Financial Counselling Western Australia is responsible for ensuring the ongoing maintenance of the professional standards of its members, the WA financial counselling sector. These professional standards are outlined in the Financial Counselling National Standards for Membership & Accreditation (“the National Standards”), which all Western Australian financial counsellors are required to comply with to remain eligible as members of Financial Counselling WA and thereby practice as financial counsellors.
By maintaining the professional standards of the sector, Financial Counselling Western Australia aims to ensure a consistent and high-quality level of financial counselling service delivery. Strong professional standards foster confidence and trust from the people seeking financial counselling assistance, and supports financial counsellors to practice safely.
Continuous professional development is the reinforcement or acquisition of skills or knowledge relevant to the workplace.
All financial counsellors are required to participate in CPD activities in order to remain eligible for membership with their State or Territory Association, and to ensure that their employer is compliant with the conditions of the relevant regulations.
Eligible CPD activities may include training, research, reflection or innovation that develops or improves the financial counsellor’s expertise and competence. Financial Counselling Western Australia delivers a CPD program in the form of a rolling training calendar that covers a broad variety of topics to help members maintain their skills and uphold professional standards. The CPD program aligns to the National Standards.
Training topics are influenced by changes in law, needs expressed by financial counsellors, economic trends and emerging issues identified in the financial counselling sector.
There are three categories of CPD:
Accredited and Associate members are required each year to complete:
Financial Counselling Western Australia allocates CPD points to every session in the training calendar, and allocates one or more to each session, i.e. technical, skills or ethics.
CPD points can be claimed for a variety of learning activities, including live webinars, e-learning, face-to-face sessions, preparation of education sessions, research and so on. Our annual conference provides an excellent opportunity to accrue CPD points. Allocation of points is explained in the National Standards.
CPD requirements are the same for all financial counsellors, regardless of working hours. There is no pro-rata application.
Members need to maintain a record of their CPD points for membership renewal each year. Members are able to manage their attendance records and CPD points via the Member’s Portal.
Professional supervision for financial counsellors is a formal relationship between supervisor and supervisee designed to promote wellbeing, facilitate reflective practice, explore ethical issues, develop skills and foster best practice. It is also an educative and supportive function. The professional supervision relationship is not a line management relationship. The supervisee has a key role in seeking professional supervision from an approved professional supervisor, and drives the professional supervision relationship.
Professional supervision is a requirement for financial counsellors undertaking casework. Sessions should occur on a regular basis throughout the year, and can be undertaken in various modes: face-to-face, video conference, or telephone meetings between the supervisee and supervisor.
Professional supervision should provide a safe and exclusive environment for both supervisee and supervisor. This will enable the supervisee to ask questions and have discussions around any issue that is affecting their practice. Professional supervision may involve casework, emotional, personal and psychological support with a view to the supervisee seeking what is needed and the supervisor assisting with resourcing and support.
Professional supervision is a mechanism that supports workforce retention and development and manages risk for the individual financial counsellors and the employing agencies. It can be provided by a Financial Counselling Western Australia accredited financial counselling professional supervisor, or a registered psychologist or counsellor qualified to provide professional supervision to their own profession.
Accredited, Associate and Student (Intern) members are required each year to undertake:
If a financial counsellor holds associate membership and are therefore new to the sector, it is strongly encouraged that they undertake more regular supervision sessions.
A single supervision session should be no more than 2 hours long and only 50% of your supervision hours can be made up from group supervision.
More details around mandatory, best practice and acceptable standards for professional supervision are specified in the National Professional Supervision Policy and the Financial Counselling WA Guidelines for Supervision.
