A VOLUNTARY CODE OF ORGANISATIONAL ETHICS
Standards we choose to stand behind
The Independent Mental Healthcare Ethical Practice Charter is a voluntary commitment by independent mental healthcare organisations to put client welfare, integrity and responsible organisational conduct at the heart of how they work.
Voluntary
Designed to complement — not replace — regulation.
Practical
Focused on everyday organisational decisions that affect clients.
Sector-led
A starting point to be shaped with Founding Signatories.
WHY IT MATTERS
Healthcare is founded on trust.
Clinical ethics guides clinicians. Organisational ethics asks how institutions behave — particularly where clinical judgement, commercial realities and patient interests intersect.
Trust begins before the first clinical appointment. It is shaped by the information an organisation provides, the way enquiries are handled, the integrity of referral relationships, the transparency of fees and the willingness to recommend another provider when that is genuinely in the client's best interests.
The Charter does not prescribe a single model of care. It articulates a small number of shared principles intended to strengthen confidence in independent mental healthcare and support ethical leadership across the sector.
THE CHARTER
Six Principles
Straightforward commitments that independent mental healthcare organisations should be able to understand, discuss and stand behind publicly.
1. Client Welfare First
Organisational decisions should place the interests of those seeking care above organisational interests.
3. Honest Communication
Marketing and public communications should be accurate, balanced and evidence-informed.
5. Appropriate Care
Organisations should support onward referral, transfer or discharge when another service is better placed to help, or care is no longer appropriate.
2. Referral Integrity
No payments, commissions or financial inducements for referrals. Trusted referral relationships should be based on clinical confidence, shared standards and patient benefit
4. Collaboration
Providers should work constructively with colleagues and other organisations where collaboration benefits clients.
6. Transparency & Accountability
Signatories should review their practices against these principles and commit to continuous improvement.
WHERE IT BEGAN
From discussion to action.
The idea for the Charter began at the Masters Conference in Oxford.
During a panel discussion on the shortage of regulation around non-clinical organisational behaviour in mental healthcare, a question was put from the audience: if the sector believed there was a gap, why not address some of it ourselves through voluntary standards?
“Why don't we do something about it ourselves?”
A year later, with the support of Masters, The Soke and The Cardinal Clinic returned to Oxford with a first version of the Charter — not as a finished system, but as a practical starting point for the sector to develop together.
The Charter does not prescribe a single model of care. It articulates a small number of shared principles intended to strengthen confidence in independent mental healthcare and support ethical leadership across the sector.
FOUNDING ORGANISATIONS
Starting together
The Soke and Cardinal Clinic are the first signatories. The intention is not for the Charter to belong to two organisations, but to be shaped by the wider profession.
FOUNDING SIGNATORIES
Help shape what’s next
This is a starting point, not a finished product. We are inviting independent mental healthcare organisations to review the Charter, challenge it, identify what is missing and help determine how these principles should work in practice.