AFT News December 2011

With the Festive Season and the end of another year fast approaching, I would like to send a big ‘thank you’ to all our committee members and Chairs for all the sterling work you have done throughout the year. You ensure that the core functions of AFT keep on working well: Registration, Course Accreditation and Complaints and Ethics are all time-consuming but vital tasks and I appreciate the many members who quietly get on with their work in these areas.

Updates:
As you will know from previous Aft News, we are undertaking a major revision of the Complaints Policy and Code of Ethics in order to make them less onerous and complicated for us to administer and to bring them more in line with UKCP’s Central Complaints Policy.

We aim to have the new policy ready for presentation to the membership at the AGM next September.

There is little to report  with regard to Regulation: the Health and Social Care Bill continues to be contested every step of the way. The establishment of an Assured Voluntary Register managed by the Professional Standards Authority looks unlikely to be in place by 2012. We continue to sit within UKCP in these uncertain times.

The new website is coming along well and will be up and running by spring 2012.

Many thanks to the team at Wiley-Blackwells whose expertise is skilfully facilitating this process.

I hope as you wind down for your Christmas holiday, you will find time to enjoy this edition of ‘ Context’ . I would like to applaud the AFT Publishing team for the fantastic job they do in producing such a superb magazine, packed full of engaging, topical and challenging articles which really connect with us in our work with clients, four times a year. This is a tremendous achievement and such a terrific window to our wonderful field – thank you !

Finally, a thoughtful thanks to our clients and families as a difficult year of cuts, job losses, debt and despair comes to its close – and with little hope of a more vibrant New Year. We learn so much from your struggles, resilience and courage – it is our privilege to meet and connect with you and draw strength to carry on in our work by sharing life’s journey with you.

Membership
Just to clarify the AFT membership year runs from the 1st January to 31 December and renewal notices have been sent out by Wiley Blackwells, this is to ensure that systems are up and running from the beginning of the year and you receive the February issue of Context on time.  Direct debits will be collected towards the end of November.  Membership fees have not been increased for 2012, and we do hope you will renew your AFT membership.  Membership fees should be returned to Wiley-Blackewells.   If you have any queries please contact us on 01925 444414. 

At the last Board meeting the Directors and Trustees debated changing the current AFT logo to be a simpler celtic knot.  However, it was decided that this was an opportunity to review the current logo. Would you like to let us know what you think about the logo and whether you feel this should be changed but retain the celtic knot or we should look at a new simplified more modern and crisp logo.  Have your say by emailing:  office@aft.org.uk

NICE

You may be interested to know that NICE have reviewed the ADHD guideline and the recommendation is that the guideline should not be updated at this time.  The decision is now live on the NICE website.  http://guidance.nice.org.uk/CG72  We would like to thank Jeni Webster for all the work she has done for AFT on monitoring and responding to the NICE guidelines during the year. 

I would like to send you all my warmest wishes for the festive season and look forward to seeing you at one of AFT’s events next year.

Sue Jones,
Chair.

October 2011 – News from the Chair

The 2011 Annual Conference, held at the Buxton Palace Hotel from September 22- 24th, was a resounding success.

All those attending who had been to previous Conferences felt it was one of the best, whilst many of those for whom this was their first said they felt welcome and ‘at home’ in the collegiate atmosphere.

This was due in part to the lovely hotel and friendly helpful staff providing a gracious setting and convivial atmosphere to facilitate both learning and socialising, and to the careful planning of the Derbyshire AFT and AFT office conference team coming to fruition. A varied programme of workshops, three excellent and different plenary speakers, some interesting meetings and great entertainment combined to make the conference such a great success.  One delegate wrote “love the friendliness of DAFT and buzziness of the conference”.  It certainly was buzzing and we hope everyone learnt something from the event.  We will be publishing write ups of the plenaries and workshops in the February issue of context and would like to thank those who have volunteered to do this, so that all members can experience the richness of the conference which was in the words of a delegate “a wonderful experience of connections, both with people and ideas”.

Gary Robinson, Chair of DAFT, launched the Conference in great style with a lively musical quiz, having first got us mixing with people we had not previously met by instructing us ( and most of us obeyed ! ) to sit at tables designated by our month of birth. This worked brilliantly in my case, not only in meeting new delegates but also in that they knew most of the tracks and our table finished second!

The key theme of the conference: ‘ordinary people – extraordinary practice ‘ was exemplified throughout by the professionalism, passion and panache of all the presenters. The standard was outstanding: a testimony to the quality of training that our AFT accredited courses have been delivering for the past twenty or more years and to the maturity of the field as we have acquired our place amongst the major psychological therapies available in the UK, both in statutory and non-statutory environments.

