Accredited registers update
Registers renewing accreditation
We are pleased to announce that the Academy for Healthcare Science, British Association of Play Therapists, British Psychoanalytic Council, British Association of Sport Rehabilitators and Trainers, Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council, Register of Clinical Technologists and UK Council for Psychotherapy have recently successfully renewed accreditation.
We ask all registers to renew annually – this means we can ensure that they continue to meet the Standards. We publish our decisions, which are available here.
Find out more about how becoming an accredited register leads to raised standards and improved public protection in this short case study.
Safeguarding
The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1976 and the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (Northern Ireland) Order 2007 as they currently stand restrict the accredited registers’ access to information that would help them to assess the risks posed by practitioners to the public. We continue to raise awareness of these risks.
We recently wrote to the Education and Skills Committee of the Scottish Parliament to highlight the potential to address this with the draft Disclosure (Scotland) Bill. The Bill is intended to strengthen the safeguarding framework in Scotland.
In the recent Stage 1 debate on the draft Bill, the points that the Authority has raised were referenced by a member of the Education and Skills Committee.
Other work
Revising the Standards for Accredited Registers
We have started a review of the Standards for Accredited Registers. We have already received very useful feedback from the registers and will be undertaking a formal consultation later in the year.
ASA publishes enforcement notice about advertising courses to administer botox and dermal fillers
The Advertising Standards Authority recently contacted us about work it was undertaking following concerns they had identified about the advertising of training courses to administer botox and dermal fillers. The ASA has now published an enforcement notice. We recommend to members of the public that when seeking non-surgical cosmetic treatments (including botox and fillers) they go to a practitioner who is on a statutory regulator's register or on an Accredited Register (such as Save Face or Joint Council for Cosmetic Practitioners).
Events
Accredited Registers Conference
We held our annual conference on 21 October 2019, which focused on the Duty of Candour. We heard about the patient’s perspective from Imelda Redmond of Healthwatch England and about the registers’ work from Margaret Coats of the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council.
Next Accredited Registers seminar
We are planning our next seminar, which will take place on 30 April.
FHT conference
We attended the annual Federation of Holistic Therapists Conference on 29 November, which brought together a range of experts from complementary healthcare professions to signal new ways of increasing patient satisfaction, as well as considering the potential for integrated health and social care in the future. Speakers delivered insights into enhanced patient reported outcome measures (PROMS), the increasingly pertinent subject of body image, and how complementary therapies can be integrated into NHS organisations.