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Register Description

The PSA Register is based upon one that Play Therapy UK (PTUK), has maintained since we were formed in 2000, which has now been replaced by this on-line Register.

Play Therapy UK’s register has been accredited by the Professional Standards Authority under its Accredited Registers (AR) Programme.

The Programme was set up to provide assurance on the standards of registers of unregulated health and care occupations.

Bringing the Play Therapy profession into a broad framework of assurance is good for the children, parents and other service users and is the best way to promote quality.

Being accredited under the AR Programme offers enhanced protection to anyone looking for Play Therapy services – people now have the option of seeking practitioners on a register that has been vetted and approved.

Accreditation offers practitioners working in Play Therapy a means of demonstrating their personal commitment to meeting high standards by joining Play Therapy UK’s accredited register.

Accreditation means that Play Therapy UK has met the Authority’s demanding standards in the following areas: governance, setting standards, education and training, managing the register, providing information and complaints.

Play Therapy UK needed to provide evidence and demonstrate to the Authority that it meets the Authority’s standards for accreditation. Accreditation will be reviewed annually.

Being accredited means that Play Therapy UK has satisfied the Authority that it meets its high standards. It is a mark of quality.

Accreditation does not imply that the Authority has itself assessed the merits of individuals on the Play Therapy UK register. It remains the responsibility of Play Therapy UK to do that.

Play Therapy UK requires its registrants to meet high standards of personal behaviour, technical competence and, where applicable, business practice.

Accreditation does not imply that the Authority has endorsed the efficacy of a treatment or therapy practised or any other service offered by registrants on the Play Therapy UK register. However as part of its quality assurance standards and processes Play Therapy UK provides substantial evidence of the effectiveness of Play Therapy.

Accredited Registration is different from statutory professional regulation because it is voluntary, not compulsory. Practitioners can work in play therapy without being on a register.

Registers accredited by the Authority will encompass a wide range of occupations and organisations holding registers. The Authority may accredit more than one register in any particular occupation.

Accredited Registers will be entitled to use the Authority’s accreditation mark so that they can be distinguished easily.

The quality mark will give extra peace of mind for anyone looking for a Play Therapy practitioner letting them know that anyone who holds the mark is committed to the high standards of Play Therapy UK.

All Accredited Registers can be accessed through the Professional Standards Authority’s website – http://www.professionalstandards.org.uk/accredited-registers/the-accredited-registers-directory

This Programme applies to the health sector in the UK and to social care in England.

Play Therapy UK’s management of the Register enables us to meet the regulatory requirements of the PSA by:

 

  • setting and enforcing standards for entry to the Register
  • managing the renewal of registration each year, known as revalidation
  • investigating complaints and where necessary imposing sanctions or striking the Registrant off the Register.

 

To be on this register a member has to be fully qualified by completing a post graduate programme of training, conform to PTUK’s Ethical framework and carry out quality assurance procedures known as clinical governance, clinical supervision by a Clinical Supervisor by an approved Member of PTUK and meet our CPD standards. They also have to have satisfactory, current and enhanced safeguarding (DBS/CRB) checks and adequate professional indemnity and public liability insurance.

The Register holds a list of PTUK members who have met the standards for registration for a number of titles:

Certified Play Therapist

Qualified and experienced in working with individual, or groups of children, who have mild to severe emotional, behaviour or mental health problems. May work for organisations such as schools, social services or primary health care or practice privately as independent practitioners.

Accredited Play Therapist

Certified Play Therapists who have over 450 hours practice experience.

Certified Practitioner in Therapeutic Play Skills

Qualified and experienced in working with individual children, who have mild emotional, behaviour or mental health problems. Work for organisations such as schools, social services or primary health care often in a multiple role such as ‘Teaching Assistant With Therapeutic Play Skills’, ‘Social Worker With Therapeutic Play Skills’, ‘Nurse With Therapeutic Play Skills’.

Filial Play Coach

Coaches parents and carers to improve parent/child relationships and help to improve attachment issues using play.

Certified Play and Creative Arts Counsellor of Children and Young People

This is a new title being introduced in 2017. Registrants are specially trained to use play and creative arts therapies skills alongside side talking therapies. Many children cannot or do not want to talk about their emotional, behaviour or mental health issues. However, as they grow older and into young people talking does become more appropriate. Our registrants with this title are qualified to integrate both sets of skills according to need. They are subject to the same stringent quality assurance procedures, ethical framework, complaints procedures and annual revalidation audit as all of our other titles.

Certified Supervisor of Play and Creative Arts Therapists

Qualified and experienced in the very important role of clinically supervising Play Therapists, Practitioners in Therapeutic Play Skills and Filial Play Coaches. This involves quality assurance on a monthly basis, education and support of their supervisees.

Trainee

Undertaking a Post Graduate Certificate course accredited by PTUK to become a Certified Practitioner in Therapeutic Play Skills.

You can check the status of individual Registrants and search for those who practice in your area.

Registrants with any of the above titles will be removed from the Register if:

 

  • a complaint is upheld with a sanction requiring this action;
  • their performance falls below the PTUK ethical and practice standards;
  • the Registrant fails to complete their annual re-validation process satisfactorily;
  • they voluntarily cease clinical practice either temporarily or permanently for health or other personal reasons;
  • as a Trainee, they fail to successfully complete their training.

 

In the case of the reason 4, a practitioner may be restored to the Register, provided that they have demonstrated that they have undertaken a specified amount of retraining to ensure that they are up to date and according to the duration of their non-practising period.

Register Governance

The Register is managed by the Registrar, Alun John

It is administered by the PTUK Membership Department

The management of the Register is audited by the independent organisation The British Council for Therapeutic Interventions With Children who act as a ‘watch dog’ over PTUK to ensure that there are no conflicts of interest.

Please note that PTUK Register is NOT: a store of children’s or parent’s records or medical histories NOR provides general information and advice about health issues.

The Register exists to protect Parents and Children against incompetent practitioners and unsafe practice. It also provides information about Registrants in your locality. PTUK needs to ensure that Registrants’ human rights are fully upheld when considering the information that is made available. For this reason information about professionals’ home addresses, health or any unfounded allegations against them remain confidential and do not appear on the register. Fitness to practice information is included and any outstanding sanctions (actions required following a complaint). PTUK is also committed to publishing a list of Registrants who have been struck off in the last five years.