“Welcome to our 44th AGM. I am really sorry for not being
able to be with you. Sometimes life events just take over. Hoping that the conference thus far has been as interesting,
energising and exciting as it looked whist planning and organising. A big thank you to the North East branch for working so hard to make this happen. T is report is a summary of the chair’s report published in the
August Context. What follows is a brief overview of changes and our activities these last 12 months.
Our theme; the voice of AFT You may recall in a survey a few years ago, it was held by the
membership that it was important for AFT to be within the public arena. Hence the development of the ‘voice of AFT’, has been a continuing theme. Reenee Singh, our CEO, will provide further details of her work in this area.
Our hub, the offi ce T e big change brought about by Sue and Paul Kennedy’s
retirement have also featured heavily on the board’s agenda. For years they have worked tirelessly for AFT, almost no request, no mat er how imaginative, complicated or just plain impossible, was turned down! I am sure you like to add to the many expressions of
gratitude and thanks to Sue and Paul for helping to make AFT what it is today, providing us with such a well-run and supportive organisation. As mentioned, there are cards for completing your own personal message, which will be compiled into a memory book for Sue and Paul. Staying within the offi ce we also warmly welcome our new
staff members, Suzanne, executive assistant, Kathi, admin offi cer for cred and branches and Janice, fi nancial manager.
Looking at the board’s activities Our working agenda this year has again been structured by our
strategic plan, and we focused on: 1. Digital presence; work on the new website has already begun. You will get regular updates on the progress from now on.
2. Continue to forge closer links with the UKCP, again Reenee has noted this in her review.
3. At ending external events, some of which are mentioned in this report.
4. Ongoing work on the training review and creating opportunities, which emerged following a consultation day in spring 2017. A further report will follow in this AGM.
5. Policy and media presence, again Reenee will update you. 6. Promotion of research and continuing input into the NICE guidelines.
7. Work on the conferences; we have two symposiums next year. In May we are in Bristol and in September we will be in Manchester. Apart from our four face-to-face meetings and numerous
telephone meetings, we also had our annual chairs day. The day was spent hearing from the chairs of the committees, a presentation on the UKCP, and a session on the work of EFTA. For the first time ever, the board has co-opted a lay
member. Ujjal Saini has accepted our invitation to join. Ujjal is an accountant and his expertise of the financial and legal requirements is knowledge the board will need in the future.
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Feedback on the review of systemic practitioner membership
• One of the most challenging discussions we had this year was regarding the systemic practitioner membership (SPM) category
• T e SPM category was initially set up to encourage CYP-IAPT trainees and those taking (or having taken) the traditional route to intermediate level
• We wanted to include and welcome systemic practitioner members into our community and support their practice with the AFT codes of conduct
• Since its adoption in 2017, there have been concerns regarding how health providers and the general public understand this part-qualifi ed role
• Within our constitution it is outlined that we have a duty to ensure that high professional standards are maintained. T e board feels that the confusion that systemic category membership has brought about is in confl ict with our mission statement.
• With this in mind, aſt er consolation, discussion and debate, the board has agreed the following: AFT will cease to use the membership description of systemic
practitioner member. It must be emphasised here that AFT will continue to warmly welcome all those who have systemic training or interest in systemic approaches into our community. We support all out members’ professional development and
recognise the richness the various trainings bring to AFT. We recognise the need to have accurate descriptions of all our
membership, therefore we propose to restructure the membership categories. It is hoped to introduce the changes once the new website development has been completed. AFT will continue to honour the AGM decision of 2017 until we
are able to introduce the changes and are able to provide guidelines on how the new membership categories will be established.
Our work facing outwards entailed Connections with the global systemic community which were
supported with our at endance of a meeting of the EFTA-NFTO (European Family T erapy Association National Family T erapy Organisations) board held in Manchester. T is was following our conference. It was lovely to hear how complimentary the meeting was about our annual gathering hosted by the Manchester branch, in particular the at ention paid to diversity and the high standards of all presentations. T e Europe-wide conversation was rich and thought provoking about how the profession functions and is organised in the diff erent European countries. In February we received the sad news of EFTA president, Rodolfo de Bernart’s passing. We welcomed the International Family T erapy Association
(IFTA) conference to Scotland, but also at ended EFTA and American Association for Marriage and Family T erapy (AAMFT) conferences as well connecting with our colleagues in South East Asia.
In terms of CPD and networking T ere has been a fl urry of conference and workshop activity,
these meetings have been organised by our members and occasionally supported by the AFT offi ce. To give you a brief example we had a very well at ended Memorial Day honouring Salvador and Pat Minuchin. T e ASPENS day is another such example. Of course, Context and our newslet er is fi lled with workshops, meeting CPD requirements and giving an opportunity for that all-important networking.
Context 170, August 2020
44th AGM minutes
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