As many of our supporters will know, the Professional Standards Authority has imposed strict conditions on the Society of Homeopaths as part of their most recent annual accreditation of the homeopathic membership organisation as an Accredited Voluntary Register.

Those conditions include forbidding registrants of the Society of Homeopaths from practising CEASE therapy – an ineffective autism ‘cure’ aimed at children which is based on anti-vaccination misinformation – and from making any claims regarding vaccination.

We at the Good Thinking Society welcome these conditions, having spent the last few years raising concerns over the Society of Homeopaths’ unwillingness or inability to prevent their registrants from claiming to cure autism. In June 2019, we filed a Judicial Review challenging the PSA’s 2019 reaccreditation of the Society of Homeopaths, given that the PSA had acknowledged that CEASE therapy was potentially harmful and that it conflicted with NHS advice regarding vaccinations against potentially life-threatening conditions. In that 2019 reaccreditation, the PSA did not require, or even recommend, that the Society of Homeopaths prevent their members from offering CEASE therapy.

We challenged the decision because the measures recommended by the PSA in 2019 did not come close to mitigating the potential harms associated with CEASE therapy, despite there being evidence that Society of Homeopaths registrants continued to practice CEASE therapy. We also argued that the PSA had failed to ask the Society of Homeopaths how many of its registrants practised CEASE therapy, and failed to verify information provided to them (some of which we had found to be inaccurate), before coming to their decision. Further, we felt that the PSA had not properly taken account of the potential equality implications of its decision, given that CEASE therapy is aimed at autistic people, and autistic children in particular. 

With that in mind, we were very pleased to see that strict conditions have now been placed upon the Society of Homeopaths, binding them to take action to prevent their registrants from making autism-‘cure’ claims or from spreading anti-vaccination misinformation. We are encouraged to see that the PSA have come to accept that nothing short of an outright ban on CEASE therapy is sufficient to protect the public, and that they also took into account the equality implications of accrediting the Society of Homeopaths whilst its members practice CEASE therapy.

We are therefore happy to withdraw our legal challenge to the 2019 decision. 

However, while putting in place a ban on CEASE therapy is obviously a great step forward, any prohibition is meaningless unless it is adhered to, and disciplinary action is taken by the Society of Homeopaths against those registrants who ignore it. We will therefore be paying close attention over the coming year, to ensure that registrants of the Society of Homeopaths do not continue to offer CEASE therapy or act in breach of any of the other conditions imposed upon the Society by the PSA. If we do find registrants acting in breach, we will raise our concerns with the Society of Homeopaths, and the PSA as necessary – as we did prior to the 2019 reaccreditation. We trust that, this time, our concerns will be taken seriously, and that the need for further legal action can be avoided in the future.

We’d like to offer our thanks to everyone who supported us on this project, which started over three years ago, and to Professor Steve Powis of NHS England and Carol Povey of the National Autistic Society, for the statements they submitted in support of our claim. We would also like to give special thanks to Salima Budhani at Bindmans LLP, and Jason Pobjoy and Hollie Higgins at Blackstone Chambers for their invaluable legal counsel.

We’d like to thank CrowdJustice for coordinating our fundraising activities, and to the 289 people who donated money to back our cause. We will be writing to them next week to explain the impact that their donation has made.

Meanwhile, we invite our supporters to let us know if they find any instances of Society of Homeopaths registrants offering CEASE therapy, offering dietary supplements, sharing anti-vaccine misinformation or claiming to be able to cure any named conditions, which we will then be able to pass on.  The Society of Homeopaths has three months to get its house in order, to satisfy the PSA that it has complied with the conditions relating to CEASE therapy and vaccination.  The PSA will then make an assessment as to whether the conditions have been met, and only if they have been met will the reaccreditation be granted.  Evidence of dangerous misinformation or inappropriate claims made by Society of Homeopaths registrants after 13 May 2020 will show that the conditions have not been met which ought to trigger appropriate action by the PSA.

