Complementary therapists to be regulated by new Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council from April 2008

The CNHC will provide enhanced consumer confidence and safety through a credible, robust and professional voluntary regulatory structure for the practice of complementary healthcare in the UK.

The voluntary status of the regulator means that individuals who practise one of the therapies it covers may choose to register with it but do not have to do so. Registration will mean that the practitioner has met certain entry requirements (ie has a recognised qualification) and that they subscribe to a stipulated set of professional standards. Breach of these standards may mean that the practitioner is referred for ‘fitness to practise’ procedures, which could result in the practitioner’s removal from the register.

Complementary therapy professions themselves have developed this regulatory model, with support and facilitation from The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health (FIH). The FIH has been working for several years with a range of complementary therapy professions to set up an ‘umbrella’ regulator covering these professions. The Department of Health awarded FIH a grant of £900,000 over the three-year period 2005 to 2008 to facilitate this process.

The purpose of the CNHC is to improve public safety, given the popularity of complementary therapies. Members of the public will be able to check that practitioners are properly qualified and registered, and will be able to complain to the CNHC if they feel a practitioner has not been acting properly. Registration gives the practitioner the opportunity to demonstrate to actual and potential consumers that they are bona fide and have signed up to certain standards, and in so doing enhances their professional credibility.

The CNHC has been designed on the best practice model set out by the Department of Health in its white paper on regulation, Trust, Assurance and Safety.  In particular:

• all the CNHC’s council members will be appointed through an independent process
• the council will be composed entirely of lay people
• training will be provided for council members
• there will be a clear and transparent division between the CNHC and the various professional bodies representing the participating complementary therapies.
  

In other words, the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council will be professionally informed but completely independent.

The formation of the CNHC is the successful culmination of many years of work on the part of the complementary healthcare professions themselves and of FIH, which steered and facilitated the process through its Federal Regulation Working Group, chaired by Professor Dame Joan Higgins.

Therapies who have participated in developing the regulator are Alexander technique, Bowen technique, cranial therapy, homeopathy, massage therapy, naturopathy, nutritional therapy, shiatsu and yoga therapy.

It is likely that aromatherapists, reflexologists and reiki practitioners will, if they wish, be eligible to join the register, although their professional bodies have not formally become involved in the CNHC.

There are currently no plans for these complementary therapies to be statutorily regulated; however the Government is awaiting a report from a Working Group on the statutory regulation of acupuncture, herbal medicine and traditional Chinese medicine, and will consider in 2008 whether or not to proceed to statutory regulation of these three therapies.

The rationale for these three therapies to be statutorily regulated is that these professions involve invasive procedures (skin piercing) and the ingestion of herbal substances, and therefore pose greater potential dangers than other less invasive therapies.


Notes to editors

The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health encourages a culture of health and wellbeing with people and communities taking more responsibility for their own health. It believes that poor health does not exist in isolation, but is a direct consequence of our lifestyles, our cultures, our communities and how we interact with our environments. The Foundation is a charity founded by HRH The Prince of Wales in 1993.

Please note that the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council will be an independent body, separate from FIH, which has facilitated the process leading to its establishment.

Media contact

Natasha Finlayson, Communications Director, The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health on 020 3119 3118 or mobile 07894 540620.