Welcome to PATTA

Whatever stage of business you’re at, whatever your place in the PAT testing industry, whether you’re employed, an employer or something else, thank you for joining us and we hope that we will be able to offer something to help you.

The main aim of PATTA is to help improve the industry and improve buyers perception of PAT. We do this by representing the industry at events and meetings where appliance safety is discussed.

PATTA aims to represent the industry where it needs it, and to try to improve standards within the industry, and the public’s perception of the importance of PAT done properly.

By joining PATTA you are joining a journey; the money you pay goes towards helping us achieve our objectives as attending these meetings can be expensive and time consuming. Also marketing our work costs money. As we’re all volunteers, we appreciate the investment in us you are making as that goes a long way to helping us.

In return we will do our best to represent you which will hopefully in time make your work easier, and we have also secured some excellent discounts which if used will more than cover the cost of your annual fee.

PATTA is constantly developing and improving itself, beavering away at our tasks, often unseen and unheard, but rest assured we are working hard to raise standards in our industry.

It may look like a lot of boring text but this article may be the most important on this site – it’s the one that tells you what you need to know, so please read it, or you may miss something that benefits you.

A Little Background…

Originally launched in 2013 as the PAT Testing Network, then rebranded in 2018, PATTA was started to help connect PAT testers around the UK.

The association now has over 150 members, so it’s working.

PATTA, albeit an association was established by and is owned by partners Tim James and Richard Ayre, with the company registered as Limited by Guarantee company. We are assisted in our running of the association by a voluntary members’ group. Anyone can apply to join this group, assuming you have a particular skill to offer.

Contrary to popular belief, PATTA is not and does not intend to be an industry regulator or certification body like the NICEIC or NAPIT is to electricians but is acting as a standards bearer.

We formed because at the time there was nobody or recognised body supporting or representing the industry when decisions were being made that affected it. Code of Practices for example, and other guidance was being produced and there was no body on these boards representing the industry. We felt this needed to change and so PATTA began.

It is our hope to lead people to apply high standards in their business, to help eradicate the industry of ‘cowboy’ traders, and to self-regulate, so that the industry is seen by it’s buyers as a reputable industry carrying out an important service.

We do this by representing our industry, by educating our industry and by trying to influence the public through education and understanding.

Doing all this takes time, patience and money and we can’t do it on our own. We need you and your help. By joining PATTA and paying a small fee you help us by covering some of the costs of our labour, but it is a long road with plenty of work to be done, so if you can offer more than that please do get in touch.

We hope that by working together we can show all our clients that high standards far outweigh the cheapest prices.

Since we began, we have had meetings in Parliament, with Government departments, British Standards, manufacturers, training bodies, the IET, Electrical Safety First, and we were heavily involved in the writing of the latest Code of Practice.

If you check out page 9 of the IET Code of Practice, 5^th Edition, for In-Service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment, you will see that we are referenced as a Co-Operating Organisation. Our Standards Director, Tim James, was heavily involved in the writing of various parts of the publication.

When you see people on social media incorrectly quoting the COP, and we step in to try to educate them, it’s laughable that they continue to argue that we’re wrong – we helped write it, we know it’s intentions!

Whilst we were working on the new publication, we were not allowed to talk about it, we couldn’t tell our members we were doing it – this is what our work is often about. We are busy, but we can’t tell you, so when you are wondering what we are doing, rest assured, we are doing something.

Much of our work is proactive, and some is responsive. We use social media as a platform to educate; if a subject proves to be particularly juicy we may take it and create an article or Vlog, with the intention of helping fellow PAT Testers to learn.

In recent years we have noticed a marked improvement in the way new customers perceive what we do, and there is now more understanding in the importance of standards. No longer do most customers look for the cheapest price, now, the majority know that to get quality they need to pay a bit more.

We do however ask our members to help us – when going for a job, don’t go in cheap to win it, educate your client on the importance of high standards and safety, and win that job based on that. We have members charging rates at the top end of the scale, who win a lot of new work and retain clients for many years. You too can do that.

Through improvements in education and knowledge customers now know the importance of PAT in health and safety.

As a member you can display the PATTA logo on your stationery, clothing, website, anywhere you like. The PATTA logo shows your clients that quality and standards are important to you.

Your membership of PATTA is a subscription; you have paid a joining fee and to continue as a member you must pay an annual fee, which is taken 12 months from the first payment date, and so on after that until you cancel it.

Paying a recurring payment by Go Cardless (Direct Debit) or PayPal (Card Payment) you are saving us time doing admin and accounts, so you get a discounted rate.

If you want to cancel your membership, simply stop the recurring payment.

You will not get advance notification of the payment, so make sure you’re ready for it – it’ll be taken automatically by your chosen system every 12 months from the date you joined and will continue until you cancel.

If you cancel the subscription or your direct debit is rejected by the bank, your membership will end on the anniversary date, and all benefits will cease. We are volunteers, so don’t have the time to chase payments, sorry.

Payment is upfront, for the coming year. We don’t refund payments so please make sure you cancel before the next payment comes out – if that is what you want to do – you have 364 days to do it.

If paying on invoice, your payment needs to be made before your existing membership expires, and before the due date on the invoice. We’re volunteers so don’t chase payments. If you don’t make the payment, we’ll assume you have changed your mind and cancel the application.