The latest accreditation of the Society of Homeopaths includes the following conditions:

The Society of Homeopaths must:

1. make its position statements clear that registrants must not practise or advertise adjunctive therapies that are incompatible with Society registration. Specific reference must be made to the Society’s position forbidding the practice of CEASE, and dietary/nutritional supplements. This must be submitted to the Authority for review and published within three months
2. make its position statements clear that registrants’ scope of practice does not allow registrants, whether acting in a professional or public capacity, to provide advice on vaccination or offer or provide homeopathy as an alternative to vaccination for the prevention of serious infectious diseases. Registrants should direct service users to NHS and other public health sources, for example, their GP or public health departments. Revised statements must be submitted to the Authority for review and published within three months
3. provide quarterly reports of its monitoring to ensure that within the following 12 months all registrant websites comply with its updated position statements (as referred to in part a above)
4. complete and make available to the public its guidance on adjunctive/supplementary therapies and inform the Authority how it will promote compliance with that guidance.

We'll be posting something very soon regarding the conclusion of our Judicial Review of the PSA accreditation of homeopathy. Stay tuned.

The Professional Standards Authority have today announced their decision to reaccredit the Society of Homeopaths for 2020, subject to a number of conditions. This follows their 2019 decision to reaccredit the Society – a decision we believe was unlawful, which is why we elected to challenge that reaccreditation via Judicial Review.

As our legal challenge to the 2019 decision is due to be heard by the High Court on March 18th, we need to take some time to carefully examine this new reaccreditation decision, and to discuss with our legal team what implications it may have for our case.

Once we will have done so, we will be able to issue a further update.

Our Judicial Review over PSA reaccreditation of Society of Homeopaths granted permission by High Court. Mr Justice Freedman has granted permission for Our Judicial Review claim to be heard in full.  

We've posted further details and reactions on our website, here:

https://goodthinkingsociety.org/judicial-review-over-psa-reaccreditation-of-society-of-homeopaths-granted-permission-by-high-court/ 

Plus this development has been covered in the Times and the Guardian today:

• Homeopaths put children at risk with autism ‘cure’
• The Times view on homeopaths who claim to cure autism: Phoney Medicine
• Health body faces legal action amid concerns over autism ‘cure’

We’d like to update our supporters with the latest progress in our case: We have now received the PSA’s summary response to our claim, and it is perhaps not a surprise to hear that they intend to continue defending their decision to accredit the Society of Homeopaths, even as registered homeopaths continue to practice CEASE therapy.

The PSA has said that they have a very limited role in accrediting organisations such as the Society – which is focused on governance and administration. We have responded to reiterate that when deciding whether to accredit the PSA is obliged to consider whether organisations such as the Society include individuals who offer harmful and discriminatory therapies, such as CEASE therapy. This is extremely important because PSA accreditation provides a stamp of respectability and endorsement which – in the PSA’s own words – enables the public to “avoid bad apples”. In fact, the PSA’s stamp of approval is likely to be directing more desperate parents towards CEASE therapy which is precisely the opposite of what should be happening.

The next stage is that a judge will look at both of our arguments, and will decide whether a Judicial Review on this matter is “arguable”. If so, the PSA will provide a detailed response to our claim, which we can respond to, and then we will receive a court date.

We are hoping for more news in September.

We'd like to say a huge thank you to Mark Ainsworth in St Albans for his £700 donation to our Judicial Review fund (in relation to homeopaths claiming to ‘cure’ autism in children). 

The donation does not show on our Crowd Justice page, as Mark made the donation direct to Good Thinking. But you can imagine the pot with an extra £700 on top, thanks to Mark!

We'd like to say a big thanks to everyone who attended MSSX, the 10th birthday party of the Merseyside Skeptics Society, for helping to raise £260 for our campaign!

Thank you to everyone who has donated to our legal fees so far, and to everyone who has shared information about our case. Some of our expert supporters would like to share with you why they believe this case is so important:

Emma Dalmayne, autism right campaigner: “We as autistic people, are bombarded with the discriminatory rhetoric that we are in need of a cure. CEASE is not a cure for our neurological difference, and it is proven to be extremely harmful. The PSA should not endorse the Society of Homeopaths while their members offer this harmful therapy. The Society of Homeopaths are at present allowing their members to mislead the public, which in turn puts vulnerable autistic children in harm’s way.”

Professor Edzard Ernst, Professor of Complementary Medicine: "The assumptions of CEASE therapy fly in the face of science. There is also no clinical evidence that CEASE therapy is effective in curing autism or alleviating its symptoms. By misleading desperate individuals that CEASE therapy works, homeopaths can do untold harm."

Please continue to share details of our case with your friends and on social media.