Adherence to the psychotherapy training requirements in the new training environment

The Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB) has now taken over from the College the responsibility of approving psychiatric training. One of the major concerns for College approval teams was the delivery of psychotherapy training according to College training requirements (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2001). It is uncertain whether the PMETB will be able or willing to investigate the quality of psychotherapy training to the same standard as the College approval teams.

We audited the experience of trainees in South Durham and Teesside in early 2004 and again in late 2005, before and after a College approval visit. Changes were made to the provision of psychotherapy training in the light of the approval visit report. Protected time for psychotherapy training was provided and the results showed improvements in participation in the case discussion group and in access to supervised cases, supporting the findings of Janmohamed et al (2004).

The new competency-based core curriculum for specialist training in psychiatry (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2006) does not permit the incorporation of the psychotherapy training requirements, as it focuses on the achievement of competencies, such as ‘fully manages the treatment of patients via… basic psychotherapeutic techniques’, rather than the experiences required to acquire the competencies. There is a risk that trainees will place less importance on the development of psychotherapeutic skills and that the system of training approval will not highlight where College standards are not being met. One way of reducing this risk will be for training schemes to regularly audit their psychotherapy training through surveys of trainees' experience.