draft reference: 4.5(e)

The 2018 framework mentioned this at point 42. The 2025 draft elevates it to a core responsibility and is more explicit: members must "ensure we have executed a clinical will and appointed an executor who, bound by confidentiality, can communicate with clients and service users if we are too ill to contact them ourselves, or if we die".

If you do not have one in place, this is a good moment to look at it. The executor is usually a trusted colleague or supervisor who has agreed in writing to take on the role, with a confidentiality agreement, secure access to a current client list, and clear instructions on how to make contact. BACP, the BPC, and several supervision networks publish templates.

8. Evidencing ethical reasoning

Draft reference: Working ethically within relationships; 1.4(d)

The draft places much greater emphasis on being able to explain and evidence ethical reasoning, particularly where decisions are complex or high risk. The "rationale for ethical decision-making" section sets out six questions a rationale might cover, and section 1.4(d) requires members to be able to demonstrate "our ethical rationale and reasoning, including the steps we have taken to resolve the dilemmas or challenges".

Importantly, the draft does not require a formal written rationale answering all six questions for every ethical decision. The relevant text says "there may also be occasions when such a rationale is required by others, it must be recorded in a way that is consistent with good practice around record keeping". The expectation is that ethical reasoning can be articulated and, where appropriate, evidenced, particularly for significant or contested decisions. Supervision notes and case notes are natural places for that record.

9. Working agreement and intake materials

Draft reference: 1.2(b), with content drawn from several other sections

Several of the items above touch the working agreement. Section 1.2(b) requires members to "provide people with a record of our working agreement". The areas that the draft suggests should be reflected somewhere accessible to clients include:

• Fee, payment terms, and cancellation policy (3.4)
• How data is handled, in the privacy notice (3.1c, 3.1d)
• Foreseeable limits to confidentiality, including digital storage and AI tools (3.1d)
• Use of AI, digital tools, or online platforms (2.1e iii)
• Access to safeguarding policy details (2.4b)
• Breaks and endings, and the existence of a clinical will arrangement (4.5)

Whether all of this sits in a single working agreement or is split between a working agreement and a privacy notice is a matter of preference. A short standalone privacy notice that the agreement references is one workable approach.

10. A supervision session as audit

Draft reference: 4.3 and 1.4(c)

Supervision is a strong thread through the new framework. One practical idea is to block out a single supervision session to walk through your current contracts, privacy notice, digital tool use, insurance arrangements, and clinical will against the draft. It is the kind of audit that is easier to do collaboratively than alone.

How practice systems may help

Many of these changes are less about adopting entirely new practices and more about being able to evidence existing ones consistently. For practitioners using digital systems, the practical question becomes whether those systems make that easier or harder.

In My-Therapy-Suite, several of these areas are built into the way records, agreements, and data handling are structured:

Data handling and storage

Agreements and intake

Audit trails and records

Financial responsibility

Continuity of care

None of this removes the need to do the underlying work. No practice management platform can make ethical decisions on your behalf, and using one does not remove the need for supervision, professional judgement, or independent legal advice where appropriate. What a system like this can do is reduce the friction in producing the evidence that good practice is happening.

Where to start

There is no need to rush. You have the rest of 2026 and the early part of 2027. A reasonable sequence:

1. Read the draft framework end to end. It is short, around 18 pages.
2. Look at the digital tools you currently use and what you can say about how they handle data.
3. Review your privacy notice and working agreement against the draft.
4. Confirm your insurance position for the jurisdictions you actually work in.
5. Put a clinical will in place if you do not already have one.
6. Book a supervision session to walk through the above.

None of these is technically difficult. The work is in being thorough, getting things on paper, and being able to point to the record if anyone asks.