Some of the main issues influencing BAAT's decision to become a Central Association of the NUT

Parallel to and to some extent affecting the debates about membership criteria, and crucial to the future structure of BAAT, were the negotiations which resulted in BAAT acquiring the status of a Central Association of the National Union of Teachers. These negotiations were conducted by Graham Cable (a potter and art teacher by background), on behalf of the council, and the outcome was to have profound effects on the future of both BAAT and art therapy training until the mid-1970s and beyond.