BPS Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol) — separate, non-statutory, routinely conflated

Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol) is a membership grade of the British Psychological Society (BPS) — a learned society, not a regulator. It is voluntary and is not the legal requirement to practise: the legal requirement to use a protected title is HCPC registration, and CPsychol is a professional-standing marker that runs alongside it. The two are independent — many HCPC-registered psychologists are also BPS Chartered (the same training often confers eligibility for both), but only HCPC registration is the statutory one. A person can be CPsychol without being the right thing for a given protected role, and vice versa. Never treat “Chartered Psychologist” as a substitute for an HCPC register check — this conflation is the second-biggest trap after the bare-word “psychologist.”