The plenary speakers each made a significant contribution to the Conference.

Ged Smith set the tone for the following two days with his ‘Top Ten Tips’ opening address, combining humour, irreverence and serious talk in a mix that invited us to rise above the ‘difficult times’ we are having and celebrate the privilege of getting stuck in to the messy glorious business of the human ‘stuff’ we are part of in our daily practice – and lives!

Paulo Bertrando developed his ideas about ‘straight talking’ – an interesting theme, especially coming from a major theoretician of the post-Milan tradition, which gave us ‘circular talk’ in the first place! His on-going contribution to the field both theoretically and clinically continues the long tradition established by his Milan colleagues some thirty years ago.

Carmel Flaskas continued to share with us her rich and fruitful engagement with the psychoanalytic field, expanding in her paper on the concept of ‘three’ as the key element in the reflexive therapeutic encounter. She traced this idea through the first generation of systemic thinkers to the present, and within the psychoanalytic tradition. In systemic thinking, she proposed that there is  a triadic relationship within the self : a person has a thought, then has a relationship with the thought, creating a ‘ triangle‘, as well as endless possibilities for working with ‘triangles’ in  clinical practice.

Her plenary was the concluding address at the Conference, sending us away on our onward personal and professional journeys with much food for thought.

For those of you who wish to come again next year – and those who wish they could have attended this year - put the date in your diaries now for next year: September 13-15th, at the Redwood Lodge Country Hotel in Bristol.  I hope to see you there!

The 36th. Annual General Meeting of the Association was held on Friday, September 23rd, during the conference.  Attended by over 60 members, it proved an interesting meeting. Robert McCandless was re-elected as an ‘ordinary member’ of the Board ( although we all know he is quite ‘extraordinary’! ) and continues as company secretary. There were no other elections this year.

Barry Mason stimulated an interesting debate with his motion on: ‘Religious Bodies, Child Sexual Abuse and AFT Policy’. Although the motion was not carried (by a small majority) it certainly put the issues on the table for future consideration.

I was pleased to inform members that in recent days we have received a letter from BUPA indicating a preparedness to look at the evidence-base for Systemic Psychotherapy with a view to re-considering whether it can be accepted as one of the psychological therapies they offer. Watch this space!  We have also recently been successful, largely due to the work of Peter Stratton and Jan Parker, in getting a chair at the table of the Children’s IAPT developments. 

The AFT membership year runs from 1 January but it is necessary to collect in renewals earlier than this for administrative purposes and you will receive a renewal notice later this month.  You will be pleased to know that there is no increase in the AFT membership fee this year.  We do hope you will continue your AFT membership and if you have any specific concerns with regard to this or you would like to get more involved in the work of AFT, please do contact me via the AFT office on s.kennedy@aft.org.uk

Sue Jones,  Chair.

August 2011 – News from the Chair

We are approaching the end of my first year as Chair of AFT – a time to reflect on the year gone by and prepare for what may lie ahead.

I would like to begin by expressing my heartfelt thanks for the unfailing support, advice, good humour and expertise offered by Sue and Paul Kennedy and Barbara Thurston at the Administrative base and to the Executive Committee. All have contributed to ensuring that the year in post has been a positive and enjoyable experience.

I have been through a ‘steep learning curve’ and there is still much to do with regard to fully understanding all the intersecting aspects of AFT’s many functions.

It has been an exciting year with a new Branch re-launching in Cornwall and Plymouth and a significant Conference taking place in Edinburgh in celebration of the continued flourishing of AFT Scotland. A successful and well-attended Eileen Jamieson Day on the theme of systemic developments in primary care was held in conjunction with the Tavistock Centre.

 We have also renewed our contract with Wiley-Blackwell for a ten-year term which will see the development of a new and vibrant website and secure the publication of JFT and the managing of our membership for the next decade.

‘Context’ and the Journal continue to deliver an exceptional standard of practice-based and academic papers, testifying to the depth and breadth of our field and the dedicated, creative and inspiring people who work within it. They keep alive the pioneering spirit and deep commitment to the better understanding of changing family life and therapeutic process that brought about the origins of the field – so vividly captured by Bebe Speed in the June edition of ‘Context’.

We also celebrate the tremendous effort and great contribution to the field of those members who have recently obtained their Clinical Doctorates.

I have set myself the goal of attending a committee meeting of each of the committees of AFT over the next few months. I met with the CRED Committee back in February and was impressed by the continued commitment to delivering a high standard of qualifying level training, with trainee numbers holding up well despite the economic downturn and reduced number of dedicated posts.

A steady number of qualified family therapists go on to undertake systemic supervision training, adding to the body of systemic supervisors who contribute to the development of systemic practice and thinking within a range of working contexts.

