For training providers
HICS publishes the outcomes and competencies a programme must evidence. Any provider may apply to have a programme assessed against them. There is no exception to that rule: no provider holds a reserved position, a preference or a mandatory gate.
Where this stands
Everything below is the process that will apply from the day HICS opens the route, once the Standards and Admissions Committee is constituted and a provider fee schedule is adopted.
Leave your details and HICS will notify you when the route opens.
This is not an application and creates no standing with HICS. Your details are used for that notification and to help HICS plan the opening, and for nothing else. You can ask at any time for them to be removed.
Two things you can apply for
A training programme is assessed against one of the published outcomes standards. Recognition means its graduates meet the training criterion for membership, advanced practice or supervisory authorisation, depending on the standard, and are recorded as trained in what the recognised curriculum covered: a member's fields of practice follow from the programme, not from a claim on a form.
A graduate is also spared what an applicant from an unrecognised programme must submit: a curriculum outline, the learning outcomes, the duration and the CVs of those who taught it.
An individual course is assessed against the published CPD Accreditation Criteria and allocated points towards the twelve a member earns from accredited courses each year.
A member pays HICS nothing to have an accredited course counted, and may submit a course from a provider HICS has not accredited for a flat fee.
Separate applications, separate criteria. Who decides, the fee structure and the appeal are the same for both.
The outcomes standards
Each sets out the competencies a programme must evidence, the assessment methods required and the evidence a provider must supply. All four are adopted, and HICS will publish them, so that a provider can read what is required before deciding whether to apply.
| Standard | Governs | Relevant to | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| StandardEntry Training Outcomes Standard | GovernsCounselling training bridging academic qualification to practice | Relevant toHAC entry | RuleMembership Rules 2.1 |
| StandardAdvanced Practice Outcomes Standard | GovernsRecognised advanced practice areas, currently Trauma and Play-Based Intervention | Relevant toAdvanced practice | RuleMembership Rules 2.5 |
| StandardSupervisor Training Outcomes Standard | GovernsTraining to supervise other members | Relevant toHAS | RuleMembership Rules 2.3 |
| StandardCPD Accreditation Criteria | GovernsIndividual courses and events claiming HICS CPD points | Relevant toMember CPD | RuleMembership Rules 4 |
None is linked yet. [TO CONFIRM: where each of the four standards is published; none is linked until then]
Who decides
Applications are assessed by the Standards and Admissions Committee, on which a majority unconnected to the provider under assessment decides; a member connected to that provider, or to a competitor, takes no part. The same published criteria apply to every applicant, and a refusal must identify the criterion not met (Entry Training Outcomes Standard Clause 8).
How to apply
The whole route, published so that a provider can see it before committing to it. Providers pay an application fee and an annual renewal fee, for programme recognition and for CPD accreditation alike.
01
The provider submits the programme against the relevant outcomes standard, with the application fee. For entry training, Clause 7 of the Entry Training Outcomes Standard lists what is asked for: the curriculum at a stated version, an outcome-mapping matrix, assessment samples, assessor credentials, learner-record processes and quality assurance.
Open to any provider. No prior relationship with HICS is required.
02
The Registrar confirms the submission is complete and refers it to the Standards and Admissions Committee.
Not yet set: No acknowledgement timeframe is set.
03
The Committee assesses the programme against the published standard, and against nothing else. Reasons are recorded.
Not yet set: No service standard is set for how long assessment takes.
04
Recognised, recognised with conditions, or refused, with written reasons in every case. A refusal identifies the criterion not met.
A refusal, or a condition the provider disputes, may be appealed in writing within 20 business days. Three people appointed by the Board hear the appeal, none of whom took part in the original decision and at least one of whom is external to HICS; their decision is given in writing with reasons and is the final internal decision.
A published standard without an appeal is a preference with paperwork. The appeal is what makes it a standard.
05
Recognised programmes will appear on the public Approved Training Directory at their curriculum version, with the provider named.
The directory is not yet published.
06
Recognition is not permanent. Programmes are renewed annually, for the renewal fee, against the standard current at renewal.
Recognition attaches to the curriculum version assessed. A material change, to outcomes coverage, assessment methods, the fields conferred or the practical component, is a new version: the provider declares it, and it is assessed before its graduates derive anything from it. Cosmetic changes do not create a version. Graduates are recorded against the version they completed.
Fee schedule[TO CONFIRM]No schedule has been adopted, so no figure appears, and no indicative figure either.
Where to submitaccreditation@hics.co.zaThe route opens when the Committee is constituted and a fee schedule is adopted. Leave your details above to be told when it does.
The recognition mark
Every provider whose programme is recognised will receive the mark, in one form, naming the outcomes standard the programme was recognised against:
Recognised by HICS against the [name] Outcomes Standard.
A provider may use it on its own materials, in its own branding, for as long as recognition subsists. It must be withdrawn from use immediately if recognition lapses or is withdrawn. The mark carries no indication of a provider's relationship to HICS, because there is none to indicate.
It does not make the programme a HICS programme, and the provider's materials stay in the provider's branding. HICS marks are never placed alongside a provider's marks in a shared lockup; where both must be named in one document, they are named in words, not logos (Brand and Identity Rules v1, rule 3).
The limits
Recognition by HICS is recognition against HICS's own published standards. It is not accreditation of your organisation, it confers no NQF status on any programme, and it does not make your programme a qualification.
What it means is precisely this: HICS has assessed the programme against a published standard and is satisfied it evidences the outcomes in that standard, so a graduate of it can be admitted to membership on that basis.
Humanitas Training
Humanitas Training was assessed as the founding provider before the route opened, against the adopted standards. The Standards and Admissions Committee was not yet constituted, so the Board took that decision with the founder recused; the Committee takes over from its constitution, and the same standards apply to every applicant once the route opens.