Freelance

Music Therapists
checklist (2022)

Professional registration
Mandatory training
T&Cs
Pricing

Getting referrals

Book-keeping
CPD
 CONTENT
GETTING STARTED P.1

P.2
STEP 1: REGISTRATION

STEP 2: MANDATORY TRAINING P.3

STEP 3: CONTRACTS P.4

CLIENT CONTRACT
SERVICE LEVEL CONTRACT
SERVICE DESCRIPTION
CONSENT FORM

STEP 4: COSTING P.9

RATE CALCULATOR

STEP 5: GETTING REFERRALS P.11

STEP 6: BOOK-KEEPING P.13

PERSONAL TAX 101

STEP 7: CPD P.15

NETWORKING
WORKING WITH CHILDREN
TRAUMA-FOCUSED TRAINING
FURTHER MT TRAINING

'Success is only meaningful and

enjoyable if it feels like your own.'
MICHELLE OBAMA
 GETTING STARTED
WHEN I STARTED MY PRIVATE PRACTICE, I WAS
OVERWHELMED WITH THE AMOUNT OF ADMIN
HOOPS THAT I NEEDED TO JUMP BEFORE I GET
TO DO THE WORK I ACTUALLY LOVE - HELPING
PEOPLE WITH MUSIC.

I SPENT AGES SEARCHING FOR A BOOK, A

GUIDE OR A CHECKLIST THAT HELPS ME MAKE
SURE I HAVE EVERY REGISTRATION,
PAPERWORK AND TRAINING IN PLACE FOR MY
PRACTICE. WHEN I REALISED IT DIDN'T EXSIT,
I MADE MY OWN.

SO MANY THERAPISTS PUT OFF STARTING A

PRIVATE PRACTICE BECAUSE OF THE AMOUNT
OF ADMIN INVOLVED.

I AM SHARING THIS CHECKLIST WITH YOU SO

YOU CAN GET STARTED, STAY ORGANISED
AND OFFER SOLID CLINICAL WORK KNOWING
THAT ALL YOUR PAPERWORK IS IN PLACE.

est,
B
C r y s ta l
P. 1
 Step 1: Registration
HCPC (or other regulating bodies)
www.hcpc-uk.org

Registration number: ______________________________

Renewal date: _____________________________________

Indemnity insurance
www.balens.co.uk
www.towergateinsurance.co.uk

Policy provider: ___________________________________

Policy number: ____________________________________

Renewal date: _____________________________________

ICO (Information commissioner office)

www.ico.org.uk

Registration number: _____________________________

Renewal date: _____________________________________

DBS check (or relevant check)

www.disclosures.org.uk

Certificate number: ______________________________

Renewal ID: _______________________________________

Sign up to the DBS update service on

https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service
within 30 days of your DBS certificate issue date to
avoid having to apply for DBS check annually.

P. 2
 HMRC self-employment registration
www.gov.uk/register-for-self-assessment

Registration number: ______________________________

Next self-assessment due date: __________________

Online tax return is due on 31st January each year for

the previous tax year. You can only submit your tax
return online if you have registered with HMRC self-
assessment by 5th January.

BAMT (or relevant associations)

www.bamt.org

Registration number: ______________________________

Renewal date: _____________________________________

You don't need BAMT registration to practice, but I highly

recommend it as it gives your practice better exposure.

Step 2: Mandatory trainings

Safeguarding Children Level 3

Completion date: _________________________________

Renewal date: _____________________________________

Safeguarding Adult Level 3

Completion date: _________________________________

Renewal date: _____________________________________

You need to renew them every 2 years. If you have an

employed role or an honorary contract, your employer will
provide these trainings. Otherwise, organisations such as
BAMT, NLMT & RMT often host safeguarding trainings for
freelancers.
P. 3
 Step 3: Contracts
Client contract
Payment terms

Do you send invoices before or after sessions?

Are payments due in advance or in arrear?

How do your clients pay you?

When will you cease delivering services?

Cancellation policy

Up to when can clients cancel a sessions

without being charged?

What happens if you need to cancel a session

last minute?

Cool off period

Your clients are entitled to a 14-day cool off

period (Consumer Contract Regulations 2014),
but you can protect yourself by stating that you
can only refund for work that has not been
carried out.

General description of your service(s)

What service(s) do you provide?

Do you have a speciality?

What is your role in supporting a client's

wellbeing? State your scope of practice clearly.
For instance, a psychodynamic music therapist
would be working with a client's mental health,
but not their physical health.

P. 4
Privacy policy

How are you storing your clients details?

Will you require clients to sign consent form

for recordings?

How will you ensure you're in accordance of

Data Protection Act 2018?

Safeguarding policy

What is your process of flagging up

safeguarding concerns?

Will you require clients to complete a risk

assessment form prior to starting sessions?