I am familiar with the work of the Registration Committee and am delighted that Billy Hardy has taken on the role of Chair to this committee. They continue to quietly get on with a vital and at times complex task.

Apologies to the Committees with whom I have not yet met. I also plan to visit Branches wherever possible to get a ‘feel’ for what is going on at the ‘grassroots’!

This is important – I left the ‘grassroots’ myself only a year ago, but my sense was that family therapy, whilst well-established within the NHS, was entering a difficult phase in its professional journey. It will be interesting to see whether this is borne out by meeting with the Branches.

Within the field of CAMHS, there is widespread re-organisation taking place, with many PCTs combining with others to form Foundation Trusts. The future of PCTs is in doubt and this raises anxieties about where CAMHS will be placed. Alongside this, New Ways of Working and cost-cutting measures have led to the blurring of professional boundaries.  AFT is doing all it can to support members through this difficult period.

The Children’s IAPT presents new challenges for the place of family and systemic therapy within CAMHS. Whilst we welcome both the recognition of the need to place the child at the heart of the family context and the opportunity for a greater number of young and inexperienced practitioners entering CAMHS services to have access to a useful framework for further training – which includes skills in working with parents, engaging families and understanding family lifestyles and transitions – that IAPT offers, we are concerned that this may lead to the further marginalisation of family and systemic therapy within mainstream services.  Jan Parker, Peter Stratton and Judith Lask work hard to influence government about the importance of family and systemic work and increasing access to evidence based psychological therapies. 

The position of family therapy within Adult Mental Health Services remains much the same: some thriving pockets of excellent practice but no increase in the number of posts.

There is evidence of some growth in the private, independent and non-statutory sectors. We welcome the establishment of  theAFSPinNSS (Family and Systemic Psychotherapists in the non statutotry sector) network. The contribution that systemic therapy makes in the field of eating disorders continues to ensure that posts are holding up in in-patient units.

All these trends within the workforce and in the social and political context conspire to present AFT with significant challenges in the decade to come.  There are two key – and related – issues for us to grapple with:

Regulation and Complaints

I will comment on the latter first: ever since I became Chair, the Executive and the Ethics Committee have been deeply embroiled in managing a number of complex and difficult complaints processes. These have been enormously time-consuming and stressful, with the brunt of this falling on the Executive Officer and the staff in Warrington. Two of these complaints have reached the level of requiring legal advice, with a consequent cost to AFT. The involvement of UKCP’s Professional Conduct Officer has led to a useful but challenging dialogue with regard to our Complaints and Disciplinary Policy. The amount of time these issues have absorbed has resulted in the administrative staff and the Executive Committee being seriously hampered in getting on with other vital functions of AFT: services to members and strategic planning.

We have come to recognise that managing complaints in the 21st. Century requires expertise: we are amateurs in this arena. We are also mindful that we exist within an increasingly litigious society and that complaints are likely to increase both in numbers and complexity. This poses a high risk to AFT as an organisation. We are strongly of the view that AFT cannot continue to manage complaints and that we need to be part of a larger organisation which can take this function on.

This brings me on to Regulation. When it appeared that Statutory Regulation was the direction in which the field of psychotherapy and counselling was heading, we hoped that HPC would take on the function of managing complaints.

The Coalition Government is not endorsing Statutory Regulation for our field. There has been no government publication explaining why, but it is thought that Statutory Regulation was considered both too expensive to deliver and too inflexible to meet the needs of a complex and wide-ranging arena such as ours.

Instead, the route forward is Assured Voluntary Regulation. This will be overseen by the Professional Standards Authority, which is a Statutory Body charged with the duty of setting the criteria for ‘ kite-marking’ the organisations which will hold the professional registers for their field.

I am aware that some members have questioned our relationship with the UKCP, unsure as to what the benefits are of joining this organisation, and feeling that systemic psychotherapy is not well reflected within it.

It is my view at this point that UKCP have moved on and are intending to do what is necessary to meet the criteria for being accredited as a holder of the Voluntary Register for the Member Organisations within it. For this to happen, UKCP will need to demonstrate that it has a sound business model and a robust Central Complaints Procedure, front-ended by Alternative Dispute Resolution.

My position is that AFT does not have the resources to ‘go it alone’. I respect the fact that we ‘punch above our weight’ in many areas, but with regard to the risks and challenges we face as a small organisation in a changing and uncertain world, it is imperative that we seek the protection of a larger body. UKCP have notified us all of an increase in membership fees. The adoption of a Central Complaints Policy – which some of the other modalities have yet to support – is likely to  cost members a further fee.  With a greater number of registrants and Member Organisations, UKCP is in the position of being able to employ staff with the necessary range of expertise. I think, therefore, that we should stick with the UKCP and continue to engage with it, building on the excellent work already achieved by our UKCP represetatives.

