Phoebe E Plant

Introduction

Phoebe E Plant is an arts therapist whose name stood on the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) register under number AS017200. On 10 August 2026, at the close of a substantive hearing that had begun on 13 July 2026, a Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS) panel found her fitness to practise impaired and ordered her struck off the register. The panel found a sustained pattern of serious misconduct affecting nine families over about sixteen months. The findings included dishonestly retaining payments for services not provided, poor communication, misleading membership claims on the British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT), practising and using a protected title while suspended, failing to obtain informed consent, and recommending medication and supplements beyond her scope. Some individual allegations were not proved. The panel found no evidence of meaningful insight, remorse or remediation and a continuing repetition risk.

Background Information

The published record identifies Plant only as an arts therapist registered with the HCPC as AS017200. It does not name any employer or employing organisation, does not say where she practised, and does not describe how the nine families came to engage her services. Her regulatory history did not begin with the 2026 substantive hearing: an interim suspension had been made on 8 March 2024, and at an interim orders hearing on 25 February 2026 a Conduct and Competence Committee panel confirmed it — the published order section states that the suspension “made on 8 March 2024 is confirmed”. The record notes that such an interim order is “a precautionary restriction imposed before the regulator’s investigation is complete”, not a finding of fault.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. The findings below come from an HCPTS panel determination, which decides allegations on the balance of probabilities. They are regulatory findings, not criminal convictions. Several particulars were not proved, among them the eye-rolling allegation, several specified communication failures, one alleged appointment cancellation and the retention of payment for an EHCP proposal.

The allegations before the panel concerned missed or delayed therapy sessions, reports not provided, poor communication, dishonest retention of payments, consent and scope-of-practice failures, false claims of professional-association membership, and practice and use of a protected title during interim suspension. The hearing ran from 13 July to 10 August 2026, and the decision date was 10 August 2026.

The panel found “a sustained pattern of serious misconduct affecting nine families over about sixteen months”. This included dishonestly retaining payments for services not provided — with “retention of the DLA-report payment was proved” while retention of payment for an EHCP proposal was not — poor communication, misleading BAAT membership claims, practising and using a protected title while suspended, failing to obtain informed consent, and recommending medication and supplements beyond scope. On the other side of the ledger, allegations that were not proved included eye-rolling, several specified communication failures and one alleged appointment cancellation. The panel found impairment on both personal and public components.

On mitigation, the panel recorded that “The Registrant has not appeared before the HCPC before” and that “There is some limited evidence that her clinical practice as an Arts Therapist can be good.” Against that stood its conclusion that there was “no evidence of meaningful insight, remorse or remediation” and “a continuing repetition risk”, which is why it “ordered striking off from the order’s operative date and a separate interim suspension of up to 18 months for the appeal period”.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The published record contains no press coverage of the hearing and no public statements from Plant, the families involved or any professional body — the only recorded voice is the panel’s own determination. The concrete consequences are the striking-off order and the separate interim suspension covering the appeal period. MedicWatch, which maintains the practitioner-facing record of the decision, aggregates regulator outcomes and states it does not editorialise the regulator’s findings.

Current Status

Plant is struck off the HCPC register, the erasure having been decided on 10 August 2026. The striking-off direction takes effect from the order’s operative date, and a separate interim suspension of up to 18 months covers the appeal period; the record does not state that any appeal has been brought. Before the substantive hearing, the interim suspension made on 8 March 2024 had been confirmed on 25 February 2026 at an interim orders hearing of the Conduct and Competence Committee. Her MedicWatch profile records her registration status as not yet verified and directs readers to the official HCPC register for current status.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Striking off ends Plant’s ability to practise as an HCPC-registered arts therapist in the UK, and to use the protected title, unless a future restoration application succeeds. The panel’s findings — dishonesty in retaining payments for services not provided, misleading claims about BAAT membership, practice during interim suspension, and failures affecting nine families over about sixteen months — record why it considered the risk of repetition continuing and insight, remorse and remediation absent. The published record contains no information about her circumstances beyond the case, and nothing on this page should be read as going beyond it.

Sources

• *MedicWatch, “Arts therapist struck off after dishonesty and repeated failings affecting nine families”, 10 August 2026 — source
• *MedicWatch, “Phoebe E Plant — Interim restrictions imposed · 25 February 2026” — source
• *MedicWatch, “Phoebe E Plant — Struck off the register | Health and Care Professions Council AS017200” — source