BRITISH ASSOCIATION OF PLAY THERAPISTS LTD
MEETING OF BOARD DIRECTORS
LCA
18th MARCH 2017
12.30 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Minutes
Present
Ruth Lazarus –Chair
Jenny Harrison – Treasurer
Helen Gedge – T & E Chair
Andrew O’Mahony – Lay Member
Sarah Hickson – Student Rep
Judith James – Company Secretary
Jo Hill – Wales Rep
Apologies
Harriet Armstrong – Vice Chair
Sue Elmer – Research
Clare Carbis – Wales Rep
Audrey Lee - Membership
Suzy Anderson– Lay Member
Attending:
Janet Steel
Hilary Dumbrill – Comms & PR
Chair welcomed Hilary Dumbrill to the meeting as Comms & PR representative.
1. MINUTES:
From March 2017 meeting – accepted and signed, subject to couple of typo’s.
2. MATTERS ARISING:
PTUK – Ruth & Harriet had the Skype meeting in early April. It was agreed that these conversations will happen on a regular basis in order to keep communication open between the 2 Organisations.
i-Cloud – still o/s JS to follow up
Action: JS
International – RL has emailed Teresa Fraser, awaiting a reply.
Action: RL
Sample Contracts: Ruth has details of these and will follow up.
Action: RL
Membership – Portfolio streamlining – Ruth & Audrey to meet to review this.
Action: RL/AL
3. CHAIRS UPDATE:
PSA – Ruth pleased to confirm that we have full re-accreditation. PSA have advised that there will be changes to Re-accreditation process RL/JS will review this.
Action: RL/JS
PSA Conference 8th May – Ruth & JS attending offered to members but no takers. The collaborative group was asked to put together a workshop about being accredited – Ruth has provided some information for this.
Hilary questioned how we use email tc to advise members on such things as PSA Updates. Currently these are added to the website and links to important documents etc are added and put on Facebook, we email more important issued directly – Hilary asked if we had looked at use of RSS feeds?
JS noted that info going onto Facebook should also be sent to Hilary for the Twitter feed.
Action: JS
Mediation – Linda has been progressing this and has details CV etc of the person who will be our nominated mediator – Shelia Bates. We are able to request Shelia to be involved as & when we need her. JH did check with her personal Insurers, Howden’s who advised that an individual’s policy would NOT cover such costs – JH will also check with BAPT’s insurers to see if costs might be covered with them.
Action: JH
Jenny is also going to look at the cost of a service that would support members through such an event, what would cost implications be to members – could we offer reduced costs as a member benefit?
Action: JH
Education Conference - This is now 2 venues, London & Manchester – BAPT will have a stall in London but not in Manchester, but will have speakers/workshop leaders is both, presenting on same theme: How does PT work in schools – Helen G & Ruth L will present at Manchester event – London will possibly be Harriet & Suzy, or Seony Rayan who has expressed interest in this. Need to advertise this on Facebook/Twitter/Magazine and website.
PTUK – Ruth & Harriet had a Skype meeting with PTUK, various topics discussed and the sense that these are two very different organisations remains, although there are areas, such as PSA involvement, where there are similarities and some shared experiences. It was agreed that further regular meetings will continue, probably on 1/4ly basis, with a view to working together on any issues that impact both organisations.
4. SUB COMMITTEES
Training & Education – Helen Gedge
Scotland – accreditation meeting is on 15th May – JS to raise invoice for the fee.
Online Play Courses seeking connections – Helen circulated an email she had received from Sheffield Uni about an online course they are running around all areas of Play – Hospital Play, history of Play, Play Therapy, using spaces Playfully etc., designed to be of use to people who work in Hospital Play & Play Therapy particularly.
Board agreed this seemed like a good opportunity to engage with people who might then want to move into Play therapy training, suggestions ranged from offering them a link to the DVD extract on our website to offering a webinar to those signed up. Helen will go back to them.
Action: HG
Accreditation Criteria – Helen has received a request from Association of Transactional Psychotherapists asking if they could have copies of our criteria in order that they can be aware of what they should be asking for/ looking for in training. Board agreed it would be good to share.
On a different note, Helen advised that she is undertaking a PHD in Filial Therapy at Sheffield University – the Board were delighted to hear this and wished Helen well with her studies. Helen will remain on the Board and as Chair of training & education committee.
Comms & PR – Hilary Dumbrill
Hilary provided a brief outline of what responsibilities each member now has:
Twitter & Facebook - Hilary herself is responsible for the Twitter feed – which has links with social services and other users outside of BAPT membership. JS to keep Hilary updated on things that are sent to Lucy as well.
Lucy Llewellyn is Facebook – she has recently set up a Members page. Board asked Hilary to convey their thanks to Lucy, everyone has been very impressed on the types of things that Lucy has been posting.
Board agreed it was OK for the subcommittee to make decisions on the use of Facebook & Twitter.
Pinterest - Susie has set up a new BAPT Pinterest Board, which is going live now. It consists of 5 separate Boards relating to various areas of Play therapy.