We should also keep our options open, as it is as yet not clear whether HPC will be also applying to hold Assured Voluntary Registers.

We also need to engage in discussion and planning with regard to the sustainability of AFT as an organisation. I always knew and appreciated how hard Sue Kennedy and the team in Warrington work on our behalf, but until I became Chair, I had no idea of the extent of this. Sue has established robust administrative procedures which enable the team to process vast amounts of work: CPD reviews, Conference planning and management, CRED panels and reports, registration processes and responding to a huge number of queries weekly. In addition, Sue and Barbara service and support all the committees between them. As our members have grown, so has their workload. We need to be thinking about how to ensure that our administrative base remains secure in the years ahead, as without this, AFT would cease to function.

It is a great privilege – as well as a huge responsibility – to hold the office of Chair of this dynamic and thriving Association – especially when looking back at the impressive rosta of my predecessors!

I welcome feedback and comments, new ideas and reflections and look forward to another challenging year to come.

I hope you will enjoy reading other reports below to give you a greater understanding of the Association and I look forward to meeting many of you at our Conference in Buxton. 

Sue Jones,

Chair.

June 2011 – News from the Chair

This is an exciting edition of Context – a celebration of the origins of the ‘systemic movement’ in the UK and of its’ continued relevance and vitality in our current times.

My career roughly follows the trajectory of family therapy’s development in the North West.  Returning in 1980 from two years in Philadelphia (where I had once encountered Minuchin at the innovatory Child Guidance Clinic), I took up a post with Barnardo’s in Liverpool in a new family therapy project. Family therapy ideas had been taken up in the late 1970s by a few enthusiastic pioneers and Barnardo’s – always keen to support new initiatives for helping troubled children – took on the project. In order to ensure our team of four received training and support (there being no formal training in those days), Barnardo’s paid the subscription for all of us to join AFT and paid our training conference fees for the subsequent years of the project’s life! I have been a member of AFT ever since.

The social and political backdrop at this time is worth recalling, too – in the ‘80s, the country was in recession and this decade is now being spoken of as the ‘Jam’ years – referring to the band. In addition to my day job as a family therapist, I was a DJ at night and active in the Labour Party and Women’s Movement. UB40’s iconic ‘Ghost Town’ was frequently on our turntable as Liverpool sank deeper into decline and despair – as revealed within its’ dark-edged humour.

I was reminded of this during the recent royal wedding. In 1981, at the time of Charles and Diana’s wedding, the streets of Liverpool were aflame with riots. I returned from a revelatory week’s training with Brian Cade and Philippa Seligman at The Family Institute, Cardiff, to find my local post office and launderette razed to the ground, the smell of cordite in the air and riot police on every street.  So, my passion for social justice and understanding the context of peoples’ lives and struggles became intertwined with the new and inspirational field of systemic thinking and practice.

Family therapy and systemic practice went on to become more established in the north west throughout the next twenty years, with courses being set up in Liverpool and Manchester. Many practitioners benefited from training, and ‘communities of practice’ emerged to enhance the lives of numerous children, families, teams and services throughout the region.

Currently having been chair of AFT for 9 months, I can see the vast amount of work that is done to continue to promote and develop family and systemic work in still-troubled times.  The training courses around the country are still thriving and people still want to know about family and systemic work. 

Interestingly, “The Munro Review of Child Protection” final report (May 2011), A Child Centred System, emphasises the need for a systemic approach to child protection and focuses on the Hackney system of training social workers, including foundation-level training in systemic family therapy.  On the Dept of Education website, there is a video of Eileen Munro and the children's minister, Tim Loughton's, visit to a children's centre in Hackney.

SCIE (The Social Care Institute for Excellence) summarises the Munro Review as follows:

The Munro review has recommended that the Government should require LSCBS to use systems methodology when undertaking Serious Case Reviews and work with the sector to develop a national resource to support this approach. The review recognises SCIE’s work leading the adaptation and development of the systems approach for use in reviewing multi-agency safeguarding and child protection work. The final report describes the SCIE Learning Together model as providing a workable model to be used as an illustration for future development.  http://www.education.gov.uk/munroreview/downloads
/8875_DfE_Munro_Report_TAGGED.pdf

We have almost 2,000 members of whom 1,000 are registered members of AFT, and we are currently conducting a CPD review on approximately a third of these members.  The quality of the submissions to date has been high.  Though NHS employers are, in many cases, cutting back on training, members are committed to keeping up their knowledge and skills by supporting their own development and supervision.  It is, however, notable that many employers do not request a CRB check that covers both children and vulnerable adults, and we would recommend that both are requested, given that we work with the whole family. 

