If help cannot wait, use urgent mental-health help. A future private appointment is not an emergency plan.
It is their decision
A routine private assessment or treatment normally needs the person’s agreement. Offering to pay does not let you decide for an adult who can make that decision. Ask whether they want help finding someone, booking or attending. If they decline, you can still seek advice about your concerns. See consent, refusal and urgent exceptions.
Check who will see them
Ask for the practitioner’s full name, professional title and registration details. Check the actual register entry, including any restrictions, rather than relying on a website logo.
- Psychiatrist: check their registration and licence to practise on the GMC register. You can also check the psychiatry specialty shown on their Specialist Register entry.
- Clinical or counselling psychologist: check the HCPC register under “Practitioner psychologist” and read the registration details.
- Counsellor or psychotherapist: look for someone listed on a register accredited by the Professional Standards Authority. The Authority accredits registers, not individual practitioners directly.
Ask about their experience with this difficulty and with people of the person’s age. Registration does not tell you whether this particular service is the right fit.
Questions before paying
- What will the assessment or treatment involve, and what happens afterwards?
- What will the full course of care cost, including follow-up appointments, reports, tests, prescriptions and medicines?
- What are the cancellation charges, and what happens if we cannot afford to continue?
- How and when will you review whether this is helping?
- Who do we contact between appointments, and how do we raise a concern about the service?
Ask for the arrangements and costs in writing. You can set a limit on what you can afford to contribute.
Agree who will provide follow-up
Before booking, ask how the private clinician will work with their GP or NHS team, with appropriate consent. Ask who will prescribe, arrange monitoring, explain results and respond to problems.
Do not assume the GP will take over prescriptions or follow-up after a private assessment. Shared care needs agreement from everyone involved, including the person receiving care. Ask both services what they can agree to, and what continuing private care would cost if no arrangement is made.
How NHS mental-health care works · If services are not responding
Agree your involvement
Ask what they want you to help with and what information they are comfortable sharing. Paying for appointments does not automatically give you access to their records or sessions. Ask the practitioner to explain confidentiality, its limits and how you can pass on concerns.
Before the first appointment ends, check the next step, who to contact between appointments and what to do if they become more unwell. You can use meeting notes to prepare questions and record what is agreed.
Sources and how this guide was written
The questions are practical prompts written for this guide, informed by professional guidance; they are not a clinical checklist.
- GMC: specialist registration; HCPC register; Professional Standards Authority: checking practitioners.
- GMC: explaining fees; BACP: therapy arrangements and confidentiality.
- GMC: shared care; NHS: private referrals and GP responsibility.
- NHS: consent to treatment. See our linked consent guide for UK nation differences and exceptions.
Last full source check: 7 October 2026
Independent information, not a medical or crisis service. This guidance has not been clinically reviewed. How we use sources.