Calls for professional bodies to collaborate to enhance best practice have been heeded – Europe’s two largest coaching bodies have filed a common Code of Conduct for practitioners with the European Union (EU), and are urging other bodies to sign up, too.
Coaching buyers have welcomed the landmark step by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) and the International Coach Federation (ICF), which seeks to “lay ground rules, establish markers of good practice and move towards self-regulation”.
Sue Mortlock, head of board development at the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, said: “This is a very positive step forward and will certainly benefit the wider coaching profession.”
Caroline Curtis, head of talent, development and performance at Santander, said: “As a buyer of coaching, I value being able to call on a diverse set of coaches to ensure I provide my executives with options around who they work with. The Code will give me confidence and comfort around consistent quality.”
Kathy Ashton, people development manager at Leeds Metropolitan University, welcomed the initiative as “long overdue”. “I know of colleagues working in training and development who are not coaches, yet are buying in coaching services, and struggle to know who and what they should be looking for. This will give a message to the cynics that coaching is here to stay.”
Last year, coaches in the UK rejected government intervention in favour of self-regulation, calling for best practice through education and joint initiatives such as a code of ethics, according to the Coaching at Work-led Poor Practice 2010 survey carried out among its readers and members of leading bodies. Around 85 per cent of coaches called for the professional bodies jointly to develop a code of ethics (see news research, vol 5, issue 4).
The new Code establishes a set of guidelines for ethics and good practice in coaching and mentoring, covering requirements for competencies; training; CPD, and ethical standards, while the guidelines for bodies cover commitment to standards; a disciplinary and complaints procedure, and an independent board to sanction breaches.
ICF Global president Ed Modell said: “The ICF and EMCC are working hard to make sure there are safeguards in place for those interested in working with a coach or mentor. We’re both interested in advancing the profession as well as helping to protect consumers.”
Grégoire Barrowcliff, EMCC vice-president for regulatory affairs, said: “By putting our full weight jointly behind this major initiative for the profession to self-regulate, we are setting the benchmark for all professional coaches and mentors.”
Jeremy Ridge, chair of the Association of Professional Executive Coaching and Supervision (APECS), expressed the body’s support. He said the initiative “could lead to the external, independent, checks and balances typical in the best practice governance of more established professions”.
The Code has been drafted with European law in mind so it can be registered on the publicly available EU database of self-regulation initiatives in Europe, co-managed by the European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee.
Ridge, however, expressed concern that involving the EU might have “some unforeseen consequences” given “EU tendencies towards highly detailed and formal regulation”.
As Coaching at Work went to press, the Association for Coaching (AC) had pledged to sign up “at the next critical stage”, said Katherine Tulpa, AC Global CEO.
“The AC firmly believes that to enhance the reputation of our profession, it is vital that all of the leading organisations
which represent the coaching community continue to work together, to support our community in securing the long-term sustainable health and status of the profession.”
Tulpa said the Code builds on work resulting in a Statement of Shared Professional Values, released in February 2008 and completed through the UK Coaching Roundtable, of which the AC is a member.
Coaching at Work, Volume 6, Issue 5