How will you ensure you're in accordance of

the Children's Act (1989) and the Care Act
(2014)?

Your professional responsibility

What are your professional responsibility?

Where can your clients check your

registration?

Who should your clients contact if they have

concerns for your fitness to practice?

Termination of contract

How much notice would you require for

termination of contract?

Would you offer a ending report or meeting?

P. 5
 Intellectual properties

Are your clients authorised to circulate

resources provided by you?

What actions will you take if your clients

distributed resources created by you without
your consent?

Resolving problems

What is your client's first step of action if they

wish to make a complaint?

Will you have any written clause to prevent

clients from posting negative reviews about
you before discussing with you?

Can they terminate your services immediately

if they are not happy with your services?

Service level contract

Include everything in client contract EXCEPT:

Cool off period: organisations such as schools,

care homes and charities are NOT legally
deemed as consumers so you are not required
to offer a 14-day cool off period.

Whose responsibility is it to source funding?

It is helpful to state that while you will support

any funding application through outcome
measurement and reports, the organisation
that buys your service is responsible in
securing funding for your services, not you!

P. 6
Whose data is it?

Does the clients' data and notes belong to the

organisation you work with or does it belong to
you?

Who is responsible for keeping client data

secure?

Who should gain consent from clients?

Should the organisation who buys your service

provide consent forms?

Do you have permission to ask the clients to

give consent for you to use session materials
for supervision or presentations?

Service description
This is an additional legally bind documents that
outlines the specific details of your service with
each client and organisation. That way you don't
need to create different contracts for different
clients.

Name of service

e.g. Weekly music therapy sessions; music

therapy assessment, music therapy pilot
project, group music therapy sessions etc.

Period of engagement

Is it term time only?

Is it recurring until further notice?

Does it have a definite agreed engagement

period (e.g. July 2022 - September 2022)

P. 7
Details of service delivery

Where will the sessions take place?

Which day of the week and what time do

sessions take place?

Price

Be specific. e.g. £75 per 45-minute session or

£300 per 3-hour visit

What's included in the price?

Does your price include cost for reports,

meetings and travelling time?

It is a good idea to outline the cost involved in

running your sessions, e.g. supervision, CPD.

Consent form
Instead of having your client sign the contract,
service description, risk assessment and video
consent separately, create one document and ask
your clients to confirm they:

have read and agreed with your T&Cs;

agreed with the service description;

agreed with your risk assessment form

consent/ not consent to video recording for

supervision;

consent/ not consent to video recording for

presentations.

Don't forget to both sign the document!

P. 8
 Step 4: Getting referrals
BAMT 'find a therapist'

This is free for any music therapists registered

with BAMT

You can state your location (roughly) and

specialised clinical areas

Remember to make your profile 'public'

Facebook/ IG Ads

You can spend as much as your budget allows

You can target specific audience

Online advertising platforms for therapists

Psychology Today

Private Practice Hub

Therapy Tribe

Other advertising platforms

Childcare.co.uk

Bidvine

Online advertising platforms often offer a free trial

period. Make sure you use this period to send
messages to potential clients and assess whether
to use their paid service afterwards.

P. 9
Website

It's a place where your clients can 'check you out'

before contacting you

Remember to have a contact form on your website

so people know how to reach out

Create a free site at Wix.com

Establish referral links with fellow AHPs

Fellow AHPs, such as SLT, OT, Physiotherapists

and SEN childcare services can be our allies when
building a caseload

Find local AHPs and introduce yourself

Establish referral links with local organisations

If you want to work with local schools, charities,

rehab centres or care homes, it will be worth
introducing yourself and your service to their
service managers.

Old school flyers

If you want to stay local, old school flyers at

cafes, restaurants, library etc. for drop-in
community music therapy groups can be a good
start.

Relationship is key! Be patient, even if you don't

get referrals coming through these sources
immediately, getting to know your local services
will prove to be useful when building your
caseload and will later compliment your clinical
work.

P. 10
 Step 5: Costing
One size doesn't fit all when it comes to pricing. It
depends on a range of factors:

Your location

Client group

Do you include note-writing and report-writing

time?

Do you include meeting time?

Do you include travelling time and cost?

There is no correct formula, but you should

consider the following cost:

HCPC registration BAMT registration

£_____________p.a. £_____________p.a.

Supervision cost Accounting

£_____________p.a. £_____________p.a.

Private pension Personal therapy

£_____________p.a. £_____________p.a.

CPD Instruments & equipments

£_____________p.a. £_____________p.a.

Sick/ annual leave Admin time

£_____________p.a. £_____________p.a.

Indemnity insurance Website maintenance

£_____________p.a. £_____________p.a.

Traveling cost Advertising

£_____________p.a. £_____________p.a.