At our April board-meeting, we had a very interesting talk by Erin Wright from Young Minds on Service User Inclusion, or “Experts by Experience” as Young Minds call them.  If you are a local CAMHS looking to involve the service user, then Young Minds can certainly offer helpful advice and support.  www.youngminds.org.uk

If you have not already booked for the AFT national conference in Buxton from the 22nd — 24th September, please do so as soon as possible to ensure you do get a place.  The AGM will be held on Friday 23rd September at 5.15pm.  Details of workshops and presenters can now be found on the website.  This sounds a very informative, stimulating and enjoyable conference and, knowing the Derbyshire AFT branch (DAFT), they will not disappoint us in terms of fun and humour.  We can now let you know that the 2012 conference will be held at Redwood Lodge Hotel and Country Club, near Bristol from the 13th — 15th September 2012.

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Barbara Dale, and it is fitting that, in this particular issue about the origins of AFT, we have an article from her.  We extend our condolences to her family and colleagues.  She will be greatly missed in the family therapy world in which she has played such a significant role.

With best wishes
Sue Jones
Chair

April 2011 – News from the Chair

News is not always good to hear at the current time, with the problems faced by many countries overseas and closer to home by individuals in their own work situations given the changes being brought about by the spending review.  However, I am pleased to bring you some good news in terms of what is happening within AFT and some positive developments taking place. 

There has been a lot happening around the UK already.  In February I went to a very enjoyable 2 day workshop with Karl Tomm for the inaugural meeting of the Cornwall and Plymouth Branch.This event was organized by Liz Burns and Amanda Jones and their colleagues on the Branch Committee and was held in the delightful surroundings of the Sands Resort Hotel in Newquay – with a constant supply of sea breezes to clear the mind and aid concentration! Karl Tomm continues to inspire and influence systemic practitioners with his wonderfully rich and evolving ideas about sustaining useful therapeutic conversations using questions. He informed the conference of the theoretical development of his ‘Interventive Interviewing’ model and demonstrated his thinking and practice with willing interviewees. I wish the new branch continued success in their endeavours to create connections for systemic practitioners in this beautiful and largely rural part of the world.

This year’s AFT Eileen Jamieson Memorial event on June 10 will focus on issues close to the heart of practice of many of AFT members – ‘systemic approaches to recovery and well-being in primary care’. With a feast of speakers and workshops, this joint event with the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust will explore the challenges and possibilities of developing family therapy and systemic practice in child and adolescent and adult services, in IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) programmes, GP practices and beyond. Please look at the advertisement in Context for further details. Web links to booking forms and programme details can be found on the AFT website.

Whilst writing this news we are preparing for a two-day workshop in Scotland with key international speakers, John Rolland and Froma Walsh, in collaboration with NHS Education for Scotland – ‘Family perspectives on illness and multi stress challenges – facilitating resilience and growth out of illness, crisis, trauma and loss’. An estimated 2 million people in Scotland are living with long-term conditions such as cancer, heart disease and many mental health problems, more than voted in the 2003 Scottish Parliament elections.  The conference will share research and expertise on therapeutic supports for families affected by disability and long term conditions. Pre-conference publicity has already generated interest and new connections with disability organisations and Scottish and UK media. Thanks to AFT Scotland members and AFT officers who have put so much work into this. 

AFT are building channels of communication with the Government over the spending plan review. We have received a letter from Paul Burstow, Minister of State for Care Services, in response to our letters highlighting concerns about the impact of cuts on services for families and opposing the proposed closure of the Cassel Families Service in Richmond.  It is hoped to arrange a meeting with his team.  Members who wish to write to their own MPs on these issues can find copies of AFT’s letters on the website.

We now have an email google group called the AFSPinNSS, for those family and systemic psychotherapists working in the non-statutory sector.  This is a very active group with support from Nick Child, Dana Mills-Powell and Tessa Jones.  To raise the profile of those working in the non statutory sector the group have formed as a sub committee of the Professional Affairs Committee.  The google group is open to any members and joining is a very simple process. Please visit the AFT website to find out how http://www.aft.org.uk/about/emaillists.asp 

One of the current concerns of this group and many AFT  members has been BUPA’s recent changes to its criteria for  approving psychotherapists/counsellors to be on their provider lists. They currently exclude several modalities, including group, couple, family and systemic psychotherapies.  This is because of the eligibilty conditions for individuals underwritten by the medical insurance, which means they do not provide therapy in which any participants may be 'symptom-free' and/or not BUPA members.  AFT is writing to BUPA to negotiate further, to ensure the needs of families and children referred to their Mental Health and Well Being Service will be treated by appropriately trained and qualified family therapists. We will be presenting the case for including systemic psychotherapists on their Provider lists by drawing on the evidence that this is an effective model of treatment for a wide range of mental health problems.  We will keep you updated on this.

