A VOLUNTARY CODE OF ORGANISATIONAL ETHICS
Good care begins with how we choose to behave.
The Independent Mental Healthcare Ethical Practice Charter is a proposed voluntary framework for independent mental healthcare organisations committed to putting 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 through consultation with the sector.
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 proposed Charter does not prescribe a single model of care. It sets out 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.
2. Referral Integrity
No payments, commissions or financial inducements for referrals. Trusted reciprocal referral relationships are legitimate when based on clinical confidence, complementary expertise, shared professional values and patient benefit.
3. Honest Communication
Marketing and public communications should be accurate, balanced and evidence-informed.
4. Collaboration
Providers should work constructively with colleagues and other organisations where collaboration benefits clients.
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.
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 Maryam Meddin, CEO of The Soke: if the sector believed there was a gap, why not address some of it ourselves through voluntary standards? The challenge was simple: could the independent sector agree some basic standards of organisational behaviour and return to Masters a year later having actually done something about it.
“Why don't we do something about it ourselves?”
A year later, with the support of The Masters Conference, Maryam 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.
INITIATING ORGANISATIONS
Starting together
The Soke and Cardinal Clinic are the two organisations initiating this consultation, sharing a belief that competition and collaboration are not mutually exclusive.
The intention is not for the Charter to belong to either organisation. Its credibility will depend on the wider profession helping to shape it.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Help shape what’s next
We are inviting independent mental healthcare organisations and other relevant stakeholders to help test and refine the proposed Charter before its final form is agreed.
We want to hear what you think of the six principles, what may be missing, how they should translate into practice, and what would make the Charter credible, useful and proportionate.
Organisations participating in the consultation will also have the opportunity to consider whether they may wish to become Founding Signatories once the Charter has been finalised.
Registering your interest does not commit you or your organisation to signing the Charter.