Our Constitution & Structure
Our Constitution
Play Therapy UK's constitution reflects
the principles of its founding members:
- A wide range of therapeutic
interventions using play or creative arts therapies can be used to benefit many
children. A qualified practitioner requires a range of tools including: art,
creative visualisations, clay, dance/movement, drama, masks, music, puppets and
sandplay.
- Many practitioners, working in a
variety of settings, as well as Play Therapists can use these interventions
safely and effectively if supported by an appropriate professional
infrastructure.
- The infrastructure must include a
modern ethical system that embodies clinical governance as well as the
provision of ethical guidelines, a professional conduct procedure and a
register of certified members.
- PTUK must provide a lead and meet
all of the obligations required of a profession.
- The varied needs of the children,
their carers, commissioning organisations and users of the therapies together
with the existing skills, aspirations and resources of potential and existing
practitioners must be realistically accommodated in setting standards of
competence and training. The emphasis must be on what a practitioner can do
not merely what a practitioner knows.
- The organisation structure must be
sufficiently flexible to enable decisions to be taken quickly, reflect the
needs of the public and practitioner members, enable innovation to take place
and alter according to growth and changing needs. We do not want to be bogged
down by numerous committees or bureaucratic procedures that so often hamper the
progress of other professional associations. We believe that the majority of
members are content to be consulted on important issues but do not have the
time to be closely involved in decision taking.
The direction of some professional organisations, with a traditional
organisation, can be high-jacked by a small cabal using democratic procedures.
PTUK believes that liberty is an even more important principle than democracy
in corporate governance.
- PTUK will work collaboratively with
any organisation that aims to benefit children.
The governing documents are the
Memorandum and Articles of Association, since the term constitution is not a
term which is generally used within the Companies Act and is not defined
generally by the Act. These two documents together form a constitution.
Our Structure
The Board of Directors are responsible
for the strategic direction and day to day operation of PTUK. They are legally
and financially responsible for running the Society.
The Board of Directors takes into
account recommendations from the Advisory board which in turn receives
suggestions and proposals from PTUK’s Practitioner Members.
There are two main classes of members:
- Practitioner members for whom PTUK
provides a professional infrastructure and a range of services.
-
Shareholding members – these are
persons or organisations that provided and continue to provide funds, over and
above practitioner membership fees, subscriptions and other revenue to enable
PTUK to become established and grow. Since PTUK is a not for profit company
these members do not receive dividends neither will they receive any
appreciation on the value of their shares. Any eligible person may apply for
shares.
The Articles of Association
specifically determines that the company is prevented from distributing any
profits arising from its activities.
PTUK aims, in the medium term, to
generate sufficient excess of revenues over costs in order to:
- Invest these surpluses in research,
development, growth and bursaries.
- Become independent of raising funds
through the sale of shares, gifts, donations etc.
It is not currently the intention to
work towards charity status.
The Board of Directors feels strongly
that if an organisation is meeting the needs of the children in the United
Kingdom and its practitioner members and is run effectively and efficiently it
should not be necessary to rely on charitable donations to fund its operations.
Good Corporate Governance
The structure of PTUK allows its
practitioner members to propose changes in policies, rules or procedures
through the mechanisms of:
-
The Advisory Board
-
Ad Hoc consultations
-
Referenda – held from time to time
These processes speed up decision
taking and avoid the use of a laborious system of committees and
sub-committees. It also ensures that proposals for change are filtered through
an experienced panel of multi-disciplined professionals – The Advisory Board.
This two tier structure is similar to
that adopted by many European Organisations.
The continued success of PTUK depends
upon providing good service to its practitioner members so that the needs of
the majority are always taken into account. We are market led.
For more details see our constitution
which is contained in the Memorandum
and Articles of Association and our Standing Orders.
