Fresh from agreeing good practice standards for coaches in the UK, the four major coaching associations are set to develop a coach supervision policy.
“The Assocation for Coaching (AoC) has a working party looking at coaching supervision,” said chairwoman Katherine Tulpa. “And we’re looking at developing standards for that.” Once these are formulated, the AoC will share them with other coaching associations which make up the Coaching Roundtable: the International Coach Federation (ICF), the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC), and the Association of Professional, Executive, Coaching and Supervision (Apecs).
Agreed standards should be in place by the end of the year, said Tulpa.
Recently a set of professional standards were agreed by the roundtable, a development hailed by the foursome involved as “a major breakthrough in the coaching industry”.
The standards, called a Statement of Shared Professional Values, were drafted by Robin Linnecar, founding partner at executive coaching firm Praesta. They comprise seven principles which include statements on honesty, addressing client needs, confidentiality, standards of behaviour, and a pledge on continuous professional development.
ICF UK president Neil Scotton said: “This agreement is…an important first step on a journey that will benefit all professional coaches and everyone they work with.”
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Tulpa said each professional body will apply the standards to its membership. The bodies will also be responsible for making clients aware of them.
The EMCC has 1,000 members in the UK, ICF has 800, AoC about 1,700, while Apecs has about 90 accredited executive coaches.