P. 11
 Rate calculator
After calculating the basic cost of running your
business, you can decide your sessional rate by working
'backwards'. Ask yourself the following:

How much profit do you want to make per year?

________________________________________

How much does it cost to run your practice p.a.?

________________________________________

Profit + cost (p.a.) =

________________________________________

How many weeks do you want to work per year?

________________________________________

How many days do you want to work per week?

________________________________________

How many sessions do you want to offer per day?

________________________________________

If your ideal profit is £40,000 p.a. and your cost of

running a practice is £7,040 p.a. You need to make
£47,040 in total per year.

If you want to work 42 weeks a year, 4 days a week, 4

sessions a day, you need to charge:

£47040/(42 weeks x 4 days x 4 sessions)

=£70 per session
P. 12
 Step 6: Book-keeping
Your invoices need to include:

VAT (if applicable)

Your trading name and address

Your client's name and address

Service delivery date

Description of service

Amount charged

Amount owed

Date of invoice

Due date

Keep a clear record of your expenses

That includes your receipts and VAT records

You can claim all business-related expense as

long as you keep your receipts!

Set up a separate account

It will make your book-keeping process easer!

Invest in an accounting software

Quickbooks

Sage

Xero

P. 13
 Personal tax 101
Your taxable income = employed income + PAYE +
self-employed income + dividend

Taxable income Tax rate

£0-£12,570 0%

£12,571 - £50,270 20%

£50,271 - £150,000 40%

£150.000+ 45%

Paper tax return deadline:

31st October of the same year

Online tax return deadline:

31st January of the year after the financial year

Online registration for HRMC self-assessment

5h January before you submit online tax return

ABSOLUTE deadline:
you can submit your online tax return by
28th Feb without a penalty

You need to keep your tax return for 3 years.

If you are approaching the higher tax payer

threshold, keep a close eye on your income. You
don't want to be surprised by a 40% tax rate. Buy a
piano to off-set your balance sheet if needed!

If possible, voluntarily contribute an NI payment even

if you make under the personal tax allowance
(£12570), it will affect when you can access maternity
allowance and your state pension!

P. 14
 Step 7: CPD
This is not a comprehensive list of CPD courses
and providers, but they are good places to start
with. There are a lot of trainings out there, choose
ones that will enhance your practice instead of
trying to complete all of them!

Safeguarding Children Level 3 (Mandatory)

Safeguarding Adult Level 3 (Mandatory)

Chiltern Music Therapy training events

Chiltern offer Outcome Star training,

GarageBand training, online music toolkit
training and diversity training. It's well worth
signing up for their newsletter!

Chroma training events

They don't have a training page, but if you

keep an eye out, they run NMT and assessment
trainings every now and then

BAMT training events

BAMT runs clinical and non-clinical trainings at

a discounted cost for BAMT members.

Networking
Music Therapy Ed

A US-based subscription service for music

therapists who are keen on getting a range of
CPD courses - including drumming,
musicianship and business development. They
have a facebook group for networking.

P. 15
BAMT Freelance Network

Email the coordinator on freelance@bamt.org to

join the freelance network. The network hosts 2
meetings per year and is a great space for
freelancers to network and share experiences.

Join BAMT conferences - it's a fantastic way of

getting to know fellow therapists and keep up to
date with latest standard of practices.

Working out loud

A 12-week self-guided career development

programme for a group of 4-5 people design to
help you set career goals and keep each other
accuntable.

Working with children

Makaton

Makaton is a communication system that uses

signs and symbols and is widely used by
children and adults with developmental delays.

The Sensory Projects

Run by neurodiversed advocate Joanna Grace to

help practitioners facilitate a more diverse
sensory experience for children.

Winston's wish bereavement training

Winston's wish is a bereavement charity that

offer free training for professionals working with
bereaved families.

P. 16
 Trauma focused trainings
Beacon House training events

Beacon House offer trauma-focused training.

It's useful if you are working with children
with emotional behavioural challenges and
adults who require support with mental
health.

EMDR training

If you want to further explore trauma-focused

therapy, EMDR is an effective model that will
compliment our work.

CATT training

CATT (children's accelerated trauma therapy)

is a protocol combining children's rights, CBT
principles and arts to help children to
process traumatic experiences.

Further MT training
NMT training

The NMT academy now offers full training

online. It's a useful training if you want within
Rehab settings or child development settings.

GIM training

Guided Imagery & Music can be a useful

addition to your toolbox. It's a long training,
but can be done in stages.

P. 17
 CPD record sheet

Date Activity Learning objectives

P. 18
Thoughts & inspirations

P. 19
 Good luck!

Let me know how you get on! If you see

me at a conference or network meeting,
please say hi!

If you'd like to work with me to get

your private practice going, please
email me at
crystal@clapandtoot.com
or book a consultation at
www.clapandtoot.com/supervision

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