As they have responsibility for the website etc. question was raised about what to do if they find something on website is wrong or not working – agreed in first instance to contact JS or Andrew.
Website Survey – Cathy has finalised a set of questions which board have seen, a suggestion raised was to remove any question about further research and that the questionnaire is live for a limited period – maybe 2-4 weeks. Cathy will set this up.
NHS Information Sharing – a new system to look at tracking children with safeguarding issues – would be good to have something written for the magazine as well as on Facebook etc –
Action: Comms & PR
Hilary also talked about new exhibition Conference Stands – need to look at what we want on them – JS has sourced quote at £95 + VAT each.
BAPT Leaflet – copy of the draft was sent to the team, they are reviewing.
Video clip about play room for website
Storyboard
These are ongoing items
Website – Judith mentioned that a very old link to the previous website came up as she was searching something recently, should the old website still be up on the internet? No-one else had had this problem, and on checking at the meeting nothing came up on any searches.
Awayday – committee wanted to check if this was just one day, yes usually we travel up on Friday for dinner and then and meet all day Saturday.
Magazine – Nina is struggling at the moment – proof reading is a big issue for her – agreed that team will ask Nina what she needs in way of help – one day a week/a month? Andrew 7 Jo have said they would be interested in doing this.
Scotland
Course to be accredited so Student should then apply for Membership.
Professional Practice
Sample Contracts – Ruth has a draft for independent Practice plus a checklist of things to be aware of, these will sit alongside the new consent Policy and checklist and the PCP Policy.
Data Protection – Registration under the Data Protection Act for Independent workers is £35 p/year and offer information on what to store & how to store it Do we need to provide info and link to the website for Members?
Review of pay scales on our website – Ruth has asked Sonia if she would look at this, she has responded that she is more than happy to. Idea would be to have this updated and to have a cost calculator/checklist for those working independently so that they can set fees accordingly.
Research – Sue Elmer – nothing reported
Membership – Audrey Lee -
Retired members –
Action: AL
RL/AL to meet to discuss update to Portfolio applications
Action: RL/AL
Wales – Jo Hill – Nothing to report
5. COMPANY SECRETARY - Judith James
Business Plan – Judith had send draft plan to Board members with the agenda, Basically the plan suggests that we overspend on budget, however this is offset by payment of membership fees before the end of our financial year i.e. a proportion of members paid their fees for year Oct15 – Sept 16 in Sept 15, so these have been accounted for in 14/15 accounting year, rather than 15/16 which suggests an operating loss. Similarly this will happen in 2016/17. JH managed this with some funding from our Savings, but we cannot rely on that for future years. JH will contact Accountants to review this and see if there is a way to make adjustments for these early payments to be included in correct financial year.
Action: JH
However long term the Business plan suggests that we need to raise Membership fee’s to cover increasing budget costs of 2% yearly. Two ways to achieve that - a) increase no of Full members each year - by 20/19/20 we will need 350 Full members, or b) by raising the fee to existing members. Membership number have broken the 300 mark this year for the first time in BAPT’s History, which is a really pleasing achievement.
There are 4 Key actions that are identified, the most relevant of these are trying to ensure we capture members who have lapsed and also attracting new Portfolio applications.
It was noted that some figures in the plan were now out of date, JJ to update in time for publication for AGM
Action: JJ
Business Plan will also become an ongoing Agenda item
JJ also highlighted the need for us to expand out Patronage – as there was uncertainty how that could be done it was agreed that RL/JS will draft a letter to Baroness Benjamin for advice.
Action: RL/JS
6. FINANCE – Jenny Harrison
Jenny re-iterated the point about accounts showing a £15k loss for 2015/16, i.e. a proportion of members paid their fees for year Oct15 – Sept 16 in Sept 15, so these have been accounted for in 14/15 accounting year, rather than 15/16 which suggests an operating loss. Similarly this will happen in 2016/17. JH managed this with some funding from our Savings, but we cannot rely on that for future years. JH will contact Accountants to review this and see if there is a way to make adjustments for these early payments to be included in correct financial year.
7. POLICIES & PROCEEDURES
Lay Member policy sent to AOM & SA for input.
8. CONFERENCE/AGM
AGM – we need to concentrate on getting additional members for the Board, especially additional Lay Members.
Members to stand down are Audrey Lee & Sarah Hickson. JJ to set up a Spread sheet for accurate recording of Board members service
Action: JJ
JS needs reports from Chairs for the Board papers by 25th May
Action: JJ/RL/AL/HG/Jen H/CC/Jo H/SE
9. AOB
BAPT Book – target to publish in 2018
Dates for meetings - these were set as follows:
16th September 2017
11th November 2017
27th January 2018 (Awayday)
17th March 2018
12th May 2018
Meeting ended at 3.58pm
Signed……………………………….. Date…………………….
(Chair)
Dates of future meetings:
June conference and AGM- 23rd/24th June
8th July 2017 - PSA renewal
16th September 2017
11th November 2017
27th January 2018 (Awayday)
17th March 2018
12th May 2018