Many thanks to all those who completed our electronic membership survey conducted by Wiley-Blackwells.  We had some excellent feedback, but it will also  help us to address the concerns and needs of members and plan for the future.  A summary of the results is available to view on the members’ area of the website. Members’  comments about conferences and workshops are being actively considered by the conference organising committee for this year and by those planning the 2012 event.

We are pleased to inform you that AFT is currently negotiating a new ten-year contract with Wiley Blackwells which will support a vibrant new AFT website and improved member benefits.

The 2011 conference will be held in Buxton, Derbyshire from the 22nd to 24th September.  The DAFT (Derbyshire AFT) Branch are particularly keen to welcome members who have never attended an AFT conference before as well as those who have.  The conference starts on the Thursday evening with registration from 4.30 pm, allowing delegates time to travel or fit in a day’s work.  There will be an initial presentation by Carmel Flaskas and Paolo Bertrando in the evening and plenty of time for networking over an informal meal.  We hope this will give delegates opportunity to relax, meet friends and prepare for the conference start on Friday morning.  Day delegates are also welcome on Friday and Saturday.  To save money do take advantage of the early booking discount up until the 1st June.  A booking form can be found in this issue of Context and on the AFT website. 

UKCP registered members of AFT will know that UKCP is now collecting its annual membership subscriptions direct.  However, AFT is still responsible for recommending members to remain on the register and is therefore responsible for ensuring that their CPD (continuing professional development) needs are met.  We will shortly be contacting those requiring a CPD review this year.  All members must have a CPD review within a 5 year period.  The notices will be sent by email where possible marked “CPD review important”, so please look out for this in your inbox.   

UKCP Registered family and systemic psychotherapists now belong to the  UKCP College of Family, Couple & Systemic Therapy.  There is a launch of the college on Friday 20th May from 12.30 to 5pm at the Institute of Family Therapy in London.  Peter Stratton is speaking on “What lasting changes in family itneraction must therapy achieve”.  All UKCP registered members are invited to attend, but please email Inger Gordon, Chair of the College on inger.gordon@virgin.net  to confirm a place.  There is no charge for this launch event. 

We realise it is currently difficult for members of the public to find a family and systemic psychotherapist offering private practice via the UKCP website. We are therefore  offering registered members the opportunity to be listed on AFT’s website as offering independent practice.  If you would like to register your details for this please email office@aft.org.uk.

With the publication of the Health and Social Care Bill in February the landscape of regulation has changed.  Judith Lask reports that at the beginning of the month there was the final meeting of the Professional Liaison Group appointed by the Health Professions Council ( HPC) to advise on the statutory regulation of Psychotherapists and Counsellors. by HPC. Progress had been made in this group although there were a number of major unresolved issues such as the difference between counselling and psychotherapy.  The next step was for the work of the  PLG and the results of consultations to go to the HPC Council for further discussion. At that point it was becoming clear that the current government was veering away from statutory regulation in general and favouring voluntary arrangements for most professions. The Health and Social Care Bill did not specifically mention psychotherapists and counsellors . It did confirtm that HPC would regulate social work and change its name to the Health and Social Care Professions Council. It was also given the power to set up voluntary registers. The role of the Council for Health Care Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) will be strengthened and include social care. This is an accrediting organisation and will take on a more central role in “kitemarking” voluntary registers ( this would include any set up by HPC). I would like to stress that all of this is at the Bill stage and will be debated and indeed no-one is yet certain of the specific intentions with regard to psychotherapy and counselling. It is however reasonable to assume that statutory regulation is unlikely.

Needless to say a section of psychotherapists within UKCP are pleased with this as they have been fighting statutory regulation. The AFT position has for quite some time been firmly behind regulation by HPC and saw value in being under the same regulator as psychologists and Arts Psychotherapists as well as other healthcare workers.  In the event of no statutory regulation AFT will have to think carefully about the best way forward. One option would be to approach HPC about holding a voluntary register for Family and Systemic Psychotherapists . I am sure that UKCP would seek accreditation of their register but many members of AFT have been concerned about the capability of UKCP to reflect the ethos of our modality. At the moment it is a question of keeping options open and making decisions based on the protection and needs of clients and our own needs as a profession. AFT is remaining watchful of the situation and will keep you informed and consult carefully when choices have to be made.

Enjoy the spring and hopefully sunshine. 