You will be sent a receipt of payment, but it may be a while – we do the accounts every 3 months and send invoices out at this point. The invoice will show the payment has been made. PayPal* and Go Cardless send their own invoice receipts to show the payment has bene made.

*From February 2024 we no longer use PayPal for new memberships. 

Every member is entitled to a listing on the members’ directory; if you don’t run a business, we advise against you setting this up. The directory is optimised for search engines and may lead to you getting work enquiries*.

*Note: PATTA doesn’t set out to get you work, getting work by being a member is not a promoted benefit, we are not attempting to get you work and you shouldn’t join to get work. If you do get work from being a member that is a bonus. The PATTA directory does get hits, and you may get leads – you will probably never know which they are, and it doesn’t really matter. If you are joining to get work you’re joining for the wrong reasons, but being a member does show your customers you take safety seriously so may help your business.

If any of your contact details change, let us know as soon as possible to update your listing.

If you have not yet registered your listing, you can do so here: https://patta.co.uk/directory-listing/ – you can also use this form to update your listing.

Each member is given one listing – if you try to set up more, they will be rejected.

We’re not a networking organisation so we’re not going to be putting on lots of events, but by becoming a member you are getting access to other members.

Via the Members directory you can search for others in your area and arrange your own meet ups. You can also use this to sub-contract work to other members in different locations. For example, in my own business we get enquiries throughout the UK, but we only sub contract to members we know or PATTA members we have met and vetted.

You can also use the Facebook group to talk to new members.

When we have our PATTA working group September meeting we promote this to members to come and meet us, to join us for a meal and some drinks, we’d love you to come and meet us.

We also would like to get started with local meets, but we need someone with networking skills to do this – could this be you?

We are as a development team have our own meetings every 6 months, which could be anywhere in the UK. Usually we choose midland locations. Usually we meet around March to May, and every September. We always promote this and invite members to come to meet us to chat, go out for drinks and a meal perhaps.

We sometimes put on a guest speaker – in 2022 this was Jim Wallace from Gambica, and formally of Seaward. Jim talked about the importance of operating to British Standards. There is a video of the talk here:  https://patta.co.uk/patta-event-beyond-the-code-of-practice/

We have a private member only Facebook group, which you can join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pattauk

When you join, introduce yourself to the other members. Feel free to ask any questions.

We have added you to our mailing list – you won’t be inundated with junk but if you unsubscribe you may miss important emails, so please, stay on it.

Your certificate is issued when you join so you will get one soon if you don’t already have it.

We don’t send out new certificates when your membership renews; unless you request it.

If you require an updated certificate, please send an email to info@patta.co.uk

• PAT Labels Online – 25% off – Quote PATTA25Off on orders
• Britannia Test & Measurement (Calibration) – 25% off – Quote Cal25
• Simply Pats Software – 15% off  the downloadable edition of the software – Quote PATTA15

Our suppliers are told to check our latest members list before applying the discount. They do that by checking our website. If your membership cancels, you will be removed from the list and so the discount will be refused.

Thank you for choosing to join PATTA

We do update members with what we are up to, but a lot of what we do can’t be discussed in detail until completed. Please get in touch if there is anything you feel could be added to PATTA, if you want to get involved, have any comments or feedback. Please remember though – PATTA is not here to grow your business, or to provide you with all the important things a business needs. If you need business guidance get a coach or mentor.

info@patta.co.uk

We don’t have a dedicated phone number but can ring you back if preferred.

Terms and Conditions

• Discounted Payment for PATTA subs is by Go Cardless recurring card payment. Payment is available on invoice, at £80.00 per annum – that’s £55.00 + an admin charge.
• The application process from start to finish can take up to 30 days.
• Your membership remains active as long as payments are made on time; if a payment is missed we give you once chance to update it, if that time passes and the membership remains unpaid we cancel your membership. We’re volunteers not paid bookkeepers, we don’t have time to chase unpaid invoices. If you allow your membership to lapse and want to re-join, you will join as a new member and if the payment is now higher, you’ll have to join at the higher rate.
• You can cancel your membership at any time by cancelling your recurring payment at PayPal or Go Cardless or informing us by email of you intention not to renew, before the next payment is made.
• We have a ‘no refund’ policy – if you cancel your membership, it will remain active until the end of the period for which you have paid for.
• After your payment has cancelled you must remove all our logos, and all reference to being a PATTA member from all your business stationery, website, clothing, vehicles etc. Continuing to display these when not a member may result in legal action.
• As a member you have agreed to operate to our Working Standards as a minimal guide, at all times.
• If PATTA feel you have brought the association or industry into disrepute, your membership can be cancelled, without refund.
• PATTA may change, alter, or modify these terms at any time.

Getting involved

Does the work PATTA does interest you?

Would you like to be involved?

Have you got something you can offer us?

If you want to do more to improve your industry why not join us and become a part of our development team.

We’re also looking for new input and fresh ideas. If you want to get involved, you’ll need to be able to commit to doing the work you agree to and attending our meetings (usually in person once or twice a year) and on zoom more often. Submit your application showing us how you can help by email to info@patta.co.uk