Our Constitution
Play Therapy Africa's constitution is based on
Play Theraphy International's constitution and reflect s 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.
- PTA 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.
- PTA 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 and Organogramme
The Board of Directors are responsible for the strategic direction and day to day operation of PTA. They are legally and financially responsible for running the Society. The Board of Directors approves the Association Strategic Organogramme.
The Board of Directors takes into account recommendations from the Advisory board which in turn receives suggestions and proposals from PTA’s Practitioner Members.
PTA 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 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 PTA 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 identical to the one adopted by Play Therapy International. The continued success of PTA depends upon providing good service to its practitioner members so that the needs of the majority are always taken into account.
For more details see our constitution which is contained in the Memorandum and Articles of Association.