Best wishes
Sue Jones
Chair

February 2011 – News from the Chair

A warm welcome to this first issue of Context for 2011.  Thank you for renewing your membership of AFT so promptly; as a membership organisation we do rely on your membership fees as our main income.  This promises to be a busy, and exciting year.

The Board of Directors and Trustees has already met in January.  One of the items discussed was how AFT can further support members who work in settings outside of the NHS/Public Services sector.  Members working in this area have requested a publicly accessible list of registered family and systemic psychotherapists offering  family therapy privately.  They have expressed concerns that the UKCP register is not sufficiently clear for members of the public.  This is something we will be looking at very soon.  We are also planning to develop a new website, which will be more interactive and public friendly.  We hope to launch this at the beginning of 2012 and will keep you updated.  

Prof Peter Stratton has completed an update on the evidence base for family therapy. Jeni Webster has also prepared an overview of references to family therapy within NICE guidelines. These important documents are available to download from the AFT website, www.aft.org.uk. We hope they will help you in promoting the benefits of family therapy and systemic practice to managers and commissioners. If you have problems downloading these documents, please email a request for copies to the AFT office (office@aft.org.uk)

The Board are looking for members to represent AFT and would like to invite you to help us.  Firstly we are looking for a third AFT representative to the UKCP Systemic College, if you are currently UKCP registered you may wish to become more involved with the registration of Family and Systemic Psychotherapists.  The Board has also agreed to subscribe to CORC.  Peter Stratton says “A significant achievement is that AFT has been invited to apply to become a member of the CAMHS Outcome Research Consortium (CORC). The invitation arises from Jan Parker’s tireless efforts to get influential organisations interested in us, and because we have the SCORE outcome measure to offer. It will cost AFT £1500 each year but will give us lots of research resources and should put us into a strong position to influence the objectives of child and adolescent therapy. Our involvements already include setting up the group to decide if SCORE can be included in their stable of approved and recommended outcome measures for all CAMHS; Joining the group that is providing a practitioner perspective on measuring outcomes for children; Joining a project on ‘purposeful curiosity’ linked with the CODE project (child outcome data explained); and more general involvement with the research grants they are applying for on benefit to patients and ‘closing the gap” and if you would like to become more involved in this as one of our named representatives we would be interested in hearing from you.  Please email Sue Kennedy on s.kennedy@aft.org.uk who will arrange for someone to discuss these roles in more detail with you.

AFT’s media release, highlighting the impact of cuts in public services on vulnerable families, is available to view on the AFT website home and media pages. The Board is keen to continue to lobby on this issue.  Please contact AFT Communications Officer, janparker@aft.org.uk, with information of how cuts are affecting family therapy and other systemic services in your area. We appreciate that in these difficult times, many members have anxieties about talking publicly, as this may place them in breach of their employment contracts. Please be assured that AFT will take care not to identify members or services forwarding information without their prior and explicit consent.

Our thanks to Ged Smith, Context deputy editor, for his appearance on a Christmas edition of Radio 4’s Today Programme.

Our next Board meeting will be on the 15th April, please let us know if you feel there are any issues you would like us to consider.  We will also be considering the response to our email membership survey.  Thank you to the 540 members who returned the survey to Wiley-Blackwells by the closing date. 

The David Campbell Creative Initiative Fund is receiving applications for funding of up to £500 to support innovative developments to promote family therapy and systemic practice and support the welfare of families.  It is fitting that David’s name be associated with a fund aimed at offering financial support to AFT members who are interested in converting original and innovative ideas into practical projects.  An application form can be found on our website under training and development.  The “David Cambell Talks Cecchin” DVD  prepared as a commemoration of the life and work of David Campbell by Paul Fletcher and David Gristock raised £356 in donations for the Marie Curie Hospice in 2010. 

We hope you enjoy reading the write up of the 2010 conference in this issue of Context.  Our 2011 National Conference, hosted by the Debyshire Branch, will be held in a traditional Victorian hotel in the lovely location of Buxton. The Derbyshire Branch of AFT also known as DAFT, want to bring their own individual touch to this conference and feel the setting and venue are just perfect to do this.  They already have excellent speakers, Carmel Flaskas and Paolo Bertrando and an array of workshops, but please consider submitting a workshop proposal.  New presenters and ideas are very welcome.  The closing date for receipt of workshop proposals is 1 March.  Full details are given on the AFT website.

We are also delighted to announce this year’s Eileen Jamieson Memorial Workshop, ‘Healthy relationships in primary care: Systemic approaches to recovery and well-being’, will be held on Friday June 10, at and in association with the Tavistock Centre, London. This timely event will focus on the development of family therapy and systemic practice in GP practices and other primary care services. The spirit of the Eileen Jamieson memorial events is to spread the word about systemic family practice, so please tell your colleagues in primary care and beyond. And please come along if you can. Further details are available on the AFT website and will be circulated shortly.

