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DClinPsy Prep

Reference

The standards behind the answers

Explanations on this site reference these documents. They are all published free by the regulator and the professional body, and reading them directly is worth more than any summary.

HCPC Standards of conduct, performance and ethics

The regulator’s standards for everyone on the HCPC register, including practitioner psychologists. Ten short numbered sections covering service users and carers, communication, working within your competence, delegation, confidentiality, risk, raising concerns, candour, honesty, and record keeping. If you read one document before an SJT, read this one — it is short, and most rankings rest on it.

Published by the Health and Care Professions Council at hcpc-uk.org.

BPS Code of Ethics and Conduct

The professional body’s ethical framework, organised around four principles: Respect, Competence, Responsibility and Integrity. Where the HCPC standards tell you what you must do, the BPS code explains the reasoning, which is often what an SJT explanation is really testing.

Published by the British Psychological Society at bps.org.uk.

BPS Practice Guidelines

Much longer and more detailed, covering the practicalities of psychological practice across settings and populations — assessment, formulation, intervention, working with other professionals, and specific guidance for particular groups. A reference to consult rather than to read end to end.

Published by the British Psychological Society at bps.org.uk.

BPS Code of Human Research Ethics

Ethical standards for research with human participants: consent, deception, debriefing, withdrawal, confidentiality and risk. Relevant if your application or interview involves research design, and worth knowing alongside the statistics material.

Published by the British Psychological Society at bps.org.uk.

A caveat on citation detail

Explanations written for this site cite specific numbered standards, for example HCPC 1.9 — set and maintain appropriate professional boundaries. Older explanations in the bank name the document but not the section, because that is the level of detail they were written with. Adding section-level references across the whole bank is work in progress, and we would rather show you what is actually known than invent a precise-looking reference.