If any Branch is interested in hosting the 2012 AFT conference or the Eileen Jamieson Day, please let us know by the 7th April.  Feel free to contact the AFT office if you would like to know more about what this involves.

We do like to keep in touch with you through Context and our electronic newsletters.  If you have not received a copy of the January electronic newsletter in your inbox called news@aft-mail.org.uk  and would like to be on the mailing list, please confirm your email address to office@aft.org.uk

With best wishes
Sue Jones
Chair

AFT news December 2010

As we approach the end of another busy year, I am sure you are like me wondering where the year has gone too.  2010 has been a year of change, within the country, within our services and within AFT.  I only took over as Chair in September, but already see how much work is taking place within committees and by those who strive to give our members, the benefits and services they expect from us.  I must thank the editor of the Journal, Mark Rivett, and his team and also the editor of Context, Brian Cade, and his team for providing us with these extremely valuable publications, which demonstrate the full benefit of family therapy and systemic practice in all areas of life.  I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do. 

AFT is a membership organisation and we rely on our membership income to function.  Finances are tight for us as an organisation as they are for manyl individuals and we aim to continue to deliver the same if not more benefits and services to you in order to fulfil your continuing professional development needs.  AFT is developing the evidence base and currently conducting a review of the evidence based paper, we are always looking to raise awareness about relationships, family and systemic practice to government and other influential bodies.  AFT has been said to “punch far above its weight”, something we will continue to do.  We also have ongoing debates within and outside AFT about the name of the organization, the name of the profession and the name of the approach, in order to incorporate family but show our systemic philosophy and position.  Judith Lask, our Training Standards and Workforce Development Lead says “we have to juggle with what makes sense to the public, what makes sense to the field and the historical reality of the way we have identified ourselves and been known in the past”.  Striving to keep ahead with changing times, we also hope to develop our website and multi media, so that we can offer you and you clients better services on-line from January 2012. 

You will by now have received your renewal notice to renew your membership of AFT for 2011 (this is separate to your UKCP membership), which we very much hope you will do.  The shape of UKCP has changed with greater possibility for individual involvement, so AFT and UKCP membership fees are paid separately to the individual organisations.  AFT is still responsible for promoting and checking the continuing professional development requirements of UKCP registrants and is still working closely with UKCP within the systemic college.  We would like to bring to your attention a UKCP conference being held in London on March 5th and 6th 2011.  The title of the conference is  “The Cost of Not Caring –  responding to the psychological needs of children . Jim Wilson is among the Pleniary presenters and will be a good opportunity to look at multimodal and multidisciplinary approaches in working with child distress. More details can be found on the UKCP website.

We are encouraging members to pay their AFT membership fee by direct debit, as this again cuts down on administrative costs for the Association.  As a thank you to those who have already transferred to this method of payment we have frozen your membership fee this year (saving you almost 10%).  Existing members on direct debits will have their payment taken at the end of December.  Any members who would like to transfer to this method of payment will still receive a 5% discount on 2011 prices.  A direct debit payment is taken at the end of a month and in order for a member to be included in that collection, we must have their mandate processed by the start of that month.  Please therefore ensure any direct debit mandate is submitted by the beginning of January, to ensure you receive your February Copy of Context.  Unfortunately we can no longer send back copies of Context to those who subscribe late, due to the financial cost of this.  Of course you can still pay by cheque or credit card if you prefer.  Details are given on the renewal notice or please contact Stephen Smith, our membership services specialist on 01865 476016.

There have been some concerns from those working in the voluntary sector around what AFT is doing for those who work in the independent sector and the third sector, with a number of debates taking place on the AFT google email group.  AFT does celebrate what is done in all sectors, but clearly the AFT Board need to think about this more carefully. The AFT Board will be reviewing this at their meeting on the 14th January to see what more we can do as an organisation to support those who work in private practice, the voluntary and third sector.  If you have any ideas please send these to Sue Kennedy on s.kennedy@aft.org.uk 

We are now looking forward to the events of 2011.  We have a number of regional events in the early part of the year.  Cornwall on 11/12th February and Scotland on 24/5th March.  Our AFT National Conference will be in Buxton, Derbyshire from the 22nd to the 24th September and a call for workshop proposals is on the following page of the website http://www.aft.org.uk/training/conferences.asp.  Please think about submitting a workshop or a short 20 minute presentation.  We would encourage members to submit a proposal to showcase family and systemic practice in your area and welcome proposals from experience presenters, new presenters and students.

I look forward to meeting you at one of the events in 2011.
With very best wishes for the season and the New Year.
Sue Jones Chair